Andy Thorpe

The New Economic Model and Marine Fisheries Development in Latin America

The New Economic Model (NEM) has profoundly influenced fisheries development in Latin America, facilitating the emergence of new and increasingly influential interest groups within the industry. It has also stimulated new forms of production and prompted new legislation to regulate fishing in the regions most important fishing countries. These changes have coincided with Latin Americas increasing importance in world fisheries production and trade. The NEM has not, however, resolved the sectors fundamental problems, such as overfishing, overcapitalization and conflict, and has arguably exacerbated them.

The political economy of marine fisheries development in Peru, Chile and Mexico

Latin American fish production has expanded significantly in recent years. Unfortunately, as management systems in the three major Latin American fish producing countries have not developed at the same pace, all three countries now experience problems of overfishing and industrial overcapitalisation. This article examines the distinctive national fisheries development programmes that have led to this ‘tragedy of the oceans’. By comparing and contrasting the Peruvian, Chilean and Mexican management styles, it offers a critical assessment regarding the likely direction of future Latin American fisheries policy.

Migration of Senegalese fishers: a case for regional approach to management

This article traces the recent history of Senegalese small-scale fishers’ migration in West Africa. It details how migration of Senegalese fishers developed and then intensified to become a specialized fishing strategy spread out all along the coast of West Africa, from Mauritania to Sierra Leone and beyond. This escalation has rapidly led to the depletion of fish stocks in the region. Today, while fishing migration still largely contributes to food security and provision of sustainable livelihood for coastal communities, this type of migration has reached both an ecological and social deadlock and its future is largely uncertain. Based on current trends in Senegalese fishing migration, this paper highlights the main drivers of changes and impacts of migration. It proposes the development of a regional approach to fisheries management, emphasizing the need for collaborative transnational research projects and stressing the necessity for biodiversity project managers to include the issue of fisheries migration in their regional conservation strategies. It also suggests there may be a need to introduce property rights so as to limit the open access enjoyed by Senegalese migrant fishers almost all over the West African sub-region.

Globalisation and the Sustainability of World Fisheries: A View from Latin America

This paper describes the integration of Latin American marine fisheries into the global production system in the post-1945 period and the role of foreign and domestic fleets in this process. Through reference to the state-denial theories found in the globalisation literature, it charts the impact that the globalisation process has had upon the exploitation and sustainability of fish stocks in Latin American waters. It argues that while globalisation may indeed boost environmental awareness and lead to a more sustainable level of production through the decreased influence of local political interests, this has yet to happen in the principal Latin American fishing nations.

Neo-liberalism and its impact on overfishing and overcapitalisation in the marine fisheries of Chile, Mexico and Peru.

Abstract The linkages between neo-liberalism and the fisheries sector in three of Latin Americas principal fishing nations are examined. The paper shows how macroeconomic policies have not only re-inforced the sectors traditional export orientation but also permitted increased private participation in harvesting and processing. Production and export growth was facilitated by the absence of an effective regulatory framework as the belief that fish stocks were plenteous (following the designation of 200 mile Economic Exclusion Zones in the 1970s) encouraged governments to permit open access fisheries regimes. The belated recognition that there were indeed ‘limits to growth’ spawned a series of fisheries laws in the early-1990s which have sought to re-regulate the sector. To date these efforts have been largely unsuccessful — and the principal regional fisheries are presently both overcapitalised and dangerously overfished.

