Paul Foley received a Ph.D. in Political Science from York University in 2012 after receiving an MA in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University in 2006 and a BA (Hons) (First Class) in History from Memorial University in 2005. His Ph.D. dissertation won the Yumiko Iida Memorial Ph.D. Prize for the best Ph.D. dissertation in Political Science at York University and was nominated for the University-wide York University Dissertation Prize.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the Environmental Policy Institute at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. His areas of theoretical interest include international and comparative political economy, political ecology, development and environmental change, environmental politics and policy, market-oriented environmental policy and governance, and global environmental governance. Most of his empirical work has focused on the relationship between social-ecological transformation and fisheries, seafood and oceans policy and governance.
The purpose of this article is to deepen analyses of life production relations that are of centra... more The purpose of this article is to deepen analyses of life production relations that are of central concern to the feminist global political economy frameworks around which this special issue is organized. While the original approach recognized ecological relations in its methodological synthesis of power, production, and social reproduction, most subsequent research engaging the approach focuses on areas such as household labor, health care, education, migration, and macroeconomic governance. Much less work, however, analyzes relations between capital accumulation and ecological life-producing relations that ultimately sustain human and non-human life. The article draws on elements of a ‘world-ecology’, commodity frontier perspective, to argue for the integration of primary – ecological – production of the substance of life into the power, production, and social reproduction global political economy framework. The article draws on this synthesis to conduct a long-term analysis of one of the earliest commodity frontiers in capitalist history, Newfoundland fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Through an analysis of changing patterns of ecological production, household and community reproduction, state enclosure of ocean life production, and world market shifts, the article suggests that we need to move beyond narrow consequentialist analyses of the role of capital accumulation in ecological exhaustion toward broader, integrated analyses of change that reveal dynamic and perhaps more hopeful struggles and potential for sustainable and progressive conditions of intergenerational social-ecological reproduction.
An interdisciplinary team of academics and representatives of fishing fleets and government colla... more An interdisciplinary team of academics and representatives of fishing fleets and government collaborated to study the emerging requirements for sustainability in Canada's fisheries. Fisheries assessment and management has focused on biological productivity with insufficient consideration of social (including cultural), economic, and institutional (governance) aspects. Further, there has been little discussion or formal evaluation of the effectiveness of fisheries management. The team of over 50 people (i) identified a comprehensive set of management objectives for a sustainable fishery system based on Canadian policy statements, (ii) combined objectives into an operational framework with relevant performance indicators for use in management planning, and (iii) undertook case studies that investigated some social, economic, and governance aspects in greater detail. The resulting framework extends the suite of widely accepted ecological aspects (productivity and trophic structure, biodiversity, and habitat-ecosystem integrity) to include comparable economic (viability and prosperity, sustainable livelihoods, distribution of access and benefits, regional-community benefits), social (health and well-being, sustainable communities, ethical fisheries), and institutional (legal obligations, good governance structure, effective decision-making) aspects of sustainability. This work provides a practical framework for implementation of a comprehensive approach to sustainability in Canadian fisheries. The project also demonstrates the value of co-construction of collaborative research and co-production of knowledge that combines and builds on the strengths of academics, industry, and government.
Most fisheries assessments focus on biological and ecological conditions, fishery impacts and per... more Most fisheries assessments focus on biological and ecological conditions, fishery impacts and performance. Economic and social conditions and outcomes, however, are rarely explicitly tracked or evaluated. Using data from the Canadian northern shrimp inshore fleet, from employment statistics, and from Newfoundland and Labrador municipal budgets, this paper examines links between harvesting and post-harvesting economic activities and municipal infrastructure and services within adjacent onshore communities. The broad geographic distribution of home ports and landing destinations resulted in extensive economic ripple effects in areas such as food retail, shipyard maintenance and fuel services, which amounted to almost $9,000,000 in onshore expenditures distributed among 15 landing ports in 2014. Additionally, because tax payments from shrimp processing plants impact municipal budgets and services, the findings show that community-level benefits can be tracked and measured, with the implication that fisheries management objectives, such as supporting adjacent communities, are also achievable and measurable. While the impacts from a recent decline of the northern shrimp inshore fishery are stark for adjacent communities, the two decades of substantial contributions from this fishery were made possible because policy decisions at both the provincial and the federal level were explicitly developed to support fishing communities.
