Sustainability in New Zealand's quota management system: A convenient story. (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCormack, Fiona
• Is Part Of: Marine policy. Volume 80(2017)
• Page Start: 35
• Page End: 46
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: Individual Transferable Quota -- Sustainability -- Māori -- Neoliberalism; Marine resources -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Fisheries -- Periodicals; Ressources marines -- Aspect économique -- Périodiques; Pêches -- Périodiques; Fisheries; Marine resources -- Economic aspects; Periodicals; 333.916405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2016.06.022
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-597X

Abstract

Abstract: New Zealand's fisheries management institutions represent a globally recognised story of a successful sustainable management regime, an accolade perceived to be based on its early and comprehensive adoption of a quota management system (QMS). This article questions these assumptions. There are three main strands to the argument. First, that the interpretation of sustainability in the New Zealand QMS disregards the social while simultaneously accentuating a particularly neoliberal economic paradigm in which sustainability is directed towards sustaining the wealth generating potential of quota holdings. Second, while in theory there is a separation of biological and economic conceptions of sustainability in the QMS, these processes are, in fact, deeply intertwined. Third, that the sustainability brand works to legitimise the privatisation and marketization of marine environments, to protect the income stream of quota investors, and to effectively incorporate and discipline dissent. Highlights: ITQs were introduced to combat economic inefficiencies and overfishing. "Sustainability" in ITQs is aligned with neoliberal orthodoxy. Measurements of biological sustainability are directed towards economic goals. ITQs produce economic value through quota ownership and leasing, not harvesting.