Assessing the Potential for Transferability of Access Rights to Enhance Sustainability in Large Pacific Tropical Fisheries
Abstract
This study was conducted in order to identify options for the transferability of fishing rights in the context of Pacific Island commercial longline and purse seine tuna fisheries (where the rights are denominated in units of fishing effort, i.e., fishing days), including the scale of potential benefits and costs to countries and territories in the region, and key issues that would need to be considered by decision makers in order to develop specific policy proposals. The study does not aim to predict the costs and benefits of specific policy proposals for transferability, but rather to conduct an initial scoping that would allow for such a detailed analysis to take place, and to provide a sound basis of information for policy dialogue in the region.
The motivation for conducting this study was to provide information that can assist policy makers and fisheries managers in the region to consider if this policy instrument (enhanced transferability of fishing rights) could support achievement of the goals agreed in the Regional Roadmap for Sustainable Pacific Fisheries. Achieving these goals will take significant effort in this, one of the world’s largest and most complex fisheries to manage. The tuna fisheries most relevant to Pacific Island countries and territories (PICT) are the units of analysis here: the purse seine fishery, the tropical longline fishery, and the southern albacore fishery. Numerous successes and innovations in governance of the purse seine fishery have led to exponential growth in economic benefits for Pacific Island countries and territories, but as this growth has slowed, future gains are likely to be incremental and result from greater efforts to strengthen governance and enhance efficiency—such as introducing transferability. At the same time, economic benefits to the region from the two longline fisheries have stagnated, and governance innovations are both needed and currently underway or in development. This study was proposed by a group of regional thought leaders in part to consider if transferability might be one such innovation, based on examples in other fisheries where limited fishing rights were allocated to vessels and operators with differing levels of efficiency, and the creation of a secondary market in these rights allowed for vessels and/or operators to trade in order to increase the overall efficiency of the fishery and economic outcomes.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Citation
Permalink
Citation
Aqorau, Transform, Kamal Azmi, Elizabeth Havice, Stuart Kaye, Stuart Kininmonth, Moses Mataika, Sarah McTee, Anthony Morrison, et al. (2020). Assessing the Potential for Transferability of Access Rights to Enhance Sustainability in Large Pacific Tropical Fisheries. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/31697.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
John Virdin
John Virdin is director of the Coastal and Ocean Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
Virdin’s areas of expertise include assisting developing country governments to reform and strengthen their institutions responsible for ocean fisheries, thereby reducing poverty and enhancing sustainability, and creating policy and institutional frameworks governing a wide range of human activities that drive change in ocean ecosystems, including activities leading to the conversion or degradation of natural coastal habitats.
Virdin worked for more than 10 years at the World Bank, most recently as acting program manager for the Global Partnership for Oceans, a coalition of more than 150 governments, companies, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and multi-lateral agencies. He advised the Bank on oceans and fisheries governance and helped it increase its lending for sustainable oceans to more than $1 billion. His work led to development of programs that provided more than $125 million in funding for improved fisheries management in six West African nations and some $40 million for fisheries and ocean conservation in a number of Pacific Island nations.
Prior to his tenure at the World Bank, Virdin worked with the World Resources Institute, the Munson Foundation, the World Conservation Network, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Virdin holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wake Forest University. He will receive his doctorate in marine policy from the University of Delaware in 2015.
Material is made available in this collection at the direction of authors according to their understanding of their rights in that material. You may download and use these materials in any manner not prohibited by copyright or other applicable law.