About the research project

Since the general extension of exclusive economic zones to 200 miles, the employment of strong user rights in marine fisheries has become increasingly common around the world. This constitutes a major shift in the economic organization of ocean fisheries compared to the previous open access, common property regime. It consequently gives rise to various economic and social consequences. In spite of the apparent economic and social importance of these consequences – the potential gain in economic efficiency alone is judged to be close to a USD 100 billion annually (World Bank 2017), there do not appear to be any comprehensive or even systematic studies of these consequences and their benefits and costs. As a result, even less is known about how to tailor user rights to the prevailing socio-economic situation so as to obtain the best possible results.

The proposed project is to organize three workshops in Reykjavik, Copenhagen and Gothenburg to consider the overall advantages and disadvantages of user rights in fisheries. More precisely, the aim of these workshops is twofold. The first is to advance and systemize existing theoretical and empirical scientific knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of user rights in fisheries. The second is to identify and outline research projects to more deeply investigate crucial aspects of the topic. The hope is that this will lead to calls for international research projects in this important field. These workshops will take place during 2020 and first half of 2021. The finding of these workshops will be made publicly available via the internet. A collection of workshop papers dealing with the topic will be published.

Because of Covid19 workshop meetings have been extended into 2022.

Keywords: User rights in fisheries, advantages of user rights in fisheries, disadvantages of user rights in fisheries, Cost benefits of user rights in fisheries, rights-based fisheries management, fisheries management.

This project is conducted with funding from the NOS-HS.