During the process by which the number of actors was increased manifold as a result of the development of civil society, the fisher community has lost prominence and importance, fading into the wide ...spectrum of interests with which it is competing to make its voice heard in decision-making bodies and in the media. This results in what could be termed the participation paradox—the greater the number of actors, the smaller the role each plays, and the lesser the importance of traditional sectors. Participation and devolution do not bear a linear relationship; greater devolution does not necessarily result in greater participation, a claim that has contributed to the processes of devolution being overvalued. Governance, as interaction between State, civil society and the market, paradoxically might not strengthen the most traditional of the interest groups.
This paper revolves around the role that food-from-the-sea plays in European maritime security. It aims to illustrate the links between food, fisheries, and maritime security by considering these as ...coexisting attributes of security in general and of maritime (in)security, in particular. The article analyzes three dimensions of this issue: the links between food security, maritime security and maritime policy; the principles that inspire the Common Fisheries Policy and their implications for the food system; and the complexity involved in the trade relations between European markets (EU) and non European suppliers (the case of Cape Verde). The relevant conclusions that can be established are i) the EU's food security policy shows little sign of changing the course of its fisheries policy objectives; ii) The different dimensions of the relationship between fisheries and food security should not be neglected. In fact, from a local perspective, the concept of food sovereignty could be applied to some of the European Union's coastal territories. Therefore, European decision-makers should not ignore the fact that subsistence fisheries are still a strategy in some European coastal areas, where access to maritime resources is the key to their economies.
•Food insecurity is not limited to the developing world.•EU ocean policy tackles food security challenges.•Ideological basis of food notion are seldom taken into consideration in EU policies.•Small scale fisheries are still a strategy in some European coastal areas.•EU documents on maritime and fisheries policies do not mention food sovereignty.
This article sets out to explore the extent to which the maritime policies that have been formulated in recent years are public policies on a par with other State-level policies, or whether the ...geographical domain where they are applied makes them exceptional. Maritime policy and territorial structure are very closely related, and it can be seen that maritime policies are beginning to shift towards the domain of State internal affairs, necessitating the rethinking of the way powers are distributed between territorial bodies that have the legal power to be involved in the formulation of these policies and some instruments, such as marine spatial planning.
This paper analyses how artisanal fleets in the South Atlantic Coast of Spain (Andalusia) are transformed at the macro-level by political and economic processes. The article will first describe the ...web of economic and political dynamics, and it will then outline several socioeconomic and cultural patterns of artisanal fleets, examining strategies that are used to encourage commercial specialisation, technological innovation, capitalisation and productive intensification. The resulting social conflict is also examined. From such a study, this essay intends to promote a theoretical debate concerning the importance of new conceptions of artisanal fishing today, a time when local and global processes are highly interconnected.
The fisheries sector is currently contending with the hectic development of its own political economy framework being convulsed by the dynamics of decentralisation. This process is enshrouded in an ...environment of economic globalisation, taking place against the backdrop of the governance approach. With this situation as the starting point, the main goal of this paper is to quantify the effects that the Spanish port devolution process might have on the Spanish fisheries sector through the use of a transfer function model; the volumes of landings at State ports of general interest and their cash value are taken as dependent variables.
El texto se articula en tres grandes apartados. En el primero de ellos se justifica el concepto de flotas artesanales con el que se trabaja, distinto al convencional tanto en la práctica burocrática ...como en los análisis económicos. A continuación, se presentan los principales procesos económicos de la pesca artesanal andaluza en la actualidad, a la luz de dinámicas macrorregionales de economía política: básicamente, la reestructuración de los flujos comerciales pesqueros en Andalucía y la Política de Pesca Comunitaria. La no renovación del Acuerdo de Pesca con Marruecos y las ayudas estructurales para la optimización de los equipos de pesca son referidas especialmente. En la tercera parte se presentan las iniciativas y estrategias de los pescadores, tanto económicas como políticas, de modo que, a pesar de los índices cuantitativos y macromagnitudes de la pesca andaluza, ponen de manifiesto las perspectivas de mantenimiento de la actividad extractiva y la reproducción social en su conjunto de la pesca artesanal, aunque transformada ésta en algunas de sus características convencionales. Metodológicamente, se usan las estadísticas oficiales y las macromagnitudes para elucidar tendencias macroeconómicas con efectos regionales; sin embargo, se atiende a dinámicas sociales que solamente pueden ser apreciadas a partir del trabajo de campo en localidades pesqueras. Se concluye que el sector pesquero andaluz ha conocido un proceso de artesanalización, aguzado en la coyuntura crítica reciente, y que al mismo tiempo muestra signos de transformaciones radicales en las culturas productivas y en las estrategias económicas, lo que tendrá efectos en las relaciones con los recursos y en las dinámicas bioeconómicas tradicionales de las pesquerías. Por ello, se hace necesaria particularmente una política de gestión de recursos. Así mismo, se muestra que el marco actual de la economía pesquera es socialmente paradójico, pues mientras que los pescadores han de responder a un marco incierto y amenazante, hay oportunidades para los agentes comercializadores, grandes empresarios del sector extractivo y algunas pesquerías de pequeño calado que forman parte del modelo artesanal.
The South Spanish Fisheries are concerned by negative tendencies from 1980s. Our proposal is to analyze the manner how artisanal fleets at South Atlantic Coast of Spain (Andalusia) are concerned by political and economic processes at macro level (regarding to South Europe and North Africa regional links). First, it is proposed a concept of artisanal fleets which incorporates different fisheries and is not usual in fishing bureaucracy. Then, a description of the web of economic dynamics in commercialization and political economy measures at the regional context is offered. The global factors are to be taken into account are the Common Fisheries Policy, in which Spain takes part from 1986. Specially, the extinction of Marocco/European Union Fisheries Agreement (December 1999) and the Public Financial Aids for the restitution and modernization of boats. Also the liberalization and globalization of commercial relationships between Europe and North Africa are to be analysed. A derivation from this scenary has been the fall of the fish prices at quayside, and the contextualization of fish production in a global food system. Second, the text addresses the local responses to the crises context. The goal is here to show the conflictive position of andalusian extractive sector in the new setting of political economy, and the opportunities for commercial agents. In any case, also there are possibilities to small fleets, because of existence of a demand of fresh fish based on quality. The more important effect of this dynamic upon the stakeholders strategies is the investments on new technologies with support of Strucural Aids, such as FIFG program and Pesca Inititative. When local and global processes are so interconnected as today a new focus is required, that intends to articulate macro-social dynamics and local agencies. Methodologically, this effort entails to pay attention both to statistics, data and quantitative analysis, and to local and vernacular socioeconomic dynamics. Therefore, the text is based upon the official statistics and upon the fieldwork and qualitative research tools. It is concluded that the result of this web of global and local processes is the intensification of extractive activity and the commercial specialisation, that relies now on the overexploitation of national grounds. In fact, the economic perspectives of the boatowners are threatened by the increasing of inputs (capitalisation to support a process of technologisation very acute, increasing of energetic prices and financial services) and by the decline of outputs, given the new tendencies of global market. So, the economic position of the fleet remains conflictive and the bio-economic balances can be concerned, so that a fisheries management must be activated from a local and regional perspective. So the article highlights both the paradox in which the artisanal fleet is concerned, and the importance of analysing this context by means of qualitative research tools.
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