IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0231575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governing the commons beyond harvesting: An empirical illustration from fishing

Author

Listed:
  • Xavier Basurto
  • Abigail Bennett
  • Emilie Lindkvist
  • Maja Schlüter

Abstract

Harvesting has received most theoretical, empirical, and policy attention towards understanding common-pool resource dilemmas. Yet, pre-harvesting and post-harvesting activities influence harvesting outcomes as well. Broadening the analytical focus beyond harvesting is needed to imagine new ways of theorizing and governing the commons. Fishing—which is synonymous with harvesting—is a case in point. We contribute to a beyond-harvesting research agenda by incorporating concepts from common-pool resources theory that have not received enough attention in the literature. We compare two ubiquitous self-organizing strategies (i.e., fishing cooperatives and patron-client relationships) fishers use to access means of production and analyze their effects on the distribution of benefits resulting from harvesting. We use rarely available longitudinal data of monetary loans to fishers in Mexican small-scale fisheries and find that cooperatives can deliver broader distribution of benefits than patron-client relationships. Our study highlights the importance of historically and contextually situating analyses linking the effects of pre-harvesting processes on harvesting outcomes, and the benefits of broadening the scope of inquiry beyond a narrow policy attention on harvesting to move towards a fuller understanding of commons dilemmas.

Suggested Citation

  • Xavier Basurto & Abigail Bennett & Emilie Lindkvist & Maja Schlüter, 2020. "Governing the commons beyond harvesting: An empirical illustration from fishing," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0231575
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0231575
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0231575&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0231575?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. González-Mon, Blanca & Bodin, Örjan & Crona, Beatrice & Nenadovic, Mateja & Basurto, Xavier, 2019. "Small-scale fish buyers' trade networks reveal diverse actor types and differential adaptive capacities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Leonardo Becchetti & Stefano Castriota & Pierluigi Conzo, 2013. "Cooperative Membership as a Trust and Trustworthiness Reinforcing Device: Results from a Field Experiment in the Philippines," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 412-425, March.
    3. Cinti, A. & Shaw, W. & Cudney-Bueno, R. & Rojo, M., 2010. "The unintended consequences of formal fisheries policies: Social disparities and resource overuse in a major fishing community in the Gulf of California, Mexico," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 328-339, March.
    4. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 9, pages 178-203, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Carmen Pedroza-Gutiérrez & Juan M Hernández, 2017. "Social networks, market transactions, and reputation as a central resource. The Mercado del Mar, a fish market in central Mexico," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.
    6. Anthony Scott, 1955. "The Fishery: The Objectives of Sole Ownership," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(2), pages 116-116.
    7. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 124-124.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhonda, Park & Rice, Emma & Bennett, Abigail & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O. & Belton, Ben & Abaidoo, Eric, 2024. "Investigating the inclusiveness of the usipa value chain in Malawi," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Jing & Qin, Tianbao, 2018. "A Comparative Analysis of Fishing Rights From a Transaction Cost Perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 89-99.
    2. McCloskey Deirdre Nansen, 2018. "The Two Movements in Economic Thought, 1700–2000: Empty Economic Boxes Revisited," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-20, December.
    3. De Alessi, Michael & Sullivan, Joseph M. & Hilborn, Ray, 2014. "The legal, regulatory, and institutional evolution of fishing cooperatives in Alaska and the West Coast of the United States," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 217-225.
    4. Catherine J. Morrison Paul & Ronald G. Felthoven & Marcelo de O. Torres, 2010. "Productive performance in fisheries: modeling, measurement, and management," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(3), pages 343-360, July.
    5. Anne Sophie Crépin, 2003. "Threshold Effects in Coral Reef Fisheries," Working Papers 2003.107, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    6. Holm, Petter & Raakjær, Jesper & Becker Jacobsen, Rikke & Henriksen, Edgar, 2015. "Contesting the social contracts underpinning fisheries—Lessons from Norway, Iceland and Greenland," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 64-72.
    7. Pies, Ingo, 2012. "Optimierung versus Koordinierung: Zur ordonomischen Klärung des wirtschaftsethischen Problems," Discussion Papers 2012-21, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    8. Behringer, Stefan & Upmann, Thorsten, 2014. "Optimal harvesting of a spatial renewable resource," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 105-120.
    9. Geoffrey Fishburn & Murray C. Kemp, 2014. "The Gain from International Trade in Pool Goods and Private Goods," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 167-169, February.
    10. Julio Peña, 1996. "Regulación Pesquera en Chile: Una Perspectiva Histórica," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 33(100), pages 367-395.
    11. Brander, James A. & Scott Taylor, M., 1998. "Open access renewable resources: Trade and trade policy in a two-country model," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 181-209, April.
    12. Martin F. Quaas & Ralph Winkler, 2017. "A Market Mechanism for Sustainable and Efficient Resource Use under Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series 6524, CESifo.
    13. Bruno Drouot, 2012. "Les facteurs explicatifs de la dépendance économique des patrons pêcheurs à une ressource naturelle : le cas de la pêcherie de bar commun en France," Post-Print hal-01870830, HAL.
    14. Guttormsen, Atle G. & Kristofersson, Dadi & Navdal, Eric, 2005. "Managing Genetic Resources for Fun and Profit -- The Role of the Interest Rate in Natural Selection," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19354, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    15. Grafton, R. Quentin & Kompas, Tom & Chu, Long & Che, Nhu, 2010. "Maximum economic yield," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(3), pages 1-8.
    16. Berge, Erling, 2023. "How can “tragedies of the commons” be resolved? Social dilemmas and legislation," CLTS Working Papers 1/23, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies.
    17. Arnason, Ragnar, 2009. "Fisheries management and operations research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(3), pages 741-751, March.
    18. Gardner Brown, 2000. "Renewable Natural Resource Management and Use Without Markets," Working Papers 0025, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    19. Ostrom, Elinor, 2006. "The value-added of laboratory experiments for the study of institutions and common-pool resources," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 149-163, October.
    20. Catherine Benjamin & Hervé Guyomard, 1996. "Analyse des modes de régulation publique des pêcheries : applicabilité d'un système de quotas individuels transférables à l'Union européenne," Working Papers hal-01897091, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0231575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.