Making Fisheries Management Work

The state of the Northeast Atlantic fisheries in recent years has highlighted - plementation as the Achilles heel of modern fisheries management: discards and unreported or misreported landings are in many cases recognised to effectively subvert sound conservation goals. Social science literature on fisheries mana- ment has tended to regard the implementation of resource conservation policies mainly as a question of effective enforcement. This literature regards surveillance and penalty as the key mechanism through which fishermen keep to catch restr- tions and loyally report their catches. This book emerged because several years of research on fishermen’s compliance had made us uneasy about this rather narrow approach to the problem of implementation. This uneasiness motivated us to widen the approach to the question of implementing conservation policies in the fisheries. Taking Norway as an example, its fishing fleet consists of some 7,000 vessels spread along a coastline of more than 20,000 km, populated by less than 5 million people. The idea of ensuring desirable behaviour through surveillance and - forcement alone is almost absurd in such a context, as the task is impossible by any reasonable means. The Norwegian implementation system has thus had to rely heavily on the incentives provided by the rules and legitimacy created through a century of state/industry collaboration. Different coastal states face very different conditions in terms of solving typical implementation problems such as discards and misreporting.

Judged by a dismaying track record and a consequent downturn in the reputation of fisheries scientists, fisheries management is certainly a candidate for calls for reinvention, with many of the world leaders in this area holding the view that no fishery has ever been properly understood or managed. With fisheries science in a state of flux, this extremely important book seeks a new paradigm that will place this flux of ideas in perspective and help us to choose those that will make fisheries management work. The book was planned at a symposium of over 100 fishery researchers at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and is organized into five parts: Why does Fisheries Science Need Reinventing?; New Policies; The Role of the Social Sciences; Ecology; Modelling. Carefully integrated and edited by three of the world's leading fishery scientists, this stimulating book should find a place on the shelves of all fishery scientists throughout the world. It will be an invaluable reference source to those studying fish biology, fisheries and oceanography and all those involved in fisheries policy decisions in government and university research establishments.

Managing Small-Scale Fisheries: Alternative directions and methods

During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance and management of fisheries to a broaderapproach that recognizes the participation of fishers, local stewardship, and shared decision-making.Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the management team,balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership with government. This approach iscalled co-management.This handbook describes the process of community-based co-management from its beginning, throughimplementation, to turnover to the community. It provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists,examples, questions and indicators for the planning and implementing of a process of community-basedco-management. It focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine, or marine) indeveloping countries, but is also relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries and to themanagement of other coastal resources (such as coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, and wetlands). Thishandbook will be of significant interest to resource managers, practitioners, academics and students ofsmall-scale fisheries.

Co-published with the Food and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations. Fisheries management is the process that hasevolved to try to ensure that fisheries operate in a manner thatprovides the immediate benefits in a sustainable manner. The widelyaccepted goal is that the full range of benefits should not only beavailable for this generation but for generations to come.Fisheries management has been successful in some cases but therehave also been many, many cases of failure. This volume is intended to contribute to improving thisunsatisfactory state by addressing the widespread need forinformation and guidance on the broad and often complex task offisheries management. It is an updated and expanded edition of thefirst version of “A fishery manager’s guidebook”which was published as a FAO Fisheries Technical Paper in 2002. The major part of this new edition is divided into five partsintended to cover the range of concerns, tools and techniquesessential to the modern fisheries manager, whether that manager isan individual or a formal or informal group. Following theIntroduction: Part I examines the primary dimensions of fisheries:biological, ecological, social and economic Part II looks at the legal and institutional characteristics offisheries Part III explores the tools that fishery managers have toachieve the objectives expected from a fishery Part IV discusses the role of scientific information ofindicators and reference points Part V moves into implementation of fisheries management andincludes a chapter on special considerations in small-scalefisheries This landmark publication is aimed at fishery managers andscientists. All libraries in research establishments anduniversities where fisheries and aquatic sciences are studied andtaught will need copies of this important volume. Fisheries around the world make essential contributions to humanwell-being including the provision of basic food supplies,employment, recreational opportunities, foreign currency andothers, providing benefits to hundreds of millions of people.Despite these benefits, our record of managing fisheries so thatthe benefits can be sustained has been poor, at best, and mostfisheries around the world are experiencing serious ecological,social or economic problems and usually all three. Today there isglobal concern about the state of fishery resources and aquaticecosystems, their resilience to future stresses such as climatechange and their ability to continue to provide benefits.

