Fishery Cooperatives as a Management Institution

Cooperative fishery management assigns management rights, formally or informally, to a group of users. Assigning rights to groups rather than individuals can be advantageous, given the shared, common-pool nature of fish stocks. Efficiency can potentially be improved by coordinating harvests over space and time, providing public good inputs, sharing information and setting quality standards. Management by groups rather than individuals can also enhance stewardship incentives. In countries that suffer from ineffective governance, user-based management can fill voids governments might otherwise occupy. Case studies from around the globe demonstrate that these advantages can be important in practice and indicate that fishery cooperatives deserve increased attention from researchers and policy makers as a management option. Abbreviations: CPUE – catch per unit effort, a common indicator of stock abundance TAC – total allowable catch MPA – marine protected area ITQ – individual transferable quota RBM – rights based management PMPA – private marine protected area QMS quota management system FCMA – fishermen collective marketing act FEDECOOP – Baja California regional federation of the fishing cooperative societies CBFM – community based fisheries management MEABR – management and exploitation areas for benthic resources CBMRM – community-based marine resource management OECD organization for economic cooperation and development