0.19 Natural capital: fisheries  (Page 11/14)

Earth, air, fire and water: multiple natural resource issues in multiple dimensions

The mekong river

20th century economists, not to mention other social scientists and many natural scientists, rarely recognized and understood critical interactions between major societal issues and problems, even when they may have understood how each of these problems individually could overlap many nations at once.

Such is the case with the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. Here we find sustainability problems and potential solutions interacting to a remarkable degree along the 3,600 miles of the river. Serious water issues are of course involved. To complicate matters, there are 7 nations along the 313,000 square miles drainage area of the Mekong, which begins in South China and goes through Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, boarders Thailand and ends up flowing through Vietnam into the South China Sea.

Improbably, the formerly hermit Kingdom of Myanmar (formerly Burma) was the first (in 2012) to seriously challenge the threat to the Mekong’s water, forest and fisheries caused by plans for over 30 dams for hydropower along the Mekong, including 3 very large Chinese-financed dams. The search for alternative energy (hydropower) threatens to have ominous impact on fisheries in Southeast Asia.

Of the world’s rivers only the Amazon has more species of fish than the Mekong. No one really knows what the impact of three dams on Mekong might have on fisheries. The country most at risk from planned Chinese dams along the Mekong is Cambodia and the resource most endangered is fish. This is a serious matter, considering that 70% of the protein intake by Cambodians comes from fish caught in the Mekong and its great lake.

In 2014 some dams on the Mekong appear to be going ahead. Will all planned dams be built? Vietnam strongly opposes the largest dam (Vietnam will be far downstream of the dam). And Myanmar is now speaking out, but Cambodia and Laos have not opposed the dams, perhaps owing to China’s political influences in these nations.

Possible solutions to freshwater fish problems

Freshwater fisheries in China, Vietnam, Laos, Peru, and Sub-Saharan Africa- are most at risk. This is one reason why all countries must be very, very selective about hydroelectric dam projects on rivers that are important sources of protein.

Any solution to the kinds of problems facing the Mekong will require tight regulations and what is even more difficult, coordination of regulation across seven nations. Can regulation work under these circumstances? It has worked in the Alaska Halibut fishery, the Iceland fishery and the New Zealand fishery. But the outlook for effective regulation on the Mekong River or Lake Victoria in Africa is not good.

The reasons are traceable to Institutional problems, especially weak governance, corruption and rent-seeking activities of the kinds considered in chapter ___.

Consider how the Alaskan system has operated both in salt and fresh water (rivers).

Alaska commercial fisheries are the most productive and valuable in the U.S., with a value of over $3 billion including Halibut, Salmon and Herring. When combined with sport fishing, the industry contributes an estimated $7.4 billion and nearly 90,000 full-time equivalent jobs to the Alaskan economy. In 2010, Alaska produced 53% of the fish harvested in the United States “Alaska Economic Trends”, Alaska Department of Labor, November 11, Vol. 31(11), p.3. . This is the leading fishing state in the U.S. in one of the largest fishing nations worldwide. According to the FAO, the USA had the 4th highest catch in 2007. Alaska introduced ITQs in the late 20th century. How relevant to the Alaska experience for emerging nations fisheries? Between 1980 and 1995, the Alaska Halibut fisheries experienced severe strain, as the number of fishing vessels expanded rapidly.