This is a very readable book, which will be of interest to both practitioners and academics. . . From an academic point of view, the testing of theories on compliance is particularly fruitful. Here the author defines several elements that challenge and supplement the existing literature. . . The fundamental research question [of the book] is of great importance to the management of marine resources throughout the world. There is no longer any lack of international agreements. The challenge is how to implement the agreements through practical regulatory measures, and how to ensure compliance with the agreements. Here the book contributes important insights. Alf HOEkon Hoel, Nordisk stforum This book provides very detailed insights to how fisheries agreements can shape norms and set standards leading to a high degree of compliance and well-managed fisheries. It gives a very comprehensive description of the development of the management of the Barents Sea fishery since the 1990s, including an impressive account of the NorwegianRussian fisheries negotiations. Geir Hnneland provides an important contribution to and further advances our understanding on the factors influencing rule-compliance in fisheries and in fact beyond. Jesper Raakjr, Aalborg University, Denmark In Making Fishery Agreements Work, Geir Hnneland extends his reputation as a leading scholar on Norwegian/Russian fisheries relationships. His new contribution focuses on the complicated and hard to track post-bargaining processes that can be used to improve compliance over time in situations with large power differentials. Well grounded in compliance theory and common property resource management, Hnnelands interviews and personal observations capture the empirical motivations that underlie compliance in the joint Barents Sea fisheries. David Fluharty, University of Washington, US Fishing vessels plying the cold waters of the Barents Sea provide the empirical basis for this extraordinary effort to answer the question of what it takes for people and their governments to make and stick to agreements and follow the rules. Based on years of study of arrangements between Norway and the Soviet Union/Russia and interviews with the captains of the fishing ships that seek cod and other species in the far north, Hnneland brings findings and theory from many disciplines to the question. In so doing he offers a powerful argument about how post-agreement bargaining at both state and individual levels contributes to compliance and hence sustainable fisheries. Bonnie McCay, Rutgers University, US Environmental governance is not just a matter of laying down clear rules and regulations and then finding ways to enforce them. Developing the idea of post-agreement bargaining and drawing on his exceptional knowledge of the world-class fisheries of the Barents Sea, Geir Hnneland illuminates the ongoing processes of interpretation, mutual accommodation, and adjustment to changing circumstances that play an essential role in making environmental regimes work. Oran Young, University of California, Santa Barbara, US Why do people obey the law? And why do states abide by their international commitments? These are among the questions raised in this important book. The setting is the Barents Sea, home to some of the most productive fishing grounds on the planet, including the worlds largest cod stock. Norway and Russia manage these fish resources together, in what appears to be a successful exception to the rule of failed fisheries management: stocks are in good shape, institutional cooperation is expanding and takes place in a constructive atmosphere. The author argues that post-agreement bargaining helps activate norms and establish standard operating procedure that furthers precautionary fisheries management. The Barents Sea fishery is seen as one of the best-managed international fisheries in the world, and the book specifically enquires into the lessons to be learnt from the NorwegianRussian partnership. It will therefore prove to be of invaluable interest to practitioners, scholars and policy-makers working in the field of fisheries management and environmental agreements.

These guidelines have been produced to supplement the FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries which was instituted in 1995. The main volume of guidelines were published in 1997 (Fisheries management - .B17514496).

This volume is an interdisciplinary mix of perspectives and studies on social issues in fisheries from a diverse range of case studies and research disciplines. The case is made regarding the dearth of attention to socio-cultural considerations which to date have been largely treated as an externality of fisheries policy. It will be valuable to researchers and decision makers interested in understanding the social dimension of fisheries and provides a timely and relevant compilation of research and analysis on some of the critical socio-cultural issues facing fisheries management and fishing communities today.