Upload
simon-funge-smith
View
130
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Fisheries Reform in Asia: Key opportunities for action and investment
Simon Funge-SmithSenior Fishery Officer, Secretary Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Trends - fishery
• Fishery is all about numbers – Asia home to 87% of the world’s small scale fishers
– ~ 9-10% of global population!
– More than 1.64 million boats in S and SE Asia
– 21 % of global marine fish production from S & SE Asia
• Challenges the validity of paradigms from elsewhere
• Recent capitalization & industrialization (post 1970)
• Driven by:– development policies and opportunities of technology and
trade
– subsidies and supportive policy an integral part
– limited restrictions allowed unchecked growth
• Has led to – expansion of fished area, rising overfishing
– over-capacity in the fleet & on-shore processing
• Impacts– modified composition of fishery (loss of quality)
– catch per unit effort declines to ~20% of 1970s level
– marginal profitability
Trends - trade
• Domestic & regional diversity in fish consumption– preferences for a huge diversity of products forms
– mostly unknown or unacceptable to global trade
• Changing trade trends– from local supply of fresh and traditionally
preserved products
– moving to iced fish value chains
– more intra- & inter-regional movement
• Efforts to add value through processing– rapid technology shifts allowing new products
– surimi; air freight; frozen processed
– fuels demand for raw material - drives fishing
• Value addition– adding value to a low value product (skipjack tuna;
small pelagics; surimi; squid)
– added value is not passed back to the fishery
Taiwanese tuna longliner
What keeps this going?
• Direct subsidies– Fuel, vessel construction, insurance or compensation
schemes
• Supportive policies– lack of capacity controls
– tolerance of IUU landings, cheap foreign labour
– “blind eye” to infringements
• Growing regional & international trade– globalization, FTAs, advances in transport, international
trading
• Technological advances and adaptations– lights, GPS, ice, processing
– utilize species less economic species (e.g. for surimi);
– Improved use of fish previously discarded/used as feed
• Aquaculture development– driving demand for fishmeal
– keeps fish price low inside region
Net repairs on a purse seiner
The policy camel?
• Usually competing interests– policy contradictions common– trade-offs inevitable
• Economic development, export income– driven by industry/
processors/exporters/fleet owners– sensitive to trade issues– strong lobbying power– important for exporting countries
• Social inclusion, livelihoods– rural development policy– poverty alleviation– votes – local politics– limited livelihood alternatives– important for poor highly populated
countries
• International context– Maintain trading status/access– variable impact
• Sustainability is rarely the foundation of policy
EXPORTINCOME
SUPPORT POOR LIVELIHOODS
FOOD SECURITY
INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS
What drives change?
• Fisheries reform is hard– few clear win-win situations– someone has to lose when cutting capacity/limiting
catch– “closing the commons”; lost livelihoods; – political “hot potato” – undermined by “losers”– short term politics will not address long term
challenges
• As resource or economic situation worsens– fishers become less able to change– chronic debt, risk of the unknown, no financial” slack”
to experiment
• Change can occur when relevant stakeholders– perceive benefits (preferably short term) can be
gained– see reduced (mainly financial) risks for changing
behaviour– see rules applied to all and “free riders” controlled– can be part of convincing demonstration of concept
(not small, subsidized pilots with little transfer potential)
surimi
Fish meal
Fish for processing
The opportunity - the time is right for change
• Market demand for fish continues to rise
• Resources in decline, quantity and quality
• Profitability in fisheries is low
• There no new ways to reduce operational costs
• Market requirements and standards are increasingly hard to meet
• Countries clamping down on foreign fishing
• Prices are not rising
Opportunity - Build on existing processes
• Often assumed little fishery management is in place– most management measures impossible to enforce in large
diverse fishery
– little stock management
– focussed on trade-offs between users, mitigation of conflicts
– heavy emphasis on seasonal and spatial management
– few sustainability objectives
• Current set-up result of budget, capacity and institutional arrangements– much can be done to strengthen this
– basic elements of fishery management could be improved
– increasing interest in sustainability
– need a strong financial, social or economic argument
– often little objective analysis available (knowledge)
– ideally a mixture!
• Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management – provides effective framework for management planning
and improvement
Scale of action
• National scale is too large for any project, but…– local /community pilots often achieve little
meaningful change
• Province (or equivalent) is the typical governance unit– fisheries operate around this scale– Right scale for management plans– unlock provincial government budgets
• Real benefits from regional approaches– gives pilot work greater weight– more convincing to Govt. than fishers– can provide encouragement to “take a policy
leap”– Essential on issues that relates to
transboundary fishing (e.g. IUU)– Degree of peer pressure– Critical mass on knowledge Delineation of a Provincial
artisanal zone
Institutional change – capacity building – governance & management
• Introduction of fishery management– fishery management capacity development starts at
university– Build capacity at Provincial level (competent
governance unit)– Support knowledge generation on the fishery
• Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management training – identifies issues– trade-offs, balancing environmental, social ,
economic and governance considerations– practical planning approaches– built within local context
• Support coherent legislation and long-term policy– Recognize political short–termism – and fight it– modernize legislation (takes 5-10 years)– supporting local planning and management– Removing loopholes and perverse subsidies etc.
