Laura Píriz Hauling Home the Co-Management of Coastal Fisheries
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Laura Píriz Hauling Home the Co-Management of Coastal Fisheries: A study on institutional barriers to fi shermen’s involvement in the management of coastal fi sheries on the West Coast of Sweden Göteborg, 2004 GÖTEBORG UNIVERSITY Department of Environmental and Regional Studies of the Human Condition. Human Ecology Section Hauling Home the Co-Management of Coastal Fisheries: A study on institutional barriers to fi shermen’s involvement in the management of coastal fi sheries on the West Coast of Sweden Ph D dissertation Göteborg 2004 © Laura Píriz laura.piriz@fi skeriveret.se Indexing terms: Fisheries, local management, co-management, coastal management, common pool resources, Northern Bohuslän, Swedish fi shers. GÖTEBORG UNIVERSITY Department of Environmental and Regional Studies of the Human Condition. Human Ecology Section Box 700, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden. Phone: +46 (0)31-773 10 00. Fax: +46 (0)31-773 49 33. http://www.ovs.gu.se Cover illustration: Signar N Bengtson Printed in Sweden by Intellecta Docusys, Göteborg 2004 ISBN 91-975290-0-1 In memory of my father and brother with whom I spent many wonderful hours fi shing. Abstract During the last decade, Swedish fisheries have been in turmoil. Faced with depleted resources and demands from a wide spectrum of stakeholders, the Swedish Government recently made clear the need for institutional reform. Within the framework of this reform a more participative fisheries management system is expected to lead to more sustainable outcomes. This explorative and empirically based study is concerned with fisheries co-management and analyses various institutional aspects of the issues relating to shared fisheries resources and ecosystems in the coastal waters in the coastal waters of the Skagerrak Sea in Western Sweden. The research applies an actor-oriented approach and a common pool resource theoretical perspective and engages the interdisciplinary debates on collective action, property rights and co-management. In this way, the dynamics of the interrelations between the social and the ecological systems in fisheries are uncovered. The study provides a critical analysis of the dominant centralised co-management regime, which has dissociated conservation from allocation and tends to block, or at least delay, the emergence of institutions using local fishermen’s management capacities. It reveals the significance of space and time in the organisation of coastal fisheries and demonstrates the impact that uniform policies and generic rules can have when applied to the use of common pool resources by a heterogeneous fishing community. It is argued that the lack of attention to the specificities of local coastal fisheries is closely related to the narrow conceptualisation of, and the limited knowledge base used in, fisheries management in general. A trend this, which has been reinforced by the way this management system has been organised and its responses to external factors and has constrained the local fishermen’s ability to participate in the management process and secure access to coastal resources. The study further explores local fishermen’s initiatives to become more involved in co- management, analysing their feasibility and uncovering the context of emergence of the ongoing reform. The change consists mainly of the nesting of more pluralistic system of local and regional co-management in an otherwise more centralised co-management regime with corporatist influences. Keywords: Fisheries, local management, co-management, coastal management, common pool resources, Northern Bohuslän, Swedish fisheries. Acknowledgement The author is indebted to three scientists who gave constructive criticism, and helped to improve the quality of this thesis. Prof. Hans Egneus and Dr. Karl Bruckmeier from the Dep. of Human Ecology at the University of Göteborg and Prof. David Symes from the Dep. of Geography at the University of Hull. Special thanks are due to David Symes, who have commented on earlier papers and who with patience and dedication helped to improve the language of the thesis. I would also like to direct special thanks to the people I interviewed who took time to take part in this research. Although their names are not to be revealed, the research would not have been possible without their participation. Special thanks are due to the shellfish fishermen from Northern Bohuslän who put their faith in me and from whom I learned so much. Thanks are also extended to SFR, SVC and the various fishermen’s organisations and their leaders in particular. Many colleagues at the Human Ecology Section have provided me with valuable comments to early draft copies of this manuscript, and I deeply appreciate