This paper reframes the ocean-grabbing literature by moving beyond accounts where small-scale pro... more This paper reframes the ocean-grabbing literature by moving beyond accounts where small-scale producers and communities are portrayed as only victims of states and capital. While state and corporate efforts to 'grab' resources require critical attention, the literature on ocean grabbing risks obscuring the multidimensional relations of less powerful agents. This paper engages access analysis to reveal complex spatial, social and political processes of inclusion/exclusion and roles of agents such as small-scale producers, trade unions, fishing communities and Indigenous people. Using the case of a circumpolar shrimp species, the paper examines how actors and interests in Canada legitimize access by asserting a form of terraqueous territoriality through claims of adjacency rights – the idea that people living on land contiguous to marine resources ought to have priority in developing these resources. Assertions of terraqueous territoriality enhance opportunities for marginalized groups to gain state endorsement of resource claims, but such assertions are contingent on other factors and progressively tenuous as the mobility and geographical distribution of marine species increases. The paper suggests that contingent ecological and social forces that influence access should receive greater analytical attention, particularly as climate change transforms spatial relations between land-based interests and mobile marine species.
We use a Foucault-inspired environmentalities analytical lens to conceptualize alternative sustai... more We use a Foucault-inspired environmentalities analytical lens to conceptualize alternative sustainability auditing frameworks. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) claims to administer the international gold standard for sustainability evaluation of fisheries, yet the livelihoods of many people who depend on Canada’s first MSC-certified fishery are in serious jeopardy. After decades of growth that helped fishers and coastal communities alleviate the social consequences of the infamous cod collapse, the northern shrimp fishery in eastern Canada is experiencing ecological change and social conflict over the distribution of quota reductions. However, recent disputes over the distribution, and social consequences, of quota reductions in this fishery are completely invisible in assessment and auditing documents for the successful recertification of the fishery to the MSC’s standard for “sustainable and well managed fisheries” in 2016. We draw upon aspects of an alternative assessment framework to highlight information and knowledge that a socially attentive sustainability audit of this fishery might consider. The alternative auditing framework renders visible social dimensions of Canada’s northern shrimp fishery, including government decision making that incorporates ethical and moral economy principles, the distribution of access to various interests, uses of access benefits for regional and community development purposes, and conflict over policy and resource access during a period of resource decline and dispossession. Although the spread of auditing frameworks across natural resource sectors tends to reinforce neoliberal interests and undermine social justice aims, we argue that the development of alternative assessment frameworks that clearly make visible materialist social development relationship and knowledge can enable action in support of social justice objectives.
Access, defined as the ability to use and benefit from available marine resources or areas of the... more Access, defined as the ability to use and benefit from available marine resources or areas of the ocean or coast, is important for the well-being and sustainability of coastal communities. In Canada, access to marine resources and ocean spaces is a significant issue for many coastal and Indigenous communities due to intensifying activity and competition in the marine environment. The general trend of loss of access has implications for these communities, and for Canadian society. In this review and policy perspective, we argue that access for coastal and Indigenous communities should be a priority consideration in all policies and decision-making processes related to fisheries and the ocean in Canada. This paper reviews how access affects the well-being of coastal communities, factors that support or undermine access, and research priorities to inform policy. Recommended actions include: ensuring access is transparently considered in all ocean-related decisions; supporting research to fill knowledge gaps on access to enable effective responses; making data accessible and including communities in decision-making that grants or restricts access to adjacent marine resources and spaces; ensuring updated laws, policies and planning processes explicitly incorporate access considerations; and, identifying and prioritizing actions to maintain and increase access. Taking action now could reverse the current trend and ensure that coastal and Indigenous communities thrive in the future. This is not just a Canadian issue. Globally, the ability of coastal and Indigenous communities to access and benefit from the marine environment should be at the forefront in all deliberations related to the oceans.