Who to work with – recognizing complexity
• Multiple stakeholders, different processes• Processors, exporters in private sector are dynamic
and reactive– Quick to lobby and drive changes in their interest– ready capital to work with projects & sensitive to
market-related issues– limited engagement if benefits/change not immediate
• Government institutions– often tempting to by-pass and often frustrating– rent seeking and hidden agendas– conflicting policies– essential for regulatory aspect, or legitimacy– market-based approaches need government support to
secure changes
• Regional dialogue processes offer strong advantages– Plenty of capacity inside the region– Tap into regional knowledge– Organizations and projects, long-term outlook– Community of practice– Country to country cooperation, transboundary dialogue
At the fishery levelWhat should we be trying to achieve?
• Focus on incremental change• Enabling fair, “rules–based” management that is
robust, low cost and which tackles the real issues– reduce over-fishing in most heavily affected areas– enabling fishery recovery - restoring CPUE– controlling IUU, stopping “cheating”/”poaching”– restore higher value catch species (improved value of
catch)– provide ecologically meaningful management measures
• Address the institutional structures of fishery management– Don’t “leave it to the market”– Need to address structural and governance issues
• Knowledge generation on the fishery– long term trends & ecosystem effects – often hidden– economic arguments rarely framed convincingly (lack
“fisher’s bottom line)– scenario building on management options– tracking change
Malaysian wheelhouse markings
At the boat/fisher levelWhat should we be trying to achieve?
• Look for real or innovative incentives– address immediate financial realities
– reducing operational costs/increasing incomes
– modest increase in CPUE
– reduced costs through efficiency (fuel, labour, sorting, gears)
– reduced losses on-board (preservation)
– improved value of catch at point of landing (value chain?)
• Combat cheating, reduce conflicts, support management – capturing the opportunities of IT to manage fishing
– vessel registers, catch landings, electronic reporting, mobile technology
– linkages between VMS/safety at sea
– control of IUUSquid boats at dawn
Empower and enable fishers
• Putting knowledge in fisher’s hands– Improve information flows to inform and keep
stakeholders on board
– tracking resources and trends
– Bring this to the table in co-management/EAF
• Empowerment of fishers– develop appropriate co-management structures
– use an EAF planning approach
– incremental, adaptive, inclusive planning
– cost-effectiveness
• Enable fishers to seek alternative livelihoods– how can we assist fishers to leave the fishery?
– assist fishers to reduce their dependence
– many fishers would like to do something else
– livelihood support to families and children
– think generationally Mixed trawl catch – no discards, all for market
There are no “silver bullets”
• It is tempting to look for “single solutions” to complex problems– rarely one thing – usually need a suite of actions
• Single stock management focus– most fisheries multi-species– exist alongside other gears, other targets– demonstrably failed so far….
• Market-based approaches– limited impact where benefits do not reach fishers– somewhat intangible, compared with immediate
effect of cost savings– often focussed on a limited slice of overall fishery
trade – does not apply to the majority of the fishery
• Eco-labelling– attractive, but tend to overlook social dimensions– over-dependent on foreign trade, high value
commodities– fisheries that can make it, are not the fisheries you
need to fix!!
Artisanal dried fish products
There are no “silver bullets” (cont.)
• Turfs, closing the commons, access limitations
– few successful Asian models?
– highly divisive in populous coastlines
– extremely complex tenure/access arrangements
– risk of elite capture
– artisanal zones already present in almost all countries
– can be built on customary arrangements
• Managing habitats, MPAs, spatial measures
– essential part of the solution, but not the solution
– common mistake is to ignore the human activity
– big challenge to get current spatial management to be biologically meaningful for fisheries
– too much focus on iconic habitat, not enough on fishery habitat
Conclusions
• Long term engagement– but incremental approach– simple and slow is good– but avoid single “silver bullet” solutions– can your funding model accept complexity, trade-offs and
slow progress?
• There are few incentives for change– develop interventions that cross the social, governance
and resource-base issues– often need to be flexible when an opportunity arises
• Invest in knowledge and communication– this must contribute to ongoing management or reform
process
• Engagement and partnership within the region is essential– support regional/sub-regional dialogue that contributes to
more effective coordination with regional stakeholder processes
– EAF offers effective mechanism at country and sub-national level stakeholder
– what is the right dialogue/partnership mechanism for you?