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2 - Main human uses of ocean areas and resources, impacts, and multiple scales of governance
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- By Marjo Vierros, United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, U. Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia, Rolph A. Payet, University of Seychelles
- Edited by Salvatore Aricò, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France
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- Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century
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- 05 May 2015
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- 18 March 2015, pp 21-53
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Summary
2.1 Introduction
The global ocean provides humankind with vital ecosystem goods and services that include the regulation of the Earth's climate, as well as provision of food and other goods, recreation, and spiritual values. The ocean is not only important for the Earth' s economy, but also its environmental balance and survival (Noone et al., 2013).
Human uses of the ocean include fishing (food), shipping, scientific research, the use of genetic resources, mining, underwater cables, energy, water, and recreation. While all those involved in these uses can be considered as ocean stakeholders, the concept of stakeholder is broader than just direct use. Stakeholders can include groups affected by management decisions; groups concerned by management decisions; groups dependent on the resources to be managed; groups with claims over the area of resources; groups with activities that impact on the area or resources; and groups with, for example, special seasonal or geographic interests (Vierros et al., 2006). Ultimately, however, the entire population of the Earth depends in one way or another on the ocean for their survival, due to the climate regulating and oxygen providing services of these areas, and can thus be considered to be stakeholders.
Preserving and maintaining the services provided by the ocean will require integrated, ecosystem-based management approaches and governance structures at both global and local levels, which will take into account both direct human uses and conservation needs, as well as global benefits. Many habitats and species in the ocean are highly threatened by human activities, and the current governance regime is not sufficient and in many cases too fragmented to provide for effective management and protection of multiple and emerging threats
2.2 Value and use of ocean areas, and environmental impacts of use
The goods and services provided by the ocean range from climate regulation to food, and recreational and spiritual value. For example, an analysis undertaken by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project, found the value of coral reefs to humankind to be between US$130,000 and $1.2 million per hectare, per year (Diversitas, 2009).
Large-scale oil spills and flag-use within the global tanker fleet
- DANA D. MILLER, KATHRYN TOOLEY, U. RASHID SUMAILA
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- Journal:
- Environmental Conservation / Volume 42 / Issue 2 / June 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 August 2014, pp. 119-126
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Within the global oil shipping sector, flag states that inadequately fulfil obligations to effectively exert jurisdiction over vessels flying their flags have been criticized for facilitating the existence of substandard ships. This paper examines the topic of flag-use and its potential association with oil spill risk. Flags most associated with accidental oil spills were identified through comparing the flag composition of the global oil tanker fleet with that of vessels that have been involved in the 100 largest tanker spills on record. Vessels flying flags of states that have exhibited consistent patterns of failure in compliance with international obligations, defined here as ‘flags of non-compliance’ (FoNCs), were found to be significantly more common amongst the vessels that have been involved in spill incidents. However, this was dependent on how the Liberian flag was qualified throughout the time period considered. If measures are being sought to reduce the risk of tanker involvement in large-scale oil spills further, vessel owners should be deterred from registering with FoNCs that are highly accessible to foreign owners, and political measures should be taken to put pressure on flag states that operate all other FoNCs to improve effective jurisdiction over ships flying these flags.
Global economic value of shark ecotourism: implications for conservation
- Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor, Michele Barnes-Mauthe, Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak, Estrella Navarro-Holm, U. Rashid Sumaila
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Amid declining shark populations because of overfishing, a burgeoning shark watching industry, already well established in some locations, generates benefits from shark protection. We compile reported economic benefits at shark watching locations and use a meta-analytical approach to estimate benefits at sites without available data. Results suggest that, globally, c. 590,000 shark watchers expend > USD 314 million per year, directly supporting 10,000 jobs. By comparison, the landed value of global shark fisheries is currently c. USD 630 million and has been in decline for most of the past decade. Based on current observed trends, numbers of shark watchers could more than double within the next 20 years, generating > USD 780 million in tourist expenditures around the world. This supports optimistic projections at new sites, including those in an increasing number of shark sanctuaries established primarily for shark conservation and enacted in recognition of the ecological and economic importance of living sharks.
