Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea
Unsustainable fishing can be surprisingly persistent despite devastating social, economic, and ecological consequences. Sustainability science literature suggests that the persistence of unsustainable fisheries can be understood as a social-ecological trap. Few studies have explicitly acknowledged t...
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2020
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:892e5268396649489e17a0a8f44f3078 2023-05-15T13:28:16+02:00 Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea Emma Björkvik Wiebren J. Boonstra Jonas Hentati-Sundberg 2020-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11405-250121 https://doaj.org/article/892e5268396649489e17a0a8f44f3078 EN eng Resilience Alliance http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss1/art21/ https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087 1708-3087 doi:10.5751/ES-11405-250121 https://doaj.org/article/892e5268396649489e17a0a8f44f3078 Ecology and Society, Vol 25, Iss 1, p 21 (2020) causal historical analysis european eel fisheries management mixed methods path dependency Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11405-250121 2022-12-31T11:24:09Z Unsustainable fishing can be surprisingly persistent despite devastating social, economic, and ecological consequences. Sustainability science literature suggests that the persistence of unsustainable fisheries can be understood as a social-ecological trap. Few studies have explicitly acknowledged the role of historical legacies for the development of social-ecological traps. Here, we investigate why fishers sometimes end up in social-ecological traps through a reconstruction of the historical interplay between fishers' motivations, capacities, and opportunities to fish. We focus on the case of a Swedish fishery targeting the critically endangered European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) in the Baltic Sea. We performed the case study using a unique quantitative data set of social and ecological variables that spans over eight decades, in combination with earlier literature and interviews with fishers and fisheries experts. Our analysis reveals that Swedish archipelago fishers are highly dependent on the eel to maintain their fishing livelihood. The dependence on the eel originates from the 1930s, when fishers chose to intensify fishing for this species to ensure future incomes. The dependence persisted over time because of a series of changes, including improved eel fishing technology, heightened competition over catch, reduced opportunities to target other species, implementation of an eel fishing license, and the fishers' capacity and motivation to deal with dwindling catches. Our study confirms that social-ecological traps are path-dependent processes. In terms of management, this finding means that it becomes progressively more difficult to escape the social-ecological trap with the passage of time. The longer entrapment endures, the more effort it takes and the bigger change it requires to return to a situation where fishers have more options so that unsustainable practices can be avoided. We conclude that fisheries policies need to be based on the premise that unsustainable fishing emerges through multiple rather ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Anguilla anguilla European eel Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ecology and Society 25 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
causal historical analysis european eel fisheries management mixed methods path dependency Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
causal historical analysis european eel fisheries management mixed methods path dependency Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 Emma Björkvik Wiebren J. Boonstra Jonas Hentati-Sundberg Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
topic_facet |
causal historical analysis european eel fisheries management mixed methods path dependency Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Unsustainable fishing can be surprisingly persistent despite devastating social, economic, and ecological consequences. Sustainability science literature suggests that the persistence of unsustainable fisheries can be understood as a social-ecological trap. Few studies have explicitly acknowledged the role of historical legacies for the development of social-ecological traps. Here, we investigate why fishers sometimes end up in social-ecological traps through a reconstruction of the historical interplay between fishers' motivations, capacities, and opportunities to fish. We focus on the case of a Swedish fishery targeting the critically endangered European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) in the Baltic Sea. We performed the case study using a unique quantitative data set of social and ecological variables that spans over eight decades, in combination with earlier literature and interviews with fishers and fisheries experts. Our analysis reveals that Swedish archipelago fishers are highly dependent on the eel to maintain their fishing livelihood. The dependence on the eel originates from the 1930s, when fishers chose to intensify fishing for this species to ensure future incomes. The dependence persisted over time because of a series of changes, including improved eel fishing technology, heightened competition over catch, reduced opportunities to target other species, implementation of an eel fishing license, and the fishers' capacity and motivation to deal with dwindling catches. Our study confirms that social-ecological traps are path-dependent processes. In terms of management, this finding means that it becomes progressively more difficult to escape the social-ecological trap with the passage of time. The longer entrapment endures, the more effort it takes and the bigger change it requires to return to a situation where fishers have more options so that unsustainable practices can be avoided. We conclude that fisheries policies need to be based on the premise that unsustainable fishing emerges through multiple rather ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Emma Björkvik Wiebren J. Boonstra Jonas Hentati-Sundberg |
author_facet |
Emma Björkvik Wiebren J. Boonstra Jonas Hentati-Sundberg |
author_sort |
Emma Björkvik |
title |
Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
title_short |
Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
title_full |
Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
title_fullStr |
Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea |
title_sort |
why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of swedish eel fisheries in the baltic sea |
publisher |
Resilience Alliance |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11405-250121 https://doaj.org/article/892e5268396649489e17a0a8f44f3078 |
genre |
Anguilla anguilla European eel |
genre_facet |
Anguilla anguilla European eel |
op_source |
Ecology and Society, Vol 25, Iss 1, p 21 (2020) |
op_relation |
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol25/iss1/art21/ https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087 1708-3087 doi:10.5751/ES-11405-250121 https://doaj.org/article/892e5268396649489e17a0a8f44f3078 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11405-250121 |
container_title |
Ecology and Society |
container_volume |
25 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766403099699707904 |