Strong collective action enables valuable and sustainable fisheries for cooperatives

Abstract

Seafood is one of the most internationally-traded food commodities. International markets can provide higher revenues that benefit small-scale fishing communities but can also drive a decline in fished populations. Collective action in collective organizations such as fishing cooperatives is thought to enhance the sustainability of fished populations. However, our knowledge of how collective action enables fishing cooperatives to achieve positive social-ecological outcomes is dispersed across case studies. Here, we present a quantitative, national-level analysis exploring the relationship between different levels of collective action and social-ecological outcomes. We found that strong collective action in Mexican lobster cooperatives was related to both sustaining their fisheries and benefiting from international trade. In the 15-year study period, lobster cooperatives that demonstrate characteristics associated with strong collective action captured benefits from trade through high catch volumes and revenue. Despite lower (but stable) average prices, the biomass of their lobster populations was not compromised to reap these benefits. Individual case studies previously found that fishing cooperatives can support both positive social and ecological outcomes in small-scale fisheries. Our results confirm these findings at a national level and highlight the importance of strong collective action. Thus, our work contributes to a better understanding of the governance arrangements to promote fishing communities' welfare and benefits from international trade and, therefore, will be invaluable to advancing small-scale fisheries governance.

Sustaining small-scale fisheries through a nation-wide Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries system

“…Both abalone and lobster have minimum harvestable size limits and seasonal area closures [ 65 ] Furthermore, abalone fishery has yearly catch limits, established by the regional government entity [ 65 ]. Majority of this catch is destined for international markets [ 61 , 63 ]. The cooperative actively engages with the regional government to monitor the conditions of the stock [ 63 ].…”

“…Overall, this system has allowed cooperative members to effectively perform a highly selective fishery through free diving to hand retrieve lobster (scuba and hookah are prohibited) facilitating the compliance with minimum size limits, protecting reproductive females, and maintaining a high quality of their products [59,60]. Majority of the catch is sold internationally [61]. Since 1982, the Vigia Chico cooperative has been known to be the most productive fishing cooperative for lobster in the Mexican Caribbean [46].…”

A generalized adaptive harvesting model exhibits cusp bifurcation, noise, and rate-associated tipping pathways

“…Exogenous socioecological changes are rampant due to developments in trade, technology, disaster, politics, and climate change. For example, international trade can increase market prices (uβFS) for some exporters and decrease prices of substitutable resources for importers (Elsler et al, 2022). Market prices may also change due to marketing campaigns on previously ignored species, such as the orange roughy in New Zealand (M. Clark, 1995), or on climate change-induced novel species, such as lionfish in the US (Nuñez et al, 2012).…”