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PROPERTY RIGHTS

Enforcing access restrictions to fishery zones

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 905–906 (2019)Cite this article

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Fisheries conservation requires restricting access to countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs), which is costly to monitor and enforce. A new analysis shows that unauthorized foreign fishing is indeed substantially lower just inside the EEZ boundary compared with just outside.

Englander’s results matter because enforcing access is a prerequisite for fisheries conservation. The “tragedy of the commons,” according to Garrett Hardin2, arises from a conflict between the private incentive to exploit a resource and the collective incentive to conserve it. Freedom on the commons, he said, “brings ruin to all”. To Hardin, the only reliable remedy was “mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.” In short, regulation underpinned by enforcement.

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References

  1. Englander, G. Nat. Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0389-9 (2019).

  2. Hardin, G. Science 162, 1243–1248 (1968).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ostrom, E. Governing the Commons (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990).

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  1. School of International and Public Affairs and Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Scott Barrett

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  1. Scott Barrett
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Correspondence to Scott Barrett.

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Barrett, S. Enforcing access restrictions to fishery zones. Nat Sustain 2, 905–906 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0403-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0403-2

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