Abstract
Concerns about the sustainability of small-scale fisheries, and the equitable distribution of fisheries benefits, are wide-spread within government agencies, non-government organizations, and rural fishing communities throughout Pacific Island Countries and Territories. Addressing these concerns was given renewed impetus in recent years with the completion and adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). This global document enters a complex policy landscape within the Pacific region. In anticipation of its region-wide implementation, this chapter focuses on policy coherence; using Solomon Islands as a case we investigate the potential interplay of the SSF Guidelines with priority policies at the regional, national, and sub-national levels. We first examine the SSF Guidelines to identify 22 dominant themes, including human rights, adaptive capacity, and tenure rights. We then focus in on 11 on policy instruments known to directly influence small-scale fisheries governance; we examine to what extent and in which direction the small-scale fisheries themes are represented in these 11 regional, national, and sub-national policies. We find areas of incoherence in addition to nine themes that are relatively poorly represented (‘gaps’) in the current policy landscape. More positively, however, we also observe a large-scale overlap on many of the key themes. While our analysis is specific in its application to Solomon Islands, our approach to diagnose areas of incoherence and gaps is easily applicable to other countries. This type of policy-based analysis is a useful first step to understanding priorities and strategies for implementation, and in particular opportunities for the SSF Guidelines to prompt adjustment and transformation of existing policies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories commonly considered to comprise the Pacific region and are served by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, http://www.spc.int/en/about-spc/members.html; American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna.
References
Adams, T. (2012). The characteristics of Pacific Island small-scale fisheries. SPC Fisheries Newsletter, 138(May/August), 37–43.
Bailey, C. (1988). The political economy of marine fisheries development in Indonesia. Indonesia, 46, 25–38.
Bell, J., Kronen, M., Vunisea, A., Nash, W. J., Keeble, G., Demmke, A., Pontifex, S., & Andrefouet, S. (2009). Planning the use of fish for food security in the Pacific. Marine Policy, 33, 64–76.
Béné, C., Belal, E., Baba, M. O., Ovie, S., Raji, A., Malasha, I., & Njaya, F. (2009). Power struggle, dispute and alliance over local resources: Analyzing ‘democratic’ decentralization of natural resources through the lenses of Africa inland fisheries. World Development, 37(12), 1935–1950. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2009.05.003.
Béné, C., Hersoug, B., & Allison, E. H. (2010). Not by rent alone: Analyzing the pro-poor functions of small-scale fisheries in developing countries. Development Policy Review, 28(3), 325–358.
Carbone, M. (2008). Mission impossible: The European Union and policy coherence for development. Journal of European Integration, 30(3), 323–342.
Chuenpagdee, R. (2011). World small-scale fisheries: Contemporary visions. Delft: Eburon Academic Publishers.
Cohen, P., & Steenbergen, D. (2015). Social dimensions of local fisheries co-management in the coral triangle. Environmental Conservation, 42(3), 278–288. doi:10.1017/S0376892914000423.
Cohen, P., Evans, L., & Mills, M. (2012). Social networks supporting governance of coastal ecosystems in Solomon Islands. Conservation Letters, 5, 376–386. doi:10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00255.x.
CTI Secretariat. (2009). Regional plan of action; coral triangle initiative on coral reefs, fisheries and food security (CTI-CFF) (p. 42). Manado: Interim Regional CTI Secretariat.
Cuevas, S. C., Peterson, A., Robinson, C., & Morrison, T. H. (2016). Institutional capacity for long-term climate change adaptation: Evidence from land use planning in Albay, Philippines. Regional Environmental Change, 16(7), 2045–2058.
Cunningham, S., Neiland, A. E., Arbuckle, M., & Bostock, T. (2009). Wealth-based fisheries management: Using fisheries health to orchestrate sound fisheries policy in practice. Marine Resource Economics, 24(3), 271–287.
Davis, A., & Ruddle, K. (2012). Massaging the misery: Recent approaches to fisheries governance and the betrayal of small-scale fisheries. Human Organization, 71(3), 244–254.
den Hertog, L., & Stroß, S. (2013). Coherence in EU external relations: Concepts and legal rooting of an ambiguous term. European Foreign Affairs Review, 18(3), 373–388.
di Francesco, M. (2001). Process not outcomes in new public management? ‘Policy coherence’ in Australian government. The Drawing Board: An Australian Review of Public Affairs, 1(3), 103–116.
Evans, L., Cherrett, N., & Pemsl, D. (2011). Assessing the impact of fisheries co-management interventions in developing countries: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(8), 1938–1949. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.03.010.
FAO. (2015). Voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Forster, J., & Stokke, O. (1999). Coherence of policies towards developing countries: Approaching the problematique. In J. Forster & O. Stokke (Eds.), Policy coherence in development co-operation (pp. 16–57). London: Frank Cass.
Gillett, R. (2009). Fisheries in the economies of Pacific Island countries and territories. Mandaluyong City: Pacific Studies Series.
Gillett, R., & Cartwright, I. (2010). The future of Pacific Island fisheries. Noumea: Secretariat of the pacific community.