their frank and helpful critique. I also appreciate the enjoyable time we spent together and their cheerful spirit which has relieved pressures on many occasions. Carl-Einar Stålvant provided useful comments on a preliminary draft. Bernhard Glaser and Merle Jacob gave useful orientations in the planning phase. I sincerely thank Artur Svansson and my colleagues at the National Board of Fisheries for opening the doors of the Swedish world of fisheries, to me. I have benefited greatly from the support provided by National Board of Fisheries, the knowledge and data facilitated by its staff and the services provided by its library. I also appreciate the cooperative spirit of scientists and administrative staff working within the SUCOZOMA-program, the County Board Administration of Göteborg and Bohuslän, and the Tjärnö Marine Biology Laboratory. All members of the Board of the SUCOZOMA and its director, Anders Carlberg, deserve also credit for supporting this research project. The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA) and The Ebba and Sven Schartz Foundation are kindly acknowledged as the main founders of this research project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the artist Signar Bengtson who made the drawing on the cover. The professional work of Everett Thiele, who assisted with the English, and of Birgit Andersson at Intellecta Docusys, who made the final layout, is recognised. Last but not least, outside academia, I would like to thank my dear husband, Lasse Krantz, not only because he made the last carefully proof reading, but for not losing his patience when I postponed so many other projects in our lives. To him, my dear son Santiago, Celia I & Celia II and the rest of the family and my closest friends (you know who you are)…I have one thing to say “I am back!” TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The scope of the problem . 1 1.2 The relevant policies . 2 1.3 The research background, purpose and questions . 4 1.4 The outline of the dissertation . 5 CHAPTER 2 SETTING THE SCENE 2.1 The resource system . 7 2.2 Historical background. 11 2.2.1 Property rights: the tenurial signifi cance of the land, the herring and the archipelago. 11 2.2.2 The fi shing community . 14 2.3 The origins of the corporatist centralised co-management system . 16 2.3.1 The Fishermen’s Regional Association (SVC) . 16 2.3.2 The State . 18 2.3.3 The interplay between the State and SVC . 19 2.3.4 The National Board of Fisheries (NBF) . 20 2.3.5 The National Association of Swedish Fishermen (SFR) . 21 2.3.6 The infl uence of external factors . 21 2.3.7 Licences for government development grants. 22 2.3.8 The concentration of regulatory authority to the central level. 23 2.3.9 The policies of the 1990s . 24 2.3.10 The European level . 25 2.4 Environmental legislation and coastal management . 27 2.4.1 The Environmental Code . 27 2.4.2 Comprehensive Municipal Planning. 30 2.5 Today’s coastal fi sheries in Skagerrak . 31 2.6 Summary . 37 CHAPTER 3 A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR FISHERIES CO-MANAGEMENT 3.1 From single fi sh stocks to ecosystems . 39 3.2 From non-cooperative single fi sherman to social actors. 43 3.3 The common pool resource . 46 3.3.1 Problems and dilemmas derived from the use of common resource pools. 47 3.3.2 Frameworks for the analysis of common pool resource situations . 49 3.4 Conditions conducive to collective action . 52 3.5 Property rights and the governance of cpr . 56 3.6 Modalities of management . 60 3.6.1 Features and experiences of co-management . 61 3.7 Summary and conclusions . 67 CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE AND METHOD 4.1 The research perspective and context . 71 4.2 The method . 72 4.2.1 The analysis of written material . 72 4.2.2 The questionnaires . 73 4.2.3 The interviews, meetings and informal consulations . 74 4.2.4 Presentation of the material . 76 4.3 The selection of study area. 77 4.4 Some limitations of the study. 78 CHAPTER 5 WHAT IS MEANT BY COASTAL FISHERIES? 5.1 Possible variables for describing fi sheries in Swedish coastal waters . 81 5.2 Coastal fi sheries in formal institutional arrangements. 83 5.2.1 Preferential access and management rights in EU coastal waters. 84 5.2.2 Property right-based boundaries. 84 5.2.3 The fi shing licence. 85 5.2.4 The trawling limit as a functional boundary. 85 5.3 Coastal fi sheries as conceptualised in policy documents. 86 5.4 Coastal fi sheries as conceptualised in development plans. 88 5.5 Coastal fi sheries as perceived by coastal fi shermen. 92 5.5.1 Some methodological considerations. 92 5.5.2 Spatial boundary dynamics . 92 5.5.3 Fishing in home waters, time and social relations on land . 93 5.5.4 The issue of “lack of fi sh” . 95 5.5.5 The coastal fi shermen’s time-space knowledge . 97 5.6 Summary and conclusions . ..