Fisheries sustainability is recognized to have four pillars: ecological, economic, social (includ... more Fisheries sustainability is recognized to have four pillars: ecological, economic, social (including cultural) and institutional (or governance). Although international agreements , and legislation in many jurisdictions, call for implementation of all four pillars of sustainability, the social, economic and institutional aspects (i.e., the "human di-mensions") have not been comprehensively and collectively addressed to date. This study describes a framework for comprehensive fisheries evaluation developed by the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN) that articulates the full spectrum of ecological, economic, social and institutional objectives required under
To contribute to the literature on transnational sustainability governance hybrids, a new fisheri... more To contribute to the literature on transnational sustainability governance hybrids, a new fisheries certification program in Iceland that was originally developed as an alternative to the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council is examined. While this new program appears on the surface to constitute a purely nationalistic reaction against external non-state authority, the new governance institution is also non-governmental and incorporates international norms and institutions. To explain this new governance hybrid, Robert Cox’s International Political Economy approach to production and power is engaged. This approach theorizes the co-constitution of the social forces of production, state–society complexes and global governance. It is argued that the Icelandic case is not entirely localized or unique; it is part of a broader movement in which social forces of production respond to new market-oriented transnational sustainability governance institutions by developing territorially embedded but transnationally legitimate alternatives.
Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as ... more Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, palm oil, and soy. In each, multiple eco-certification initiatives have been developed and resisted through interactions among non-governmental organizations, governments, and commercial actors. This paper contributes to understanding how power is embodied in certifications by exploring how territoriality manifests in the international struggle over defining what products are ‘sustainable’ and which producers will have access to markets that require ‘sustainable’ products. Focusing on the wild capture fisheries sector in which the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) administers the preeminent eco-certification initiative, we explore the emergence of new fisheries eco-certification initiatives in Japan, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, and the US that insist there is no transnational monopoly on judgments over fisheries sustainability. We argue that these new eco-certifications attempt to defend and embed territorial social and regulatory relations of production within the contested domain of transnational sustainability governance. The initiatives accommodate both the territorially embedded material interests, institutions, and discursive strategies of producers (and their state supporting agencies) and transnationally embedded governance norms for assessing and communicating sustainability. They also counter the globally applicable institutions of the MSC in favor of making space for state and non-state actors to contend with demands for sustainability in the global seafood market by combining place-specific attributes with transnational governance norms.
This report is part of a larger research program examining the relationship between fisheries pol... more This report is part of a larger research program examining the relationship between fisheries policy and regional development in Atlantic Canada’s northern shrimp fisheries. Since the extension of Canadian jurisdiction over its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1977, federal policy makers have allocated shrimp licenses and quotas to cooperatives, community based organizations, inshore fish harvesters, large fishing companies as well as Indigenous groups. However, our knowledge of the relationship between fisheries policy and regional development outcomes in this fishery remains very limited, with the exception of case studies of a few organizations and regions in southeast Labrador and in Newfoundland. Despite the long history of substantial allocations of shrimp in northern Labrador/Nunatsiavut,1 we know little about how effective allocation policies have been in meeting regional development goals for Indigenous communities in the region (Figure 1). The objective of this research is to build on and extend our larger research project by identifying allocation policies that have enabled Nunatsiavut communities, and people to benefit from the shrimp fishery and to identify those development benefits in a systematic way. The research findings help us meet two further practical objectives: to provide research evidence to inform federal, provincial, and municipal policymaking and decision-making and to assist regional bodies and community groups in their decision-making and activities aimed at improving social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions.
Community use rights are rarely considered to be an economically viable or efficient option in co... more Community use rights are rarely considered to be an economically viable or efficient option in conventional fisheries management policy. Our analysis challenges this view by pointing to the positive economic and social outcomes of community use rights in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We argue that resources allocated to community-based organizations can be used to build “community economies,” in the theoretical vocabulary of J. K. Gibson-Graham. By combining insights of Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies framework with an empirical analysis of how ethical decision making helped build and sustain community economies in three fishing regions, the article promotes the allocation of new community use rights in fisheries and beyond.