Govan, H., Tawake, A., Tabunakawai, K., Jenkins, A., Lasgorceix, A., Schwarz, A.-M., Aalbersberg, B., Manele, B., Vieux, C., Notere, D., Afzal, D., Techera, E., Rasalato, E. T., Sykes, H., Walton, H., Tafea, H., Korovulavula, I., Comley, J., Kinch, J., Feehely, J., Petit, J., Heaps, L., Anderson, P., Cohen, P., Ifopo, P., Vave, R., Hills, R., Tawakelevu, S., Alefaio, S., Meo, S., Troniak, S., Malimali, S., Kukuian, S., George, S., Tauaefa, T., Obed, T. (2009). Status and potential of locally-managed marine areas in the South Pacific: meeting nature conservation and sustainable livelihood targets through wide-spread implementation of LMMAs (p. 95). Suva.
Healy, J., & Hauirae, J. (2006). Bismarck Solomon seas ecoregion: Solomon islands’ fisheries, marine and coastal legislation and policy gap analysis (p. 67). Honiara.
Jacquet, J., & Pauly, D. (2008). Funding priorities: Big barriers to small-scale fisheries. Conservation Biology, 22(4), 832–835.
Jordan, G., & Harpin, D. (2006). The political costs of policy coherence: Constructing a rural policy for Scotland. Journal of Public Policy, 26(1), 21–41.
Kooiman, J. (2003). Governing as governance. London: Sage.
Lane, M. B. (2006). Towards integrated coastal management in Solomon Islands: Identifying strategic issues for governance reform. Ocean & Coastal Management, 49(7–8), 421–441.
May, P. J., Sapotichne, J., & Workman, S. (2006). Policy coherence and policy domains. The Policy Studies Journal, 34(3), 381–403.
Morrison, T. H. (2014). Developing a regional governance index: The institutional potential of rural regions. Journal of Rural Studies, 35, 101–111.
Morrison, T., & Lane, M. (2005). What ‘whole-of-government’ means for environmental policy and management: An analysis of the connecting government initiative. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 12(1), 47–54.
Nilsson, M., Zamparutti, T., Petersen, J. E., Nykvist, B., Rudberg, P., & McGuinn, J. (2012). Understanding policy coherence: Analytical framework and examples of sector–environment policy interactions in the EU. Environmental Policy and Governance, 22, 395–423.
Nisa, Z. (2014). Sharing the responsbility of the implementation of the new International voluntary guidelines for small-scale fisheries via regional and national networks. University of Rhode Island.
OECD. (1996). Building policy coherence: Tools and tensions. Paris: OECD.
Pinkerton, E., & Davis, R. (2015). Neoliberalism and the politics of enclosure in north American small-scale fisheries. Marine Policy, 61, 303–312.
Pomeroy, R. S., & Berkes, F. (1997). Two to tango: The role of government in fisheries co-management. Marine Policy, 21(5), 465–480. doi:10.1016/s0308-597x(97)00017-1.
Ratner, B. D., Cohen, P., Barman, B., Mam, K., Nagoli, J., & Allison, E. H. (2013). Governance of aquatic agricultural systems; analyzing representation, power and accountability. Ecology and Society, 18(4), 59.
Ruddle, K. (1998). The context of policy design for existing community-based fisheries management systems in the Pacific Islands. Ocean & Coastal Management, 40(2–3), 105–126.
Ruddle, K., Hviding, E., & Johannes, R. (1992). Marine resources management in the context of customary tenure. Marine Resource Economics, 7, 249–273.
Secretariat of the Pacific Community. (2015). A new song for coastal fisheries – pathways to change: The Noumea strategy (p. 14). Noumea.
Sen, S., & Nielsen, J. R. (1996). Fisheries co-management: A comparative analysis. Marine Policy, 20(5), 405–418.
Siriwardane-de Zoysa, R., & Hornidge, A.-K. (2016). Putting lifeworlds at sea: Studying meaning-making in marine research. Frontiers in Marine Science, 3(197). doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00197.
Song, A. M., & Chuenpagdee, R. (2015). A principle-based analysis of multilevel policy areas on inshore fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In S. Jentoft & R. Chuenpagdee (Eds.), Interactive governance for small-scale fisheries: Global reflections (pp. 435–456). Dordrecht: Springer.
Song, A. M., Chuenpagdee, R., & Jentoft, S. (2013). Values, images and principles: What they represent and how they may improve fisheries governance. Marine Policy, 40, 167–175.
Veron, J., Devantier, L. M., Turak, E., Green, A. L., Kininmonth, S., Stafford-Smith, M., & Perterson, N. (2009). Delineating the coral triangle. Galaxea. Journal of Coral Reef Studies, 11(2), 91–100.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cohen, P.J., Song, A.M., Morrison, T.H. (2017). Policy Coherence with the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Analysing Across Scales of Governance in Pacific Small-Scale Fisheries. In: Jentoft, S., Chuenpagdee, R., Barragán-Paladines, M., Franz, N. (eds) The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines. MARE Publication Series, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55074-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55074-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55073-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55074-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)