Jesper Raakjær

A knowledge base for management of the capital-intensive fishery for small pelagic fish off South Africa

As a contribution to South Africas move towards an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, this study explores the existence of common perceptions about South Africas pelagic fishery between resource users and scientists. It represents a collaborative research effort of social and natural scientists. A brief overview is given of the southern Benguela upwelling ecosystem and small pelagic fish resources, the fishery, and management of the fishery. Stakeholder knowledge and views were determined by conducting open-ended qualitative local knowledge interviews. Candidate indicators to address five major issues raised in the interviews were selected: length-at-50% maturity, total mortality, exploitation rate, proportion of bycatch, mean length of catch, and centre of gravity of catches. The indicator approach is shown to be a useful tool to manage the South African small pelagic fishery, and can be made compatible with existing management approaches. The foundation of a good adaptive fisheries management system is a data collection system that enables multi-disciplinary analysis and provides a basis on which decisions can be made.

Swimming Upstream: Market Access for African Fish Exports in the Context of WTO and EU Negotiations and Regulation

The changing nature of the international trade regime presents a series of new challenges to fish industries on the African continent. This article explores how WTO and EU trade negotiations and regulation impact market-access possibilities for African fish exports. It comes to the conclusion that while bilateral negotiations with the EU have been beneficial for some African countries, collective bargaining power in the context of Economic Partnership Agreements might produce more strategic outcomes in the medium term.

Conditions for successful co-management: lessons learned in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the Wider Caribbean.

1. Underreported and Undervalued: Small-scale Fisheries in the Developing World 2. Approaches and Frameworks for Management and Research in Small-scale Fisheries 3. Diagnosis and the Management Constituency of Small-scale Fisheries 4. Human Rights and Fishery Rights in Small-scale Fisheries Management 5. Managing Overcapacity in Small-scale Fisheries 6. Adaptive Management in Small-scale Fisheries: A Practical Approach 7. Conditions for Successful Co-management: Lessons Learned in Asia, Africa, the Pacific and the wider Caribbean 8. Climate Change and Other External Drivers in Small-scale Fisheries: Practical Steps for Responding 9. Developing Markets for Small-scale Fisheries: Utilizing the Value Chain Approach 10. Communication 11. Small-scale Fisheries Compliance: Integrating Social Justice, Legitimacy and Deterrence 12. Poverty Reduction as a Means to Enhance Resilience of Small-scale Fisheries.The key conditions for the successful implementation and performance and the policy implications for fisheries and coastal co-management in South East Asia, Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean region are presented.

Why and how to regionalise the Common Fisheries Policy

The concept of regionalisation, as it has been employed in connection with the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), is both ambiguous and multidimensional in the sense that it can have different meanings to different people and subsumes several discussions under one heading. Similarly, the perceived benefits of regionalisation can vary. In this article we develop a conceptual framework, which allows structuring of different, perceived benefits of regionalisation according to various objectives of CFP governance, as well as disentangling the different sub-themes that the discussion of regionalisation subsumes: the questions of ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘whom’. Eventually, we present a suite of five different models of regionalisation—‘archetypes’—that we believe are representations of important perspectives on what regionalisation means in practice and might facilitate a structured discussion of where the European Union should be heading in relation to fisheries governance: ‘Nationalisation’, ‘Regional Fisheries Management Organisations’, ‘Regional Fisheries Co-Management Organisations’, ‘Regional Marine Management Organisations’, and ‘Cooperative Member State Councils’.

Avoiding Poverty: Distributing Wealth in Fisheries

Aquatic resources contribute to economic growth, food security, and the livelihoods of millions of fishers around the world. This is evidenced by the industrialization of capture fisheries in the twentieth century, which has generated enormous wealth. Rather than supporting a policy aimed at maximizing economic efficiency though, this chapter argues for the distribution of wealth among small-scale fishers. After all, the small-scale fisheries function as a safety valve for a host of rural poor, for whom alternative livelihoods are not available.

Recovery Plans and the Balancing of Fishing Capacity and Fishing Possibilities: Path Dependence in the Common Fisheries Policy

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union (EU) has for long been accused of being unable to provide sustainable fisheries or actually in itself being an obstacle to this. Not least the inability of the CFP to achieve a sustainable balance between available resources and fishing capacity has been an issue of debate. By looking at the historical development of the implementation of the structural and conservation policies, this chapter sets out to provide an understanding of why the EU has for long been unable to choose another course in its fisheries policy. A key aspect in relation to this is the path dependence of the system, which has to a great extent made any real reform attempts unsuccessful. Nevertheless, based on recent changes in relation to the political cleavages between member states and the outcome of the CFP reform of 2002, the chapter describes how the evermore present resource crisis has opened a window-of-opportunity which makes a change in course possible. This is to some extent evidenced by the adoption of a series of recovery plans. Whether this will be enough to provide for a bright future of the CFP is, however, questionable.

Introduction: regionalising the Common Fisheries Policy

The idea of putting together a special issue of MAST on the issue of regionalisation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), was born in late 2010. Having participated in an EU funded research project looking into how an eco-system based approach to fisheries management could be operationalised in the European Union (EU) with particular focus on regionalisation, we found that the coming reform of the CFP would be a good opportunity to make a substantial contribution on the topic of regionalisation, which we felt ought to be a central component of the reform discussions.

Making Fisheries Management Work

This introductory chapter outlines the research and management problems that underlie the book’s case studies. It frames the implementation issue in relation to the main fisheries management discourses in social science, arguing that implementation has been a neglected field of research. The chapter subsequently outlines a typology of management systems and points to major implementation challenges associated with each type. Finally, the typology of management systems is connected to the cases selected in the study. The chapter summarises, at a very general level, the main discussions in the book.

What does ‘regionalisation’ mean? An exploratory mapping of opinions on reform of the common fisheries policy

Regionalisation has in recent years been intensely discussed as a possible path for the future Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union. However, the motivations for moving in this direction are as varied as the perceptions of what regionalisation as a mode governance would entail in practice. To draw implications for policy, we explore these perceptions and seek, by means of interviews and a survey of participants in the Regional Advisory Councils with hands-on experience in regional cooperation in European fisheries management, to flesh out the question whether regionalisation is seen a good idea, why or why not, and how people perceive different models of regionalisation. The article documents and substantiates the widespread interest in regionalisation, but it also highlights the need to develop common understandings of which options of regionalisation are available and what they offer in terms of future benefits and challenges.

The Politics of Implementation in Resource Conservation: Comparing the EU/Denmark and Norway

This chapter discusses implementation as a policy instrument in terms of fishery resource conservation. Implementation is primarily a means of pursuing established political goals. However, it is also a potential means of deliberate subversion or change of political goals. The chapter describes the development of multiple goals in fisheries management and addresses mechanisms through which conservation goals are subverted or changed at the implementation stage. Through comparison between The EU/Denmark and Norway, the chapter identifies factors that promote and prevent subversion of conservation goals during implementation.