CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Duncan, John Andrew |
|---|---|
| Title | The End of the Line? Benchmarking South Africa's Traditional Linefishery |
| Summary | In recognition of the increasingly apparent failures of narrowly-targeted traditional management regimes to create sustainable fisheries, the last decade has seen a growing paradigm shift towards a more holistic ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). Despite South Africa’s commitment to the EAF and the implementation of a new management policy in 2005, the traditional linefishery in South Africa still exhibits many of the problems associated with traditional management regimes. Over the last decade, amidst increasing conflict amongst stakeholders in this small-scale, multi-user fishery, targeted stocks have declined to such a point that the fishery has been declared a state of emergency. In line with the holistic approach prescribed by the EAF, this dissertation attempts to diagnose the causes of instability within the current economic, ecological, political and institutional ambit of the traditional linefishery within the case study area of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A stakeholder analysis was conducted and subsequent informal interactions, personal observations and semi-structured interviews with key informants were used to identify issues of concern relating to current management practices in the traditional linefishery The study’s findings suggest that many of the current policy’s failures are directly attributable to an insecure property rights regime and a lack of incentive-based policies. Poor regulations and management objectives stem from a lack of reliable biological and socioeconomic data and policy-makers’ failure to understand the diverse nature of the fishers targeting the linefish resource. A lack of political will and instability within the government fisheries management institution has further exacerbated conflict within the fishery. In order to facilitate effective co-management structures within the fishery, future EAF-based management efforts need to be directed towards developing alternative livelihoods as well as improving institutional capacity, both within government departments and amongst the stakeholders. Recommendations are provided as to how this could be achieved. |
| Supervisor | Woodhouse, Phillip |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/duncan_john.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University