Fisheries subsidies and potential catch loss in SIDS Exclusive Economic Zones: food security implications
- U. Rashid Sumaila, Andrew Dyck, William W.L. Cheung
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- Journal:
- Environment and Development Economics / Volume 18 / Issue 4 / August 2013
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 April 2013, pp. 427-439
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We study the effects of providing subsidies to the fisheries in small island developing states (SIDS), where fisheries are important to both the food security and livelihoods of the populations. By analyzing data on current and potential catch and computing the potential catch losses from the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of SIDS, we find that, collectively, SIDS have currently overfished their waters to the extent that their current catch is just under 50 per cent of the maximum catch potential. This catch loss results in direct and indirect food security impacts in terms of losses in healthy, varied and nutrient-rich food, revenues, incomes and economic impacts in SIDS. Our results also demonstrate that capacity-enhancing subsidies contribute to overfishing while the effect of good subsidies is unclear and needs further analysis.
5 - How much fish is being extracted from the oceans and what is it worth?
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- By Reg Watson, University of British Columbia, Canada, U. Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia, Canada, Dirk Zeller, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Edited by Villy Christensen, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Jay Maclean
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- Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 03 March 2011, pp 55-71
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Summary
Any analysis of the impacts of fishing on marine systems, as undertaken by the Sea Around Us project (www.seaaroundus.org), imposes critical demands on fine spatial data documenting the extraction of marine resources. Data sources such as those provided voluntarily from fishing countries through the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations are invaluable but have many limitations. Regional datasets are also important in that they provide better detail. Reconstruction of national datasets can also provide great insights into historical catch series (e.g., Zeller et al., 2007), and are important to understand historic baselines (Jackson and Jacquet, this volume). These must be woven into one coherent and harmonized global dataset representing all extractions over time. To provide the necessary spatial detail, the global data are allocated to a fine grid of cells measuring just 30 by 30 minutes of latitude and longitude, resulting in over 180000 such cells covering the world's oceans. The taxonomic identity of the reported catch must be combined with comprehensive databases on where the species occur (and in what abundance) in order to complete this process. This spatial allocation must be further tempered by where countries fish, as not all coastal waters are available to all fleets. After considerable development by the Sea Around Us project, it is now possible to examine global catches and catch values in the necessary spatial context. Like detectives, we have been able to deduce who caught what, where, and when, and how much money they made in the process.
16 - Global fisheries economic analysis
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- By U. Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia, Canada, Andrew J. Dyck, University of British Columbia, Canada, Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor, University of British Columbia, Canada, Reg Watson, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Edited by Villy Christensen, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Jay Maclean
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- Book:
- Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 03 March 2011, pp 272-280
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
The starting point for global fisheries economics work in the Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre is the creation of global databases. Over the last few years, we have created and/or compiled global databases on ex-vessel fish prices, subsidies, recreational fisheries, social discount rates, and consumer price indices. We are currently developing two additional global databases: cost of fishing and fisheries employment. This information, combined with other project databases, provides remarkable opportunities for conducting global-scale fisheries analyses.
This chapter summarizes the results reported by Sumaila et al. (2010), which provide estimates of global fisheries subsidies; and Cisneros-Montemayor and Sumaila (2010) and Dyck and Sumaila (2010), which estimate the contribution of ecosystem-based marine recreation and ocean fish populations to the global economy, respectively.
FISHERIES SUBSIDIES WORLDWIDE
Fisheries subsidies are defined as financial transfers, direct or indirect, from public entities to the fishing sector, which help the sector make more profit than it would otherwise (Sumaila et al., 2008). Such transfers are often designed to either reduce the costs of production or increase revenues. In addition, they may also include indirect payments that benefit fishers, such as management and decommissioning programs.