Critical analyses of neoliberalism׳s influence on fisheries governance have documented how enclos... more Critical analyses of neoliberalism׳s influence on fisheries governance have documented how enclosure, quota leasing and renting, and commodification can precipitate negative social consequences for fishing communities. By contrast, this paper draws on the concept of embeddedness to argue that certain policies and social relations can regulate enclosure, quota renting, and commodification in ways that empower community-based groups to facilitate the anchoring of fishery resources and wealth in coastal communities. It does so through an analysis of northern shrimp fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, between the 1970s and the early 2000s. This case study illustrates how fisheries enclosure policies informed by geographically and morally defined principles of access and equity and limits on commodification can meaningfully embed fishery resources and benefits in rural and remote coastal regions that depend on small-scale fishing. Although the application of social principles continues to be marginalized in the context of neoliberal policy regimes that privilege individual economic efficiency over distributive concerns, this paper provides new insight into the conditions under which principles of ethical allocation and distribution of resources are able to persist through an era of neoliberalism.
We examine new dynamics of privatization and collective action in common pool resource situations... more We examine new dynamics of privatization and collective action in common pool resource situations facilitated by the nonstate multistakeholder institutions of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the global leader in sustainability certification for wild caught seafood. Through a review of the literature and two case studies of fishing cooperatives in Baja California Sur, Mexico and on Fogo Island in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), we advance two interrelated arguments. First, certification and eco-labeling institutions privatize fisheries governance in largely unexamined ways through the injection of new forms of exclusive rights or privileges into common pool resource situations already complicated by access and property privileges, creating conditions for confusion and conflict as well as cooperation. Second, the MSC whole stock definition of sustainability places greater demands on certification clients for engaging in collective action by encouraging coordination over all social extractions from targeted fish stocks. Although rules encouraging collective action in common pool situations militate against the narrow private capture of certificate and eco-label rights, they also undermine the ability of small-scale and community-based fisheries that are embedded in larger unhealthy fishery contexts to acquire the right to the MSC stamp of sustainability. We conclude that MSC certification and eco-labeling create new institutions of private property rights and collective action, which can result in exclusionary practices, inclusionary collective action, or both. Much will depend on the specific common pool context and history of the fishery.
Transnational certification and ecolabeling programs have become an important new site of environ... more Transnational certification and ecolabeling programs have become an important new site of environmental governance, as well as an emerging arena for action and conflict in international trade. This paper explores the implementation of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification in salmon fisheries in the US state of Alaska in the early 2000s, the growing opposition within the industry to MSC certification through periods of reassessment, and the emergence of an alternative Alaska certification initiative in 2011. It suggests that these shifts were rooted in struggles over understudied third-party certification and labeling processes that we conceptualize as marketized governance. The paper further shows how certification and labeling can obscure and expose competing industry interests and power relations, provoke struggles over fisheries’ social representation, and open up novel avenues for cooperation and change, indicating ambiguity in the social and cultural implications of neoliberal modes of governance. Finally, the paper suggests that the ascendancy of the MSC has sparked the emergence of new political and economic geographies of certification and ecolabeling in Alaska and other jurisdictions where place‑specific and other initiatives vie for governance and market legitimacy.
Over the last decade, the proliferation of social and environmental certification programmes has ... more Over the last decade, the proliferation of social and environmental certification programmes has attracted the attention of a growing number of political scientists interested in new forms of ‘private’ transnational governance. However, we still lack analyses on the nature and extent of different state responses to and involvement in new private transnational governance arrangements in particular sectors and in different jurisdictions. This article advances our understanding of the interactions between nation-state and private transnational modes of governance by analysing the role of national government authorities in Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries certification in Atlantic Canada, known more for the disastrous collapse of Northern cod stocks than good marine stewardship. Focusing on the 2008 certification of Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) fisheries off the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the analysis finds that the implementation and maintenance of MSC certification in this case depended on significant support from government authorities. The delicate legitimacy of both authorities faces a period of uncertainty in this case since some certified shrimp stocks appear to be in decline and perhaps also migrating northward off Newfoundland and Labrador.
