What are Property Rights in Fisheries?
All fisheries, traditional or modern, operate
under some form of use right materialized in the
right of access to fishery resources in a
particular area under certain conditions. The
"right" may be general (as the right to harvest
high seas resources imbedded in the 1982 UNCLOS) or
very specific (as the right to harvest a certain
amount of fish of a particular species in a
particular area in a given period of time). They
may have an historical foundation (historical
rights) or a more formal one (such as the sovereign
rights of coastal States on EEZ resources). They
may be area-based (e.g. territorial use rights) or
resource-based.
The right to harvest a certain amount of fish of
a particular species, in a designated area, in a
given period of time, is usually called a "property
right" and is implemented only in EEZs. Depending
on the countries, those holding the fishing right
may be allowed or not to transfer their right by
sale to someone else. Transferability tends to be
considered as a necessary condition as it is this
participation as an "owner" in the fishery, and the
future benefits that improved management can bring,
that creates the incentive for better management.
This in turn has generated the interest of managers
in this approach as a better form of fisheries
management.
Characteristics of Property Rights in Fisheries
Management
Property rights in fisheries should be
considered to be a new form of property and as such
can be considered as consisting of a 'bundle of
characteristics'. These, depending on the fishery,
may vary in their strength, but each characteristic
usually exists to at least some degree. They have
the following characteristics:
Durability - the timer, period or
duration of the right that is held, e.g. it might
be an annual licence or one held, in the limit, in
perpetuity unless transferred in some manner.
Exclusivity - the degree to which the
resource that is the specified by the right is
shared with other participants who are not bound by
the same rules of ownership - e.g. recreational
fishers or those with traditional rights of
exploitation of stocks taken by commercial
fisheries operating under a different rights-based
regime.
Security of title - that is its strength
as a constitutional or legislated right; a civil
agreement; or simply common accepted practice.
Fisheries rights may, e.g. be securitized; claimed
in a divorce disagreement or attached in some other
manner.
Transferability, of the right, either in
part, i.e. is it divisible so that part of the
right can be sold, or in whole. Degrees of
transferability exist as there may be constraints
as to whom the fishing rights may be
transferred.
Property in fisheries that has strong
rights implies that they are durable - i.e. have
long tenure; provide exclusivity of use, cannot be
arbitrarily removed or diluted; and that there are
rights of transfer.
Implications for Fisheries Management
The most noted form of property rights in
fisheries is that of individual transferable quotas
(ITQS). ITQ management systems are seldom adopted
in a pure form. Choices are needed to tailor the
systems to fit the conditions of the resources and
the socio-economic and political nature of the
fishery. Generally, the strongest property rights
are those with the fewest constraints on the
operation of markets; in this way they can maximize
the long-term economic productivity of the fishery.
A system with constrained access rights
supplemented with regulations to achieve particular
social or demographic objectives (e.g. in favour of
disadvantaged or vulnerable groups) will operate
with less economic efficiency. Fisheries with
unfettered transferability maximise the benefits of
ITQs, though controls or limitations are often
placed on quota markets to limit concentration of
quota ownership, to restrict foreign ownership or
to place geographical limits on trade of the
rights.
An important consideration is the definition of
the ITQ itself and the species to be included in
the property rights system. A second consideration
is the definition of the criteria for the initial
allocation of the quota. The sharing formula for
species traditionally exploited is usually based on
historical performance within fleets. For
developing fisheries on under-exploited species,
other criteria such as investment in the industry,
or vessel characteristics, need to be defined. The
third consideration is the allocation process,
which must be transparent, and all industry
participants in the fishery must be treated equally
and justly.
Transferability, or leasing of quota to others,
is considered an important part of an ITQ system.
Therefore, the restrictions on transferability
should be minimal. Also, some degree of under- and
over-runs of fishermen's quota holdings should be
allowed.
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