Subsidies have gained worldwide attention because of their complex relationship with trade, ecological sustainability, and socioeconomic development. It is widely acknowledged that global fisheries are overcapitalized, resulting in the depletion of fishery resources (Hatcher and Robinson, 1999; Munro and Sumaila, 2002).
Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based efforts
- Jennifer Jacquet, John Hocevar, Sherman Lai, Patricia Majluf, Nathan Pelletier, Tony Pitcher, Enric Sala, Rashid Sumaila, Daniel Pauly
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Over the past decade conservation groups have put considerable effort into educating consumers and changing patterns of household consumption. Many groups aiming to reduce overfishing and encourage sustainable fishing practices have turned to new market-based tools, including consumer awareness campaigns and seafood certification schemes (e.g. the Marine Stewardship Council) that have been well received by the fishing and fish marketing industries and by the public in many western countries. Here, we review difficulties that may impede further progress, such as consumer confusion, lack of traceability and a lack of demonstrably improved conservation status for the fish that are meant to be protected. Despite these issues, market-based initiatives may have a place in fisheries conservation in raising awareness among consumers and in encouraging suppliers to adopt better practices. We also present several additional avenues for market-based conservation measures that may strengthen or complement current initiatives, such as working higher in the demand chain, connecting seafood security to climate change via life cycle analysis, diverting small fish away from the fishmeal industry into human food markets, and the elimination of fisheries subsidies. Finally, as was done with greenhouse gas emissions, scientists, conservation groups and governments should set seafood consumption targets.
10 - Global production and economics
- Edited by Dave Checkley, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Jürgen Alheit, Yoshioki Oozeki, Claude Roy
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- Book:
- Climate Change and Small Pelagic Fish
- Published online:
- 08 January 2010
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- 20 August 2009, pp 256-274
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Summary
Global production and trade in small pelagic fish (SPF) are affected by complex interactions between physical, ecological and economic systems, which give rise to relatively long-term, asynchronous cycles in SPF abundance and distribution. These cycles can have serious impacts on local SPF fisheries' production, but because they tend to be counterbalancing, global production of SPF tends to remain relatively stable. Nevertheless, recent patterns of landings indicate that most SPF are being harvested at or near their maximum yield levels, which in the face of increasing demand is expected to result in rising prices in supply-limited markets. Adding to these concerns are the uncertainties of climate change, which leads us to consider important economic issues related to SPF fisheries production, starting with how the redistribution of SPF resources affects respective rates of resource utilization, particularly when SPF move between independently managed fishing zones. This entails an associated issue, the time preferences for experiencing the range of benefits from SPF resources among nations sharing access to these resources. Because the ecological and economic impacts of climate change will extend well beyond directed SPF fisheries, we consider the economic impact of a climate–SPF regime shift from an ecosystem perspective. Of interest here is the full range of economic benefits SPF resources provide; not only their commercial value, but as prey for commercially valuable predators, and for recreational and non-commercial predators. In this context we examine the socially optimum use of these resources, balancing the benefits from commercially harvesting SPF with those from leaving them in the ocean ecosystem.
Game theoretic applications to environmental and natural resource problems
- USSIF RASHID SUMAILA, ARIEL DINAR, JOSE ALBIAC
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- Journal:
- Environment and Development Economics / Volume 14 / Issue 1 / February 2009
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 February 2009, pp. 1-5
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Game theory has been useful as an analytical framework for assessing environmental and resource regulations and policies. The papers in this volume provide the latest methodological and applied works in game theory to a wide range of natural and environmental resource problems such as fishing, grazing, pollution, climate change, water allocation, and stochastic production processes. The findings in the papers suggest that game theory is an effective tool for the analysis of the efficient use of shared natural resources; it can be used to identify stable agreements between parties to a resource conflict, and show how non-cooperation over global public goods/bads has a high social cost tag.