The sustainability of coastal regions in Newfoundland and Labrador has long been tied to changes ... more The sustainability of coastal regions in Newfoundland and Labrador has long been tied to changes in fisheries policies (Sinclair 1989). This report presents a detailed comparative study of the relationship between fisheries resource allocation policies in the northern shrimp fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador and regional development in key regions with substantial dependence on shrimp. The project explores how three different types of northern shrimp allocations influenced regional development in the areas of southeast Labrador, the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, and Fogo Island. Drawing on secondary sources and 54 in depth interviews, we found that shrimp allocation policy guided by the principles of adjacency and regional economic development goals resulted in the establishment of two innovative community-based organizations in southeast Labrador and the Northern Peninsula, and strengthened a third organization on Fogo Island. These organizations used relatively small shrimp allocations to help sustain local inshore and nearshore owner-operator fisheries within these regions, created or sustained employment for processing workers during a period of dramatic social-ecological restructuring triggered by the collapse of regional groundfish stocks in the early 1990s, helped sustain the tax base for regional communities and, to varying degrees, contributed to broader regional economic diversification and development outcomes.
These three case studies demonstrate that fisheries policies that clearly allocate resource shares to community-based organizations – with a mandate to use these resources and the profits/royalties they generate for regional economic development – can support viable fisheries and other industries that play a crucial role in the development of socially sustainable and resilient fisheries communities even in remote regions that are located far from larger populations and confront significant transportation and other challenges. The successes that we document in this report are based on business models that emphasize a holistic approach to regional economic development. Royalties are used to diversify coastal regions for long-term economic and social sustainability. While profitability remains a central goal, the business models of these community-based organisations stress the need for long-term economic and social sustainability, rather than short term profit. In this way, the three cases in this study provide strong evidence for the role that community-based organisations can play in developing successful business models in remote coastal communities. Outcomes of allocation policies in these cases measure up well against the objectives of social sustainability contained in various fisheries management frameworks in Canada and around the world. The results of this study suggest that community-based fishery allocations and shares should play a stronger role in fisheries policies in the future here and elsewhere.
In August 2008, the Northern shrimp, a prey of the iconic cod, became the first species managed b... more In August 2008, the Northern shrimp, a prey of the iconic cod, became the first species managed by the Canadian government to meet the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) standard for ‘sustainable and well-managed’ fisheries. Using the Northern shrimp fishery as a case study, this paper argues that rather than being simply a tool for sustainability or even earning market access, MSC certification allows fishery ‘clients’– those organizations that ultimately hold the MSC certificate – to control resource access and production relations. The processing association that acted as the initial client in this fishery gained new members by sharing access to certification in 2009 and expelled a community-based fishing co-operative from the client group in 2010. Certification dynamics in this case reflected, and were used to reinforce, a highly competitive political economy of production. These dynamics may have implications for future resource access, since shrimp stocks appear to be declining in key areas after three decades of growth.
The purpose of this article is to deepen analyses of life production relations that are of centra... more The purpose of this article is to deepen analyses of life production relations that are of central concern to the feminist global political economy frameworks around which this special issue is organized. While the original approach recognized ecological relations in its methodological synthesis of power, production, and social reproduction, most subsequent research engaging the approach focuses on areas such as household labor, health care, education, migration, and macroeconomic governance. Much less work, however, analyzes relations between capital accumulation and ecological life-producing relations that ultimately sustain human and non-human life. The article draws on elements of a ‘world-ecology’, commodity frontier perspective, to argue for the integration of primary – ecological – production of the substance of life into the power, production, and social reproduction global political economy framework. The article draws on this synthesis to conduct a long-term analysis of one of the earliest commodity frontiers in capitalist history, Newfoundland fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Through an analysis of changing patterns of ecological production, household and community reproduction, state enclosure of ocean life production, and world market shifts, the article suggests that we need to move beyond narrow consequentialist analyses of the role of capital accumulation in ecological exhaustion toward broader, integrated analyses of change that reveal dynamic and perhaps more hopeful struggles and potential for sustainable and progressive conditions of intergenerational social-ecological reproduction.
