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3 Concerns and Problems in Fisheries and Aquaculture – Exploring Governability
instance, in order to fully comprehend, represent and control the issues at hand, governance must occur where the problems are felt or where the opportunities appears,
and be conducted in cooperation with concerned stakeholders.
Complexity raises the issue of handling interrelationships and interdependencies. Any intervention into the system will have an effect on these linkages and may
thus change the way the whole system works. Stakeholders sometimes interact predictably and with patterns that are easy to understand. For example, once landed,
catches from large-scale fi sheries are typically sold to the main wholesalers in
accordance with prior arrangements. In this case, vessel owners have long and
established relationships with certain buyers and negotiations between them are
minimal. Sometimes these arrangements are institutionalized through vertical integration where transactions are internalized within one and the same enterprise. In
small fi shing villages where the majority of fi shing is conducted by individual
fi shers, the marketing system can be very complicated. Fishers or their wives and
children may sell their own catches to independent buyers or they may sell to certain
buyers, often as part of the loan agreement. One governability issue is to anticipate
and contain systemic, secondary effects. Another is that systems also have latent
functions, which are often dif fi cult to discern and account for. There is a risk of
unforeseen consequences and feedbacks that interfere with the way the system
works. For instance, when a common property is replaced by private property, it
may leave community members to fend for themselves on an individual basis.
Dynamics refers to the fact that systems may be unstable and that they evolve
over time. A major source of these dynamics is the interaction that occurs within
and between systems, as actors respond to each other and to shifting circumstances.
Governability here would then be expressed as the capacity and capability of systems to cope with internal demands and to mediate and accommodate external drivers. Internally we can think of con fl icts between stakeholders giving rise to
constructive or destructive interactions, either of which generates dynamics in the
system. Another example is how a governing system may lag behind the development in the system-to-be-governed, causing low governability. A system-to-be-governed that is able to resist or evade governing actions may similarly be a sign of low
governability. A governability assessment must therefore focus on how these systems function in vivo , as a living organism with uncertain and unpredictable
outcomes.
Further, fi sheries and aquaculture as natural systems, and the social and governance systems related to them, come in varying spatial and temporal scales. The
matching of scale in the operation of these systems is therefore another important
aspect that determines governability. Notably, a certain degree of overlap among
natural, social, economic, and political boundaries is expected for the system to
function. The extent to which this overlap occurs, particularly in the case of multiple
jurisdictions, is a governability issue. The extent of the overlap is likely a determining factor to the governability problem. How it plays out at the end of the day, and
how it may be addressed, is an empirical question.
The fi sheries and aquaculture governing system is a decision-making machine that
must relate to the diversity, complexity, dynamics and scale of the system-be-governed.
3 Concerns and Problems in Fisheries and Aquaculture – Exploring Governability
instance, in order to fully comprehend, represent and control the issues at hand, governance must occur where the problems are felt or where the opportunities appears,
and be conducted in cooperation with concerned stakeholders.
Complexity raises the issue of handling interrelationships and interdependencies. Any intervention into the system will have an effect on these linkages and may
thus change the way the whole system works. Stakeholders sometimes interact predictably and with patterns that are easy to understand. For example, once landed,
catches from large-scale fi sheries are typically sold to the main wholesalers in
accordance with prior arrangements. In this case, vessel owners have long and
established relationships with certain buyers and negotiations between them are
minimal. Sometimes these arrangements are institutionalized through vertical integration where transactions are internalized within one and the same enterprise. In
small fi shing villages where the majority of fi shing is conducted by individual
fi shers, the marketing system can be very complicated. Fishers or their wives and
children may sell their own catches to independent buyers or they may sell to certain
buyers, often as part of the loan agreement. One governability issue is to anticipate
and contain systemic, secondary effects. Another is that systems also have latent
functions, which are often dif fi cult to discern and account for. There is a risk of
unforeseen consequences and feedbacks that interfere with the way the system
works. For instance, when a common property is replaced by private property, it
may leave community members to fend for themselves on an individual basis.
Dynamics refers to the fact that systems may be unstable and that they evolve
over time. A major source of these dynamics is the interaction that occurs within
and between systems, as actors respond to each other and to shifting circumstances.
Governability here would then be expressed as the capacity and capability of systems to cope with internal demands and to mediate and accommodate external drivers. Internally we can think of con fl icts between stakeholders giving rise to
constructive or destructive interactions, either of which generates dynamics in the
system. Another example is how a governing system may lag behind the development in the system-to-be-governed, causing low governability. A system-to-be-governed that is able to resist or evade governing actions may similarly be a sign of low
governability. A governability assessment must therefore focus on how these systems function in vivo , as a living organism with uncertain and unpredictable
outcomes.
Further, fi sheries and aquaculture as natural systems, and the social and governance systems related to them, come in varying spatial and temporal scales. The
matching of scale in the operation of these systems is therefore another important
aspect that determines governability. Notably, a certain degree of overlap among
natural, social, economic, and political boundaries is expected for the system to
function. The extent to which this overlap occurs, particularly in the case of multiple
jurisdictions, is a governability issue. The extent of the overlap is likely a determining factor to the governability problem. How it plays out at the end of the day, and
how it may be addressed, is an empirical question.
The fi sheries and aquaculture governing system is a decision-making machine that
must relate to the diversity, complexity, dynamics and scale of the system-be-governed.