Voodoo versus fishing committees: the role of traditional and contemporary institutions in fisheries management

Elena Briones Alonso, Romain Houssa and Marijke Verpoorten

No 488069, Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven from KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven

Abstract: We study the co-existence of two community-based institutions for fisheries management in Benin: a traditional institution embedded in the Voodoo religion and a recent secular institution in the form of fishing committees. Using household survey data on fishing activities, we find that rules of both institutions have a statistically significant but small impact on the use of unsustainable fishing gear. We further find that Voodoo fishers who break the traditional Voodoo-based rule follow the fishing committee rule to the same extent as other fishers. This finding is consistent with a possible transition from the traditional Voodoo-based institution to the secular fishing committee institution. More research is needed to fully assess the effectiveness of, and interactions between, the two institutions.

Keywords: KUL-METH-Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Published in LICOS Discussion paper series 364/2015, pages 1-73

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Related works:
Journal Article: Voodoo versus fishing committees: The role of traditional and contemporary institutions in fisheries management (2016)
Working Paper: Voodoo versus Fishing Committees: The Role of Traditional and Contemporary Institutions in Fisheries Management (2015)
Working Paper: Voodoo versus fishing committees: the role of traditional and contemporary institutions in fisheries management (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ete:ceswps:488069

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