An interdisciplinary team of academics and representatives of fishing fleets and government colla... more An interdisciplinary team of academics and representatives of fishing fleets and government collaborated to study the emerging requirements for sustainability in Canada's fisheries. Fisheries assessment and management has focused on biological productivity with insufficient consideration of social (including cultural), economic, and institutional (governance) aspects. Further, there has been little discussion or formal evaluation of the effectiveness of fisheries management. The team of over 50 people (i) identified a comprehensive set of management objectives for a sustainable fishery system based on Canadian policy statements, (ii) combined objectives into an operational framework with relevant performance indicators for use in management planning, and (iii) undertook case studies that investigated some social, economic, and governance aspects in greater detail. The resulting framework extends the suite of widely accepted ecological aspects (productivity and trophic structure, biodiversity, and habitat-ecosystem integrity) to include comparable economic (viability and prosperity, sustainable livelihoods, distribution of access and benefits, regional-community benefits), social (health and well-being, sustainable communities, ethical fisheries), and institutional (legal obligations, good governance structure, effective decision-making) aspects of sustainability. This work provides a practical framework for implementation of a comprehensive approach to sustainability in Canadian fisheries. The project also demonstrates the value of co-construction of collaborative research and co-production of knowledge that combines and builds on the strengths of academics, industry, and government.
Most fisheries assessments focus on biological and ecological conditions, fishery impacts and per... more Most fisheries assessments focus on biological and ecological conditions, fishery impacts and performance. Economic and social conditions and outcomes, however, are rarely explicitly tracked or evaluated. Using data from the Canadian northern shrimp inshore fleet, from employment statistics, and from Newfoundland and Labrador municipal budgets, this paper examines links between harvesting and post-harvesting economic activities and municipal infrastructure and services within adjacent onshore communities. The broad geographic distribution of home ports and landing destinations resulted in extensive economic ripple effects in areas such as food retail, shipyard maintenance and fuel services, which amounted to almost $9,000,000 in onshore expenditures distributed among 15 landing ports in 2014. Additionally, because tax payments from shrimp processing plants impact municipal budgets and services, the findings show that community-level benefits can be tracked and measured, with the implication that fisheries management objectives, such as supporting adjacent communities, are also achievable and measurable. While the impacts from a recent decline of the northern shrimp inshore fishery are stark for adjacent communities, the two decades of substantial contributions from this fishery were made possible because policy decisions at both the provincial and the federal level were explicitly developed to support fishing communities.
This paper reframes the ocean-grabbing literature by moving beyond accounts where small-scale pro... more This paper reframes the ocean-grabbing literature by moving beyond accounts where small-scale producers and communities are portrayed as only victims of states and capital. While state and corporate efforts to 'grab' resources require critical attention, the literature on ocean grabbing risks obscuring the multidimensional relations of less powerful agents. This paper engages access analysis to reveal complex spatial, social and political processes of inclusion/exclusion and roles of agents such as small-scale producers, trade unions, fishing communities and Indigenous people. Using the case of a circumpolar shrimp species, the paper examines how actors and interests in Canada legitimize access by asserting a form of terraqueous territoriality through claims of adjacency rights – the idea that people living on land contiguous to marine resources ought to have priority in developing these resources. Assertions of terraqueous territoriality enhance opportunities for marginalized groups to gain state endorsement of resource claims, but such assertions are contingent on other factors and progressively tenuous as the mobility and geographical distribution of marine species increases. The paper suggests that contingent ecological and social forces that influence access should receive greater analytical attention, particularly as climate change transforms spatial relations between land-based interests and mobile marine species.
