Rights-based Management Systems in Fisheries. How can Assigned Rights Change Fisheries?

• Main Author: Anna Þuríður Pálsdóttir 1993-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Hagfræði; Fiskveiðistjórnun; Fiskveiðar; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/24376

Despite the fact that fisheries can yield substantial economic benefits, majority of the world’s fishery resources underperform. This thesis will try to shed a light on whether rights-based management systems can improve the performance of fisheries and even lead to more sustainable fishing practices for the whole ecosystem. It will review how common property regimes and traditional catch limit regimes can lead to overexploited fish stocks and economic inefficiency, and how rights-based management systems can help to correct for the perverse incentives within the fishing industry. The first part discusses how common property management of fisheries creates incentives for fishers to deplete the resource, leading to economic losses and overexploitation of fish stocks. The second part will focus on rights-based management systems for fisheries, ITQ systems and how Iceland has fared since adopting an ITQ system for it’s fisheries. The third and last part will revolve around ecosystem-based management system for fisheries, and review a habitat quota system for fisheries and how British Columbia’s bottom trawl fisheries have changed since the implementation of a habitat conservation quota.