A Synthesis

This entire book is based on a governance perspective. In the previous chapters, this perspective has been used to structure many ideas and findings on fisheries governance. The present chapter will try to show that experiences with governing fisheries, although still being played out in different parts of the world and in varying social and economic settings, can still be looked at in a coherent manner. This coherence can be implicitly or explicitly demonstrated in activities at the fish chain level, in the institutions supporting or limiting those activities, and in the principles guiding fisheries and its governance. It can also be expressed in the ways in which activities, institutions, and principles are linked. In other words, the governance perspective that has been an analytical tool up to this point in this book can also be used in a synthesised manner. That is the goal of this chapter.

Governance and the Fish Chain

The governance approach applies to fisheries throughout the entire fish chain – from pre-capture (i.e., fish in its natural ecosystem), capture (i.e., capture and culture of fish), to post-harvest (i.e., processing and distributing fish and fish products to consumer). The phrase ‘fish chain’ is used here to emphasise the inter-connection between its parts, acknowledging that the three features operating within and between components would earn them the phrase ‘fish web’. In ecosystems, they represent natural phenomena, in capture and aquaculture their emphasis is on human-nature interfaces, while in post-harvest they stand mostly for human-human interrelations.

Knowledge of fish chains and their interactions varies since some have been studied thoroughly, while others scarcely. For example, we know much about interactions within and among households as pivotal entities in catching or farming fish, and about communities as their contexts. Interactions in other parts of chains are, however, less known, such as interactions in the global market place and the systems they are part of. Governance of fisheries starts with paying systematic attention to the primary and governing interactions at and among all levels. Lack of such attention accounts for poor results of many management practices in fisheries.