We use a Foucault-inspired environmentalities analytical lens to conceptualize alternative sustai... more We use a Foucault-inspired environmentalities analytical lens to conceptualize alternative sustainability auditing frameworks. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) claims to administer the international gold standard for sustainability evaluation of fisheries, yet the livelihoods of many people who depend on Canada’s first MSC-certified fishery are in serious jeopardy. After decades of growth that helped fishers and coastal communities alleviate the social consequences of the infamous cod collapse, the northern shrimp fishery in eastern Canada is experiencing ecological change and social conflict over the distribution of quota reductions. However, recent disputes over the distribution, and social consequences, of quota reductions in this fishery are completely invisible in assessment and auditing documents for the successful recertification of the fishery to the MSC’s standard for “sustainable and well managed fisheries” in 2016. We draw upon aspects of an alternative assessment framework to highlight information and knowledge that a socially attentive sustainability audit of this fishery might consider. The alternative auditing framework renders visible social dimensions of Canada’s northern shrimp fishery, including government decision making that incorporates ethical and moral economy principles, the distribution of access to various interests, uses of access benefits for regional and community development purposes, and conflict over policy and resource access during a period of resource decline and dispossession. Although the spread of auditing frameworks across natural resource sectors tends to reinforce neoliberal interests and undermine social justice aims, we argue that the development of alternative assessment frameworks that clearly make visible materialist social development relationship and knowledge can enable action in support of social justice objectives.
Access, defined as the ability to use and benefit from available marine resources or areas of the... more Access, defined as the ability to use and benefit from available marine resources or areas of the ocean or coast, is important for the well-being and sustainability of coastal communities. In Canada, access to marine resources and ocean spaces is a significant issue for many coastal and Indigenous communities due to intensifying activity and competition in the marine environment. The general trend of loss of access has implications for these communities, and for Canadian society. In this review and policy perspective, we argue that access for coastal and Indigenous communities should be a priority consideration in all policies and decision-making processes related to fisheries and the ocean in Canada. This paper reviews how access affects the well-being of coastal communities, factors that support or undermine access, and research priorities to inform policy. Recommended actions include: ensuring access is transparently considered in all ocean-related decisions; supporting research to fill knowledge gaps on access to enable effective responses; making data accessible and including communities in decision-making that grants or restricts access to adjacent marine resources and spaces; ensuring updated laws, policies and planning processes explicitly incorporate access considerations; and, identifying and prioritizing actions to maintain and increase access. Taking action now could reverse the current trend and ensure that coastal and Indigenous communities thrive in the future. This is not just a Canadian issue. Globally, the ability of coastal and Indigenous communities to access and benefit from the marine environment should be at the forefront in all deliberations related to the oceans.
Fisheries sustainability is recognized to have four pillars: ecological, economic, social (includ... more Fisheries sustainability is recognized to have four pillars: ecological, economic, social (including cultural) and institutional (or governance). Although international agreements , and legislation in many jurisdictions, call for implementation of all four pillars of sustainability, the social, economic and institutional aspects (i.e., the "human di-mensions") have not been comprehensively and collectively addressed to date. This study describes a framework for comprehensive fisheries evaluation developed by the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN) that articulates the full spectrum of ecological, economic, social and institutional objectives required under
To contribute to the literature on transnational sustainability governance hybrids, a new fisheri... more To contribute to the literature on transnational sustainability governance hybrids, a new fisheries certification program in Iceland that was originally developed as an alternative to the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council is examined. While this new program appears on the surface to constitute a purely nationalistic reaction against external non-state authority, the new governance institution is also non-governmental and incorporates international norms and institutions. To explain this new governance hybrid, Robert Cox’s International Political Economy approach to production and power is engaged. This approach theorizes the co-constitution of the social forces of production, state–society complexes and global governance. It is argued that the Icelandic case is not entirely localized or unique; it is part of a broader movement in which social forces of production respond to new market-oriented transnational sustainability governance institutions by developing territorially embedded but transnationally legitimate alternatives.
Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as ... more Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as forestry, fisheries, aquaculture, palm oil, and soy. In each, multiple eco-certification initiatives have been developed and resisted through interactions among non-governmental organizations, governments, and commercial actors. This paper contributes to understanding how power is embodied in certifications by exploring how territoriality manifests in the international struggle over defining what products are ‘sustainable’ and which producers will have access to markets that require ‘sustainable’ products. Focusing on the wild capture fisheries sector in which the non-governmental Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) administers the preeminent eco-certification initiative, we explore the emergence of new fisheries eco-certification initiatives in Japan, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, and the US that insist there is no transnational monopoly on judgments over fisheries sustainability. We argue that these new eco-certifications attempt to defend and embed territorial social and regulatory relations of production within the contested domain of transnational sustainability governance. The initiatives accommodate both the territorially embedded material interests, institutions, and discursive strategies of producers (and their state supporting agencies) and transnationally embedded governance norms for assessing and communicating sustainability. They also counter the globally applicable institutions of the MSC in favor of making space for state and non-state actors to contend with demands for sustainability in the global seafood market by combining place-specific attributes with transnational governance norms.
