Oceans Program Director, Environmental Defense
While many fisheries are plagued by overfishing, habitat damage, and poor economic returns, some fisheries are thriving. Why? Most fisheries management systems focus on understanding the biology of fish stocks and stop there. However, successful resource management is equal parts understanding the resource and understanding (and managing) people. People respond to social and economic incentives; therefore, the incentives that fishery management creates can determine the success or failure of a fishery. Many management systems create incentives that motivate people to be stewards of the environment – these are the successful fisheries that produce seafood sustainably, create good jobs, generate revenues, and protect not only fish stocks but also ocean ecosystems. However, too many fisheries are being managed with systems that create incentives to overexploit fishery resources. The result has been fishery declines and collapses, grossly overcapitalized fishing fleets, low-paying and transitory jobs, low revenues, wasteful subsidies, and serious ecological damage. This lecture will discuss the incentives created by various kinds of common fishery management systems. It will then examine the conservation, social, and economic impacts of management systems that designate ownership shares of a scientifically determined catch to entities who then become accountable to performance standards. These entities can include fishery cooperatives, fishing sectors, communities, co-management institutions, residents of a designated fishing area, or individuals. The lecture will conclude with a discussion of ways to harness market forces to help achieve fishery management goals while avoiding, minimizing, or mitigating adverse social and economic impacts.
David Festa is Director of the Oceans Program at Environmental Defense. David has over 20 years of experience advising governments and private industry on economic, energy and natural resource issues and has worked as a journalist, businessman, adviser and governmental official. David co-founded the Turnstone Group to improve environmental stewardship by helping clients resolve policy issues and natural resource use conflicts. David also serves as the Chair of the Conservation Committee for the Sea Change Investment Fund, a venture capital firm he helped establish that focuses on the chain of supply for environmentally preferable seafood. David has also served as Director of Policy and Strategic Planning in the Department of Commerce, Deputy Director of the Center for Clean Air Policy, Senior Consultant for Environmental Resources Management, Inc., and a correspondent for The Economist, where he was nominated for the Glaxo Award for science journalism. David holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University, a BA from University of Virginia, and is a Visiting Scholar at Oregon State University.