THE DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGES OF COASTAL FISHERIES NGM Filippa Säwe & Johan Hultman. Department of Service Management Lund University

Transcription

1 THE DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGES OF COASTAL FISHERIES NGM 2011 Filippa Säwe & Johan Hultman Department of Service Management Lund University

2 SoundFish A multi-disciplinary project: service studies, ecology, national economy Purpose: to investigate the conditions for alternative fisheries management principles Context: the small-scale coastal cod fishery in Öresund

3 The Öresund region

4 Policy goals on different levels From European union to a national context

5 EU fisheries management policy Vision: Fishing operators are given incentives to behave responsibly but they are also expected to demonstrate that they comply with the basic principles of the CFP. Stakeholders fully participate in decisions and debates on policy implementation. Fisheries control has become far more effective.

6 National context NAPTEK (National Program for Traditional Ecological Knowledge). Coastal fisheries are discussed in terms of how traditional knowledge is used and reproduced: Acknowledging local and traditional knowledge is most probably a condition for a long-term sustainable society [Such knowledge] can only be reproduced through practices in their total context

7 The Swedish Governmental Board of Fisheries All stakeholders acknowledged the value of supporting local and traditional knowledge except the Board of Fisheries Conclusion: The Board s aim of an ecologically sustainable and environmentally adapted fisheries management has a different rationality

8 The problem Present situation: same institutional regulations for small-scale, coastal fisheries as for large-scale opensea fisheries Consequence: Professional fishermen in the Öresund coastal fishery experience a growing gap between the desk-products that decide how they must act, and their own knowledge of local conditions, how the fishery ecology is changing, and the size and status of the fish resource

9 The different knowledges of coastal fisheries Aim of study: investigate how different categories of fishermen perceive a fisheries management model building on local knowledge and self-control Study methods: open-ended interviews with professional, recreational, for-own-use and retired fishermen, focus groups with professional fishermen, policy and visionary documents, trade organization publication The Professional Fisherman (Yrkesfiskaren)

10 Different knowledges Trade organization: Respect for each others roles and competences / / gives fishermen the possibility to assume responsibility for their own future Board of Fisheries: focus on technical issues such as minimum size of catchable fish, mesh size, measurable parametres, etc Same goal (sustainable fisheries) but different knowledges

11 Understandings of ecology Bio-social ecology acknowledges the connections between fish, traditional and local knowledge, community and economy (Torsten Hägerstrand s ecology under one perspective [1974] or regional science [1989]) Biological ecology sees fish in isolation Among professional fishermen, The Board of Fisheries is understood as driven by a bureaucratic governance romanticism

12 The dynamics The different knowledges of fishermen and their governing Board result in different perspectives on preservation of the resource and dependency on fishing for a living

13 Traditional and local knowledge in its total context DEPENDENCY ON FISHING high low SENSE OF PRESERVATION high low Professional, coastal fishermen Retired professional, coastal fishermen Recreational fishermen (and Board of Fisheries) Fishing for own use

14 Voices 1: the professional fisherman Yeah, it s incredibly far to reality when they [biologists at the Board of Fisheries] go on with their research

15 Voices 2: The retired professional fisherman Respondent: We have taught ourselves. The others [the Board of Fisheries] have read about it [big laugh] Interviewer: Well, it s probably true enough Respondnet: Yes!!! [very big laugh] We know exactly where the fish are when the water is warm. You don t need any ecosounders. If you ve been at sea for 60 years you do learn one or two things

16 Voices 3: The recreational fisherman Being asked about how a good fishery should be managed, the respondet answers: Then you should follow the biologist s suggestions for quotas and fishing advise. Not let the politicians negotiate it upwards just because professional fishermen want to catch as much fish as possible. Let the biologists decide, they know and understand what it s all about

17 Voices 4: Fishing for own use About the Board of Fisheries: They want to prohibit! We ve always been fishing and it s the sense of freedom that means a lot to me. If I want to fish I go out and fish. And then the responsibility for what I do and don t do is my own. I don t want bans on this and bans on that as soon as something happens. You can use your own head, you know

18 Reflections and questions Minimum of consensus? Understanding of sustainiblility? (same goal but ) How can placebound knowledge become a principle in sustainably development?