Fisheries and poverty reduction

There is a somewhat pervasive belief in much of the fisheries literature (especially that relating to small-scale fisheries in the developing world) that fishers are among the ‘poorest of the poor’. The purpose of this review therefore is to review historic and contemporary research into fisher poverty. Our review commences by acknowledging the paucity of studies on the levels of (income) poverty within the sector and highlights the fact that, somewhat paradoxically, a growing number of studies are suggesting that average incomes for fishing households outstrip those recorded by non-fishing households in the same areas. Nevertheless, these findings must be qualified as poverty cannot be captured exclusively in income terms ‐ and social manifestations of poverty (low literacy levels, reduced access to health care, education, water and sanitation facilities) may be more acute within the fisheries sector. Equally, while fisher households may be more vulnerable (given their lifestyles/location) to exogenous shocks (such as tsunamis), the sector is not a homogenous one and factors such as technological change may also induce the impoverishment of certain subgroups of fishers over time. As a consequence, fisher households have derived a variety of coping mechanisms, mechanisms which (we argue) militate against considering ‘fishing’ as an activity in isolation from other facets of the household livelihood strategy. One response, as we note, to this has been the application of livelihoods analysis as a technique for assessing (and redressing) fisher poverty. Championed initially by the Sustainable Livelihoods Fisheries Programme (SFLP) operating in West Africa from 1999 to 2006, the technique has subsequently been deployed in a number of other regions/fisheries. Our review then moves on to assess how interventions within the fisheries sector can contribute to fisher poverty reduction. At the macroeconomic level, while, the emphasis historically has been on the sector’s contribution to domestic nutritional requirements and the goal of food security, more recent research has examined the prioritization of the sector within national development plans and poverty reduction strategies. At the microeconomic level, we provide two contrasting examples to show that, while poverty-reducing policy interventions are to be welcomed at the local level, the heterogeneity of the local environment militates against the prescription of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to poverty reduction. This theme is picked up in the concluding comments of the review, where directions for further research are also highlighted.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Special Feature: Editorial

The number of MPAs has increased sharply, from just 118 in 1970 to well over 6,300 today. This growth in numbers has also been accompanied by a voluminous growth in the academic literature on the theme, with writers employing ecologic, economic and governance lenses (or a combination thereof) to both support the case for MPA creation, and to evaluate just how successfully (or not) existing MPAs match up to their promises. Research suggests effective management of such protected areas is vital if desired outcomes are to be achieved within the allotted time period. This Special Feature on MPAs therefore seeks to address two key questions derived from the management effectiveness framework of Hockings and others (2000), namely: ‘How appropriate are the management systems and processes in place?’ and ‘Were the desired Objectives achieved—and if so, why?’ Fourteen articles, drawing on different disciplinary perspectives relating to MPA experiences from across the globe, offers insights into these questions by considering, inter alia, how: are MPA sites selected?; is ‘buy-in’ to the process from the various stakeholders achieved?; are these stakeholder’s views reflected in the management systems that evolve?, and what monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place? Bringing these perspectives and approaches together through the medium of this Special Feature is thus intended to further our understanding of the different issues that may confront both planners and managers of Marine Protected Areas.

“Fishing Na Everybody Business”: Women's Work and Gender Relations in Sierra Leone's Fisheries

While small-scale fisheries in many developing countries is “everybodys business,” a gendered labor division concentrates production in the hands of fishermen while women dominate postharvest processing and retailing. The production bias of fisheries management programs has not only largely overlooked the role of fisherwomen, but also marginalized “fish mammies” in terms of resources and training. This study draws on three in-country fisheries surveys, as well as interviews and focus groups, and employs a gender-aware sustainable livelihood framework to make visible the economic space occupied by women in Sierra Leones small-scale fisheries. The study highlights how womens variegated access to capital and resources interacts with social norms and reproductive work and argues for more social and economic investment in womens fish processing and reproductive work enabling them to reconcile both roles more effectively.

Your country needs you!: forced recruitment in Honduras

Conscription was an obvious topic for economists to study during the heyday of the Vietnam war but, as the US draft threat has receded, so has the literature. One area where conscription remains important however is in the developing world, in particular, Latin America. Here the military maintain a high profile, yet forced recruitment remains a seriously under‐researched area. Our paper addresses this, assessing whether the armed forces in Honduras have implemented systematic recruitment patterns, through the examination of a rural household survey of 794 families.

Honduras, the New Economic Model and Poverty

One principal problem in interpreting the impact of the New Economic Model (NEM) policies upon poverty in Honduras, a problem shared by the accompanying case studies in this volume, is that of identifying the point at which the NEM became operational (or even whether the economic policies adopted could be construed as conforming to a ‘typical’ NEM). Some (Noe Pino, 1990; Noe Pino and Hernandez, 1990, p. 56) talk in terms of policy after 1985 being formulated within NEM terms of reference. Others, such as the World Bank (1994a, p. 7), identify the changeover point as 3 March 1990, the date when the Honduran Congress approved the Ley de Ordenamiento Estructural (Decreto No.18–90), a law more popularly referred to as ‘el paquetazo’. While 1990 clearly marks an important change in economic policy (and will be used as the starting point for the NEM), there were some important changes in policy during the 1980s and these will need to be analysed.