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INSTITUTIONS FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEMS: ECONOMIC INCENTIVES AND FISHERY MANAGEMENT
Author(s) -
Hanna Susan S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ecological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.864
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-5582
pISSN - 1051-0761
DOI - 10.1890/1051-0761(1998)8[s170:ifmeei]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - incentive , ecosystem , business , environmental resource management , scope (computer science) , ecosystem management , ecosystem services , ecosystem based management , resource management (computing) , marine ecosystem , fisheries management , ecology , economics , computer science , fishing , computer network , microeconomics , biology , programming language
The expansion of the scope of fishery management from single species to ecosystems requires more than a set of rules for multiple species. It requires sets of institutions and property rights regimes that reflect the attributes of the ecosystem and its human users, value ecosystem services as well as ecosystem commodities, and coordinate interest groups and managers on a broad ecosystem scale. Institutions that properly coordinate the human use of ecosystems have several functions. They must create management structures that promote the definition of multiple objectives and coordinate organizational tasks in a cost‐effective way. They must also create management processes that are legitimate, flexible, and promote socially appropriate time horizons that recognize intergenerational rights to resource use. Each of these functions has economic dimensions that are critical to their successful implementation. This paper identifies some of the important economic dimensions of resource management institutions that are embedded in both management structures and management processes. Close attention to these economic dimensions will be important to create compatibility between economic incentives and ecosystem objectives and design a workable institutional environment for marine ecosystems.