Rights-based management in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean tuna fishery: Economic and environmental change under the Vessel Day Scheme

Elizabeth Havice

Marine Policy, 2013, vol. 42, issue C, 259-267

Abstract: Defining, strengthening and enforcing rights over fisheries resources is frequently identified as central to overcoming ‘the tragedy of the commons’ and associated environmental and economic challenges in fisheries systems. Though economic theory generally suggests that output control (e.g. quotas) creates the strongest incentives for efficiency and conservation, input controls (e.g. on effort) remain common. This paper explores the rationale for, and implications of, employing a transferable effort scheme in one of the largest and most valuable fisheries. In 2007, eight Pacific Island countries implemented the Vessel Day Scheme with the aims of strengthening their rights over tuna resources and control over economic and environmental trends. Four years since implementation, the scheme has significantly increased economic returns for the island states and generated improvements in data reporting. However, it has not generated a firm limit on fishing effort and its structure has made it difficult to directly target the biological concerns of individual species within the multi-species fishery. In the future, outcomes of the Vessel Day Scheme will continue to be tempered by the structural limitations of effort-based regulatory scheme, market conditions in the sector and the willingness of firms and island states to clarify, abide by and enforce the technical components of the scheme.

Keywords: Vessel Day Scheme; Transferrable effort; Tuna; Pacific island countries; Western and Central Pacific Ocean; Rights based management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:42:y:2013:i:c:p:259-267

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2013.03.003

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