| Fishery resources are of great value to both the world and China,however,they continue to decline,and the primary cause of the decline is due to poor governance.There is considerable disagreement at domestic and abroad as to which rights-based fishery management(RBM)system should be applied,and there is a lack of quantitative comparative analysis under the same standard,and a lack of research on the relationship between the ecological,economic,social and institutional dimensions of fishery,which make it difficult to design fishery governance system scientifically.Fishery is very crucial to safeguard China’s rights,socioeconomic interests,as well as ecosystem stability in South China Sea(SCS).However,there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic understanding of fishery governance in SCS.From the perspective of rightsbased fishery management theory and the fishery performance indicators(FPIs),this study took China’s fishery in SCS as case study.Furthermore,at global scale,the interactions between ecological,economic,social and institutional dimensions of fishery governance were quantitatively analyzed,and the relationships between three rights-based fishery management systems as well as the enabling factors of their governance performance were also quantitatively analyzed.This study analyzed the distribution characteristics and changing trend of fishery resource groups in SCS by combining climate,hydrology,submarine geology and geomorphology and other environmental factors,and sorted out the development,utilization and management status of fishery resources in SCS from the aspects of history and status quo,interests and conflicts,systems and policies.This study designed social investigations according to FPIs and collected data based on questionnaire survey,field trip,expert evaluation,literature review and non-structured interview.These data are used to evaluate the performances and enabling factors of China’s fishery governance in SCS.Based on these evaluation results,international comparative study was conducted with FPIs global data set.Finally,countermeasures and suggestions were put forward for China’s fishery governance in SCS.These are the findings:The unique trench-arc-basin system,the rich seafloor geomorphological types and the diverse temperature and salinity conditions contribute to the diverse fishery ecological environment and fishery resources in SCS.Fisheries in SCS have made an important contribution to the economic and social development of China and neighboring countries(regions).With the continuous improvement of fishing capacity and the hindrance to the development,utilization and management of fishery resources caused by sovereignty disputes in SCS,fishery resources in SCS have been declining in recent years.China has implemented a series of access right measures in SCS with the focus on safeguarding fishery interests and the stability of SCS surrounding areas and the goal of promoting sustainable development of fishery.China’ s governance of fishery in SCS has achieved relatively poor ecological performance,fairly good economic performance and considerably superior social performance under the condition of overall comparatively poor performance of enabling factors.Its ecological performance evaluation value is 2.88,which means the fishery resources and environment in SCS are in relatively poor health.This value is between median and lower quartile of the cases of developing countries,and between median and lower quartile of open access(OA)fishery systems and access right(AR)fishery systems.Its economic performance evaluation value is 3.49,which means the fishery in SCS has produced market benefits fairly efficiently.This value is between upper quartile and upper limit of developing countries,slightly higher than the world’s average,and between median and upper quartile of AR fishery systems.Its social performance evaluation value is 4.36,which means the fishery in SCS has brought considerably superior social benefits to Hainan practitioners comparing to other industries for local communities.This value is between upper quartile and upper limit of both developing countries and developed countries,as well as between upper quartile and upper limit of AR and harvest right(HR)fishery systems.The overall assessment value of the enabling factors was 2.87.Among them,the assessment value of macro factors is 2.70,which is between lower quartile and lower limit of developing countries and the three types of fishery systems.The enabling factors of the other four dimensions are all between median to upper quartile of developing countries,and between median and lower quartile of AR fishery systems.Respectively,the assessment value of property rights factors is 3.00,co-management factors is 2.67,administration factors is 2.69 and post-harvest factors is 3.29.Different fishery property rights systems have achieved different performance levels,and the failure of access rights is mainly reflected in economic and social performances.Overall,the best performing of the three types of fishery systems is the HR fishery systems,followed by AR fishery systems,and the worst is OA fishery systems.The AR fishery systems have only played a significant role in ecological performance,but have no significant advantage over the OA fishery system in terms of economic performance and social performance.There are no tradeoffs among fishery ecological,economic and social performances,instead,the pairwise correlation between performances are all positive under the three rights-based fisheries management systems,especially significant in the AR fishery system.The macro condition of the country where a fishery is located is the premise and basis to ensure the performance of fishery governance.On this basis,property rights system is the most important factor to improve the performances,followed by fishing community’s leadership & cohesion,data availability and analysis.Exogenous environmental factors and national governance in the macro factors are the most important enabling factors of ecological performance,and have significant effects on economic performance,and national environmental performance is the most important influencing factor of social performance,all these influences are positive.Property rights factors are the most important influencing factor of economic performance,and also a secondary significant factor of ecological performance,both influences are positive.Fishing community’s leadership & cohesion in the comanagement factors is the secondary significant factor affecting social performance,and also a significant factor affecting economic performance,both influences are positive.Data availability and analysis in the administration factors are the secondary significant factors of ecological and economic performances,both influences are positive.However,management methods in the administration factors have a significant negative effect on economic performance.Infrastructure in the post-harvest factors has a significant positive effect on economic and social performances,but it has a significant negative effect on ecological performance.In fact,the property rights system of harvest right fishery system is further enriched and strengthened on the basis of the property rights system of access right fishery system.The property rights performance of access right fishery system depends on the administration level,while the property rights performance of harvest right fishery system depends on the self-governance level of fishing communities and national economic conditions.Both AR and HR fishery system have implemented an input control system(i.e.access rights),and the HR fishery system has also implemented an output control system(i.e.harvest rights)based on this,and the input control system of the HR fishery system is more complete than that of the AR fishery system.Moreover,the access rights and harvest rights of HR fishery system are mutually supportive.In terms of management expenditure,the HR fishery system is the most,the AR fishery system is second,and the OA fishery system is the least.Management methods,data availability and analysis have significant positive effects on the property rights of AR fishery system,while fishing community’s leadership & cohesion and national economic conditions have significant positive effects on the property rights of HR fishery system.The suggestions for China’s governance of fishery resources in SCS are as follows: Firstly,improving the institution design of fishery governance with the main goal of improving ecological performance.Secondly,continuing to improve the design of the property rights of China’s current access right fishery system,but decisions on whether transfer to implement the property rights of harvest right fishery system should be made with great care.Last but not least,strengthening the leadership and cohesion of fishing communities and data acquisition and analysis should be the focus of future institution design. |
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