Progress report for
Design and implementation of a national fisheries governance model based on co-management
Achievement at a glance
A total of 7 fisheries Co-management Committees (hereinafter referred to as CC) have been established since the Decree on the governance model for professional fishing in Catalonia came into force:- Sand-eel fishery CC
- Blue crab CC in Terres de l'Ebre
- Cuttlefish SSF CC for the bays of Pals and Roses
- Purse seine fishery CC in the gulf of Roses
- Octopus SSF CC in central Catalonia
- Octopus SSF CC in Terres de l'Ebre
- Small-Scale Fisheries CC in Cap de Creus
All these Co-management Committees involve 59% of SSF vessels in Catalonia and represents around 10% of the fish landings caught by the Catalan fleet. According to the agents involved in CCs, a total of 25 Catalan fisher’s guilds together with all the Regional Federations of Fisher’s Associations, 4 scientific research centres, 7 civil organisations, 1 recreational fishing entity and 1 seafood wholesaler complete the stakeholder scenario together with the Catalan administration.
Model robustness is consolidated with the setting up of the Catalan Research Institute for the Governance of the Sea (ICATMAR), that carries out specific scientific monitoring for each committee, adjusting data collection to the co-management scale.
Since co-management has been adopted main achievements accomplished to date can be summarized as:
1) an increased sense of mutual co-responsibility and trust between stakeholders, ensuring compliance with the rules;
2) capacity to perform adaptive management;
3) the trigger to a more intelligent bio economic management of the fishery and
4) community empowerment and participation in decision-making.
Last but not least, this new tool of governance has shown that management must be adjusted at the fishery level and must ensure the participation of all key stakeholders in the particular fisheries through decentralised co-management groups.
Challenges faced in implementation
The new Catalan governance model on fisheries management has faced two main challenges:Firstly, governance through co-management has involved the delegation of decision-making powers from the administration to multiple stakeholders. This involves, on one hand, empowering of all the actors involved, with equal-footing decision making power, and, on the other hand, the need to take decisions by consensus to look for common grounds and compromise to set flexible and cooperative management measures. Such change involves time and significant reassessment of roles.
Moreover, co-management entails also adaptive management, which requires stakeholders to assess the biological, economic, social and cultural aspects of fisheries and to adapt to the continuously changing situation. Therefore, there is an economic investment in research studies and personnel, but also an investment of time to push the new model forward.
It is important to point out that most of the actors involved, firmly believe that all these investments will bear fruit for the good of the resource and the fishing sector. There is a common conviction that co-management is the way forward, and that it has come to stay.
Next Steps
Central to the goals of the CC is the approval and the consolidation of the Management Plan, the legal instrument which establishes the framework from which specific measures are developed for each fishery under co-management. Measures included in the Management Plan must be flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions.Thus far, 4 co-management plans have been approved and published. The remaining 3 Co-management Plans are being delivered and agreed/drawn at the moment.
In addition, the Decree on the governance model for professional fisheries in Catalonia stipulates that, once the Co-management plan is approved, a socioeconomic program must be developed. This program should establish and quantify social and economic goals, enact progress indicators and detail actions to be taken. Therefore, it should enhance the value of the product while ensuring the conservation of the resource and the wellbeing of the sector.
Moreover, all the CCs, ultimately aims to achieve the Maximum Sustainable Yield through ecosystem-based, equitable, adaptive and precautionary management. This has to be supported by comprehensive monitoring of the resource.
Beneficiaries
The main beneficiaries from this newly created tool are 1) Fishers and stakeholders involved on the CCs; 2) resources being managed and 3) civil society in general.
1) As mentioned before, co-management implies empowerment of all the actors and therefore participation in the creation of the regulatory framework. Building on the experiences learned, getting to work hand in hand with different actors coming from different sectors help to achieve a better knowledge on the territory, the resource, and the needs and singularities of the sector. All of this will directly benefit the state of the resources and in turn the welfare of fishers. The creation of the CCs led to a shift to a more local and territorial focused management. At the same time, it has made it possible to involve a greater number of actors in the territory, which has provided a more holistic and complete vision of the managed resource.
2) Resources being managed through co-management are being backed up by a continuous sampling, which implies better knowledge on the state of the resource. Consequently, the resource is being managed locally and to the extent needed, in this way the measures respond to the specific area and resource of each CC.
3) Finally, we must not forget that fisheries Co-management Committees manage a public resource and does it in the best possible way, so, at the end having a sustainable environmental benefit at the same time the civil society in general.
Actions
Firstly, the implementation of Co-Management has enabled to adopt a bottom-up approach, based on consensus and shared management, which has proven to be a strong instrument resulting in increased empowerment of the actors.Listed below are detailed, some of the most relevant actions done:
- Establishment of adaptive fishing quotas, taking into consideration scientific sampling results and factors as the market price and demand – Sand-eel CC
- Establishment of a closed season for the species, according to biological criteria and with due regard to socioeconomic aspects - Both Octopus CCs
- Increase in scientific knowledge on the biology and ecology of the blue crab to improve management measures to control its expansion - Blue crab CC
- Determine a set of measures agreed with the stakeholders to manage professional fishing in the Natural Park's waters– SSF Cap de Creus CC
- Promote the creation of a fish producers’ organisation (POs) of purse seiners – Purse seiner CC
- Establishment of a common seasonal closure for the cuttlefish for both professional and recreational fisheries – Cuttlefish CC
Other actions that are currently and in the near future being carried out are:
- Limitation on the fishing effort (fleet capacity, number of gears, technical measures, etc.) Criteria such as historical catches, current dedication, social criteria and state of the resource are being considered.
- Creation of a specific label "fish from co-management", representing a further step towards the recognition of sustainability by consumers.
- The union of actors belonging to the fishing sector and forming part of the CCs, benefit from EMFF funds. The creation of the new EMFAF grant line, which aims at supporting projects agreed within the framework of the CC, will bring further benefits for the development of actions to be implemented in the framework of CCs.