Valuing Coastal Habitat–Fishery Linkages under Regulated Open Access
Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1771, USA
Water 2019, 11(4), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040847
Received: 28 February 2019 / Revised: 4 April 2019 / Accepted: 10 April 2019 / Published: 23 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Resources Economics and Ecosystem Valuation)
This paper explores how regulation of an open access fishery influences the value of a coastal habitat that serves as breeding and nursery grounds. A model of the fishery supported by a coastal wetland is developed, which includes a quota rule that restricts harvest to a fixed proportion of the current stock. The model is applied to mangrove-dependent shellfish and demersal fisheries in Thailand. The value of the welfare effects associated with a change in a supporting coastal habitat is influenced significantly by whether or not the regulatory quota can adjust in response to these changes. Welfare losses are considerably higher when the quota is fixed as opposed to when it can be adjusted. With the restriction in place, effort cannot change to offset the decline in biomass, and as a result, there is a much larger fall in harvest. In addition, the welfare losses are much larger for the shellfish compared to the demersal fisheries. The analysis illustrates that imposing a regulatory rule on an open access fishery has important implications for valuing any linkage between coastal breeding and nursery habitat and a near-shore fishery.
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Keywords:
economic valuation; estuarine and coastal ecosystems; fishery; habitat–fishery linkages; mangroves; open access; regulated open access; quota; Thailand; wetlands
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Barbier, E.B. Valuing Coastal Habitat–Fishery Linkages under Regulated Open Access. Water 2019, 11, 847.
AMA Style
Barbier EB. Valuing Coastal Habitat–Fishery Linkages under Regulated Open Access. Water. 2019; 11(4):847.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarbier, Edward B. 2019. "Valuing Coastal Habitat–Fishery Linkages under Regulated Open Access" Water 11, no. 4: 847.
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