Estimating economic losses to small‐scale fishers from shark conservation: A hedonic price analysis

Abstract

Understanding wildlife markets is central to effective conservation: it can help managers and policy-makers to predict how interventions might influence supply and demand of wildlife products, and economic welfare of wildlife users; and thus, design interventions which have better outcomes for wildlife and people. Here we apply a revealed preference method of economic valuationhedonic price analysis (HPA)-to understand shark markets and explore the economic costs of shark conservation for small-scale fishers. We focus on a targeted semi-commercial shark fishery in Indonesia-which poses a threat to some shark species, but provides important economic and subsistence value for a coastal community in an impoverished region of Indonesia-and use HPA to estimate market prices and welfare measures for threatened and CITES-listed sharks. This represents a pertinent case study with practical implications because Indonesia is the world's largest shark fishing nation, where management interventions to reduce shark fishing mortality are needed. However, such interventions will create short-term socio-economic trade-offs for fishing communities, which may hamper cooperation and compliance, and raise concerns regarding the fairness and equity of conservation.Our results give significant marginal price estimates for five species of conservation and commercial importance. Dusky sharks (Carcharhinus obscurus) and bottlenose wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae) have the highest implicit marginal prices, at US$ 157 and US$ 144, respectively. Our estimates suggest that conservation measures, such as catch limits for endangered and CITESlisted species, could have significant economic opportunity costs (i.e., 3.4-17.6% revenue foregone) for low-income fishers. Innovative policy instruments are required to transform shark markets and fisheries-to effectively reduce threats to endangered species and implement CITES, whilst doing no harm to vulnerable coastal communities. Methods from econometrics can help conservation scientists to better understand wildlife markets, and make management decisions which create better outcomes for wildlife and people.

High overexploitation risk due to management shortfall in highly traded requiem sharks

“…However, good fisheries management tends to be reserved for the ∼300 most commercially important fishes, yet more than 11,000 species are fished (Hilborn et al 2020). While sharks contribute little to the national catch and economy, they are vital to the day-to-day economics of small-scale fisheries potentially providing these communities with a financial safety net – one that needs to be sustained to avoid widespread poverty (Booth et al 2021; Eriksson and Clarke 2015). Traded shark products often travel through several different countries being aggregated at regional entrepôts before moving to the final destination for processing and reimport, before being sold to the general public.…”

“…The catch of shark, ray, and chimaera (Class Chondrichthyes, hereafter ‘sharks’) is poorly monitored globally, with only one-third of reported catch identified beyond Family level (FAO 2022). Yet locally, sharks provide significant income for small-scale fishers and individual specimens are retained because of the extremely high value of their body parts, such as fins, jaws, skins, and liver oil in the international trade markets (McClenachan et al 2016, Booth et al 2021).…”

A socio‐psychological approach for understanding and managing bycatch in small‐scale fisheries

“…Bycatch mitigation in SSFs is also a challenge for equity and environmental justice. Coastal communities often experience the greatest opportunity costs of marine conservation, with a need for a deeper understanding of the values and importance of marine megafauna from the perspectives of small-scale fishers (Balmford & Whitten, 2003;Booth, Squires, et al, 2021;Stevenson et al, 2013).…”

Determining the economic costs and benefits of conservation actions: A decision support framework

“…Opportunity costs can be important determinants of decision‐making in practice, particularly when conservation actions can lead to significant economic losses. Similarly to financial benefits, estimates of the lost income from interventions can also be estimated through explicit market values, or revealed and stated preference studies (Booth, Ramdlan, et al, 2021; Booth, Squires, et al, 2021).…”