Research

Small-scale fishing (SSF) communities in developing countries typically face high levels of poverty and vulnerability, coupled with a strong dependence on fishing resources. Fishing plays a central role as both a source of income and a means of ensuring food security. However, there is limited information on the relationships between household wellbeing, resource sustainability, and their interactions. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of SSF livelihoods by examining how key economic parameters influence the decision-making of fishing households. We develop a dynamic fishing household production model in which households make simultaneous decisions regarding consumption and production, incorporating the fact that fishing depends on a common-pool resource that fluctuates over time. The theoretical model is validated using data from the village of Barú, located in the Colombian Caribbean. The calibrated model allows for simulations of various policy scenarios affecting SSF management and household wellbeing, both with and without considering changes in fish stock. Our findings offer valuable insights for designing policies that support the sustainable use of marine resources while fostering the socioeconomic development of these communities.

Input subsidies reduce marginal costs, driving overexploitation and raising concerns about marine ecosystem sustainability—particularly in regions with high levels of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. We examine the impact of the fuel subsidies provision on fishing activity and unauthorized fishing following a reform of the fuel subsidy program introduced in 2016 by the Chinese government. The Chinese government has been known for providing a wide variety of subsidies within its economy to strengthen its economic position relative to other world economies. In 2016, China introduced a reform to its fuel subsidy program for fishing fleets due to high levels of subsidy expenditure, fuel consumption, and overfishing. Using the discontinuities introduced by the reform, we find that after the reform, the hours of unauthorized fishing increased, particularly in Taiwan and in disputed areas. Vessels that receive a greater amount of subsidies reduce their activity within national waters and increase their operations in foreign waters, potentially leading to overexploitation of fish stocks in international waters and conflicts with neighboring countries over disputed fishing grounds. The results suggest that subsidies decrease the level of compliance among fishers and encourage IUU fishing.

Colombia, a megadiverse country, harbors over 10\% of global biodiversity, much of it within the Amazon biome, which covers 43\% of its land. Despite its ecological importance, the region faces deforestation driven by land conversion, coca cultivation, illegal mining, and armed conflict, exacerbating biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Socioeconomic conditions in the biome both influence and are affected by these threats, yet data remains scarce. This study estimates indicators across four dimensions—socioeconomic, forest cover, water ecosystems, and socio-ecological conflicts—revealing precarious living conditions, especially for indigenous communities. Notably, areas with higher indigenous populations show greater forest conservation. The northwestern zone remains the most threatened.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an essential instrument for marine conservation, aimed at promoting the sustainable use of marine resources. In this study, we examine the dynamics and behavior of industrial fishing vessels in relation to MPAs, leveraging extensive global fishing data. Using a regression discontinuity design, we evaluate vessel compliance by analyzing their presence within MPAs through Automatic Identification System (AIS) data and satellite imagery. The main findings indicate that MPAs significantly reduce industrial fishing activity within their boundaries, with a more pronounced reduction observed in MPAs with higher levels of fishing protection. These findings hold true when using both satellite imagery and AIS data. Differences arise when focusing on regions such as Indonesia, the Horn of Africa, and the Central Caribbean, regions characterized as a hotspot for piracy events, good fishing conditions, and consequently, non-publicly tracked vessels. We also find that fishing efforts decrease within less productive MPAs, while no significant effects are observed in the more productive ones. Additionally, larger MPAs and those located farther from piracy-prone regions are more effective in controlling fishing activity.

The global health crisis has disrupted economic activities and posed significant challenges to fisheries management, control, and surveillance. In this paper, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on property rights in the context of unauthorized fishing activity providing theoretical and empirical evidences. This study investigates to what extent the pandemic has led to an increase in unauthorized fishing, potentially undermining existing property rights systems. To do so, we compile a comprehensive database with weekly, country-level fishing effort data for 146 countries before and during the COVID-19 lockdowns and international fishing access agreements data. We employ Differences in Differences approaches to shed light on the consequences of the pandemic for marine resource governance. The findings indicate that the stringency of the restrictions led to a decrease in authorized fishing efforts. However, unauthorized fishing hours increased, but we did not find any effects on the number of vessels engaged in unauthorized fishing due to the onset of the lockdowns. The increase in unauthorized fishing hours was higher in low- and middle-income countries, and in areas with a higher biodiversity index. These results inform the design of control policies by understanding the motivations of fishermen in low-monitoring scenarios.

Global change threatens socio-ecological systems, particularly in regions with rapid land use changes and competing demands for water, energy, and food. However, the impact of land use changes on the resilience of interconnected systems remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this study advances the Water-Energy- Food (WEF) nexus approach by integrating land as a central element, forming the Water-Energy-Land-Food (WELF) nexus. It introduces an analytical framework to quantify the effects of land use changes on nexus composition and resilience across spatial scales, from regional to local. The framework characterizes resilience as a macroscale property of the nexus using geospatial land use and land cover data and decomposes it into microscale components through a network approach, identifying how nexus elements and land use transfers among them influence resilience. The framework is applied to the Maria La Baja sub-watershed (2002–2018) in the Colombian Caribbean, during significant structural transformation. Results reveal scale-dependent variations in WELF nexus composition and resilience, with the Food element consistently enhancing resilience, while the contributions of Water and Energy vary by scale. Scenario analysis shows that a reduction in land use transfers consistently decreases resilience across scales. In contrast to literature, this study finds that increasing land use transfers does not always enhance resilience. While resilience theory can support balancing competing land demands and adapting socio-ecological systems to global change, this study emphasizes the need for careful characterization of nexus elements, interactions, and feedback loops, identifying a necessary condition for land use transfers interventions to enhance resilience effectively.