5 - Aquaculture
- Edited by Jan Kooiman, Svein Jentoft, Roger Pullin, Maarten Bavinck
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- Book:
- Fish for Life
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 10 February 2021
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- 30 June 2005, pp 93-108
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Summary
Diversity, Complexity, and Dynamics in Aquaculture
Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic plants and animals (finfish, crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates), in fresh-, brackish, and seawater, is very diverse (Stickney 2000). Aquaculture statistics reported to the FAO from its member countries in 2000 covered 210 different species (Tacon 2003). Aquaculture systems are commonly classified according to their nutrient inputs. Extensive aquaculture involves no intentional fertilisation or feeding; e.g., the capturing of naturally settled mussels and oysters. Semiintensive aquaculture comprises the farming of fish and invertebrates in ponds, pens and cages with supplementary fertilisation and/or feeding. Intensive aquaculture is entirely reliant on added feeds (e.g., salmon cages, eel tanks and raceways) and resembles feedlot systems for livestock. Fish farmers are also diverse. They range from poor smallholders in developing countries to the world's largest corporations. Their operations range in scale from backyard ponds of less than 100 m2, operated by rural and periurban households, to enterprises that cover thousands of hectares of land and water with ponds, pens and cages. Aquaculture is as diverse as agriculture.
Aquaculture, like agriculture, is also a highly complex sector, comprised of sub-sectors (breeding, hatchery and nursery operations, grow-out and marketing, etc.) and interdependent with a wide range of associated industries; e.g., feeds, fertilisers, medication, and equipment. The diversity and complexity of aquaculture inevitably make it a very dynamic sector. Its dynamics include its rapid growth, as a new frontier for food production in many countries, and its necessary coexistence with other longer established sectors. The intersectoral relationships of aquaculture with agriculture, capture fisheries and other sectors are often areas of conflict and it is a major future challenge for aquaculture and those other sectors to resolve their conflicts and to pursue co-operation, especially in the sharing of land, water, and other natural resources (Sumaila 1999). Aquaculture has great scope for integration with other food production sectors. Fishponds in mixed farming systems and aquaculture integrated with wastewater reuse also have long histories and huge potential (e.g., Edwards 2000; FAO 2000a; Edwards et al. 2002). A governance approach to aquaculture is just beginning (Van der Schans 1999).
13 - Meta-Principles
- Edited by Jan Kooiman, Svein Jentoft, Roger Pullin, Maarten Bavinck
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- Book:
- Fish for Life
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 10 February 2021
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- 30 June 2005, pp 265-284
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Summary
Introduction
In this chapter we discuss a number of principles that we think should guide fisheries governance at the meta-, normative, level. To outline their use in a conceptual manner, we apply the governance perspective as our model. We start with principles to be applied normatively to governing elements, followed by principles by which to judge modes of governance. We then discuss principles to evaluate governing orders. In each category, we formulate a general principle derived from governance theory, and three principles for each of the three governance components derived from fisheries. This gives us a list of twelve principles as a solid basis for an overall appraisal of meta-considerations for fisheries governance. Recently, others have formulated comparable lists (Costanza et al. 1998); the main difference between our list and the other lists is that these twelve principles are part and parcel of our governance approach, and form the meta-level thereof.
Before we discuss the principles to be applied to the components of governance, we briefly present what we see as their foundations (elements, modes, and orders – see chap. 1). Most of them are grounded in moral or ethical thought, with long histories behind them. Our normative notions for fisheries governance are not new, but are rooted in philosophical and religious thinking of yesterday and today. To discuss some of these foundations, we make use of what is known as ‘applied ethics’. This is a branch of ethical thinking that, in its approaches, comes closest to what meta-principles for fisheries governance might be about, and it is helpful in demonstrating how the principles can be put into practice. In the boxes in subsequent sections, we give a short overview of where to place the principles in the conceptual governance framework.
Applied Ethics and Meta-Governance
In the second half of the twentieth century, most ethical and philosophical scholarship was largely devoted to analytical or meta-philosophical matters (Almond 1995). In recent decades, however, interest in practical applications of ethics as a separate branch of philosophy has grown. Under the title of applied ethics, studies are now offered on socio-political topics that have strong ethical ramifications, such as ‘life and death’ issues.