The Future of Our Inshore Fisheries
The Future of Our Inshore Fisheries Conference will be held in London on 8th/9th October. Your…
The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations
The NFFO and UKAFPO, the representative body for producer organisations in the UK, are to discuss ideas on the extension of the role of POs in the UK.
It has been agreed that a paper produced by the Federation provides a “useful and reasoned starting point” for talks
Producer organisations are a fixture in the management of fisheries in the UK. Over time their primary role has evolved from cooperative marketing (including managing the EU price intervention support mechanism) to the management of sectoral quotas on behalf of their members. Although wide variations in size, form and function are evident between the different POs, there is a widespread acknowledgement that they play a positive, and indeed pivotal, role within the fishing industry.
However, for a variety of reasons it would be a mistake for the fish producer organisations to rest on their laurels:
Producer Organisations can respond to this situation in a number of ways. They can:
If the third option is taken the NFFO has already produced two papers that provide a basis for discussion:
In these ideas lies the possibility of redefining the role of producer organisations as agents of a new CFP, relevant and purposeful, not just fearful and defensive.
Producer Organisations and an Expansion of Delegated Responsibilities
The strength of producer organisations lies in their proximity to the operational fishing vessels and their operators, and the opportunity that this provides to tailor management measures to reflect regional and fleet variations, such as the seasonality of different fisheries. This has provided the basis for delegated quota management responsibilities that are widely regarded as a highly successful model. This paper suggests that the experience of quota management in the UK and in other member states, should be the basis on which to build the mechanisms through which a transfer of responsibility from remote fisheries managers to the industry itself could be achieved.
Using this fundamental strength, it is possible to envisage a development and evolution of delegated responsibilities in which producer organisations could play an enhanced role. These could include:
All this presupposes an evolution and expansion of the PO role from delegated quota management to a range of other delegated responsibilities, including technical measures and fisheries management.
It goes without saying that the expansion of POs’ delegated responsibilities would go hand in hand with the quota management, marketing, industry reputation and other roles currently performed.
Code of Practice
Taking on these new responsibilities will require POs to present themselves as responsible, professional, and capable. It could be in their interest to draw up a code of practice based on current PO best practice that makes clear what is expected of them.
Institutional Capacity
If producer organisations are to take on a range of new responsibilities the question of capacity will have to be addressed. Coordinating and preparing sustainable fishing plans will be a time consuming business and could require a range of skill sets that not all POs currently hold or could afford.
If sustainable fishing plans are part of the CFP reform it is likely that they will be facilitated through permissive legislation that will allow those POs, or those member states, willing and able to proceed. There will be no “big bang” after which sustainable fishing plans will supersede prescriptive micro-management. The Commission has already signalled that the successor to the European Fisheries Fund, after 2013, will include provisions to provide finance for additional capacity to increase industry’s ability to shoulder additional delegated responsibilities. POs should prepare to position themselves to take advantage of this and indeed, through representations, to shape the form through which this kind of support is provided.
Delegated Responsibility and Reduced Administrative Costs
The European Court of Auditors report on the CFP has drawn attention to the absurdity that in some member states the cost of administrating fisheries exceeds the revenue generated by those fisheries. In the medium to long term, ways must be found of managing fisheries more cost-effectively.
Delegating responsibility from central administrators makes sense in terms of effective governance; however it makes even more sense in terms of fiscal prudence. Once established, delegated responsibility, within a system of approvals and audits, offers the prospect of simplified and cheaper fisheries administration.
Fleet Restructure
One of the persistent challenges for effective fisheries administration lies in ensuring a broad balance between fleet capacity and available resources. Against the background of historic levels of overcapacity and technological creep, a system of rights based management that embraces the whole (or the overwhelming) part of the fleet, in the type of arrangements described in this paper could become a powerful tool for making necessary adjustments to fleet capacity.