“Lost” First Nations Fisheries: Some economic
insightsU. Rashid Sumaila
Fisheries Economics Research UnitGlobal Fisheries Cluster
The University of British ColumbiaVancouver, Canada
FNFC Annual General Meeting Victoria, November 7 , 2017
Outline
• Brief introduction to OceanCanadaPartnership;
• Our oceans and rivers are interconnected;
• Community values and fisheries economics.
The OceanCanada Partnership• 6 years core funding provided by Social Sciences &
Humanities Research Council of Canada (2014-2020).
• A multi-institution interdisciplinary research partnership:• 20 formal partners from university, government, industry;
and non-governmental sectors;• 40 researchers and collaborators; • 40 student trainees.
• Emphasis on integrating diverse disciplinary perspectives as well as regional and local knowledge.
OceanCanada is dedicated to … • building resilient and sustainable oceans;
• synthesizing social, cultural, economic and environmental knowledge about our oceans;
• building scenarios for the future people and the seas;
• work collaboratively towards a pan-Canadian vision for sustainable & healthy coastal-ocean regions;
• creating a national dialogue and shared vision of oceans.
Coastal and Indigenous community access to marine resources and the ocean:
A policy imperative for Canada
Nathan J. Bennett, Maery Kaplan-Hallam, Gerry Augustine, Natalie Ban, Dyhia
Belhabib, Irene Brueckner-Irwin, Anthony Charles, John Couture, Sondra Eger, Lucia
Fanning,
Paul Foley, Anne Marie Goodfellow, Larry Greba, Edward Gregr, Don Hall, Sarah
Harper, Brandon Maloney, Jim McIsaac, Wanli Ou, Evelyn Pinkerton, Darren Porter,
Richard Sparrow, Robert Stephenson, Allison Stocks, U. Rashid Sumaila, Tasha
Sutcliffe, Megan Bailey
Why “Loss” First Nations fisheries?
There is one global ocean
Exclusive economic zones (light blue) and high seas (dark blue)
High seas EEZ
White & Costello (2014) Sumaila et al. (2015)
Close high seas
A pertinent quote to start
“I believe that the great part of miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things.”
Beyond economic valuation
• Loss of fish goes beyond direct economic impacts (e.g., landed value and jobs):– Health impacts;– Loss of food security;– Cultural impacts.
• Need to capture these social costs in economic analysis.
Factors that limit access to traditional foods
Source: Elliott and Jayatilaka 2011. Healthy eating and food security for urban Aboriginal peoples living in Vancouver
Remembering future generations:7th Generation thinking
Present Future
Future benefits from today’s perspective
Value
“Egoism is the law of perspectives as it applies to feelingsaccording to which what is closest to us appears to be large andweighty, while size and weight decrease with our distancefrom things”.
Discounting in economics
Harvest profile
0.0
0.20.4
0.60.8
1.01.2
1.4
1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100Years
Cat
ch le
vel
Status quoRestoration
To restore or not to restore?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Status quo CM Restore CM Status quo GM Restore GM
Tot
al d
isco
unte
d ne
t ben
efits
Economics of rebuilding: Conventional versus Intergenerational
Sumaila (2004); Sumaila & Walters (2005)
Qualitative Degree of ‘Smallness’ in BCSSF
LSF 14
Food, Social, Ceremonial
Aboriginal commercial fisheries
Salmon gillnet
Crab trap; Prawn and shrimp trap
Salmon troll; Shrimp and prawn trawl
Herring spawn on kelp (J); Red sea urchin dive; Rockfish hook and line
Green sea urchin dive; Herring roe by seine or gillnet (HS/HG); Category II species
Geoduck dive; Groundfish trawl; Halibut hook and line; Salmon seine
Sablefish by longline or trapGibson & Sumaila (2017)
Fisheries subsidies Small versus large scale fisheries
Schuhbauer, Sumaila et al. (2017)
Narrow versus broad valuationRebuild stocks or not rebuild?
RebuildNot rebuild
Profits less
subsidiesNet of broad benefits
10
Profits
5
After adding FNs benefits from
rebuilding
An illustrative example
Fisheries
Conclusion
• Invitation to OceanCanada Partnership http://www.oceancanada.org/ [email protected]
• Implications of interconnectedness for bringing back “lost’ FN fisheries;
• We need a fisheries economics that serves people and the environment – we need to move awy from i-fish to we-fish.
Thanks for your attention