US News Reported 1st: The fishing industry offers a very strong business case for sustainability, but ironically, it is one of the most difficult industries to make sustainable in practice. This week, a new proposal was put forward to finance sustainability in the fishing industry. The proposal illustrates the kind of creative thinking that could finance a wide range of sustainability ideas, moving them from dreams to reality.
Fishing should be one of the easiest industries to make sustainable. All the participants share an incentive to avoid overfishing. When a fishery gets exhausted, individual fishers get less money, and their costs rise as they have to stay at sea for longer. Wholesalers and retailers lose revenue because they can’t meet demand. Consumers pay higher prices, and are forced to buy lower quality product. Nobody wins from overfishing.
Although the opportunity is obvious, the solution is elusive. Fishers have to agree to cut their catch dramatically for a few years to allow the fishery to recover. All the fishers in the affected area need to commit themselves to the program. If anyone cheats, the program will fail. If voluntary efforts cannot be trusted, catch limits need to be imposed by government or some other body.
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