The Political Economy of Natural Resource Uses:
Lessons for Fisheries Reform
Mountain Sky Guest Ranch,
Emigrant MT
May 7–10, 2009
Introduction
"The Political Economy of Natural Resource Use: Lessons for Fisheries Reform" is the topic of a forum hosted by the Property & Environment Research
Center (PERC) under the direction of Don Leal, with the support of the World Bank’s sustainable fisheries program (PROFISH). The purpose of the
forum is to bring together a group of two dozen distinguished academics and practitioners to focus on a broader understanding of the
institutional foundations necessary to promote efficient resource use and long-term economic growth.
Background
The world's ocean fisheries are in crisis because of the ongoing failure to manage the economic wealth inherent in a naturally productive resource. The World Bank study "Sunken Billions" estimates that the world's fisheries squander an estimated $50 billion a year from overfishing because of poor governance in managed fisheries as well as illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.
Management reforms based on better defined rights of access and use are providing effective pathways in capturing and nurturing the wealth inherent in ocean fisheries. Still, problems of resource allocation and management require addressing the political economy of natural resource reform.
The forum will consolidate existing knowledge in the political economy of natural resource use and development assistance and to draw out lessons for fisheries reform in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Products of the forum will include a methodological approach for conducting political economy case studies of reforms in specific countries as well as a report and subsequent edited volume addressing the legal, economic, and fiscal frameworks necessary for fisheries reform.
|