This report is part of a larger research program examining the relationship between fisheries pol... more This report is part of a larger research program examining the relationship between fisheries policy and regional development in Atlantic Canada’s northern shrimp fisheries. Since the extension of Canadian jurisdiction over its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1977, federal policy makers have allocated shrimp licenses and quotas to cooperatives, community based organizations, inshore fish harvesters, large fishing companies as well as Indigenous groups. However, our knowledge of the relationship between fisheries policy and regional development outcomes in this fishery remains very limited, with the exception of case studies of a few organizations and regions in southeast Labrador and in Newfoundland. Despite the long history of substantial allocations of shrimp in northern Labrador/Nunatsiavut,1 we know little about how effective allocation policies have been in meeting regional development goals for Indigenous communities in the region (Figure 1). The objective of this research is to build on and extend our larger research project by identifying allocation policies that have enabled Nunatsiavut communities, and people to benefit from the shrimp fishery and to identify those development benefits in a systematic way. The research findings help us meet two further practical objectives: to provide research evidence to inform federal, provincial, and municipal policymaking and decision-making and to assist regional bodies and community groups in their decision-making and activities aimed at improving social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions.
Community use rights are rarely considered to be an economically viable or efficient option in co... more Community use rights are rarely considered to be an economically viable or efficient option in conventional fisheries management policy. Our analysis challenges this view by pointing to the positive economic and social outcomes of community use rights in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We argue that resources allocated to community-based organizations can be used to build “community economies,” in the theoretical vocabulary of J. K. Gibson-Graham. By combining insights of Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies framework with an empirical analysis of how ethical decision making helped build and sustain community economies in three fishing regions, the article promotes the allocation of new community use rights in fisheries and beyond.
Critical analyses of neoliberalism׳s influence on fisheries governance have documented how enclos... more Critical analyses of neoliberalism׳s influence on fisheries governance have documented how enclosure, quota leasing and renting, and commodification can precipitate negative social consequences for fishing communities. By contrast, this paper draws on the concept of embeddedness to argue that certain policies and social relations can regulate enclosure, quota renting, and commodification in ways that empower community-based groups to facilitate the anchoring of fishery resources and wealth in coastal communities. It does so through an analysis of northern shrimp fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, between the 1970s and the early 2000s. This case study illustrates how fisheries enclosure policies informed by geographically and morally defined principles of access and equity and limits on commodification can meaningfully embed fishery resources and benefits in rural and remote coastal regions that depend on small-scale fishing. Although the application of social principles continues to be marginalized in the context of neoliberal policy regimes that privilege individual economic efficiency over distributive concerns, this paper provides new insight into the conditions under which principles of ethical allocation and distribution of resources are able to persist through an era of neoliberalism.
We examine new dynamics of privatization and collective action in common pool resource situations... more We examine new dynamics of privatization and collective action in common pool resource situations facilitated by the nonstate multistakeholder institutions of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the global leader in sustainability certification for wild caught seafood. Through a review of the literature and two case studies of fishing cooperatives in Baja California Sur, Mexico and on Fogo Island in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), we advance two interrelated arguments. First, certification and eco-labeling institutions privatize fisheries governance in largely unexamined ways through the injection of new forms of exclusive rights or privileges into common pool resource situations already complicated by access and property privileges, creating conditions for confusion and conflict as well as cooperation. Second, the MSC whole stock definition of sustainability places greater demands on certification clients for engaging in collective action by encouraging coordination over all social extractions from targeted fish stocks. Although rules encouraging collective action in common pool situations militate against the narrow private capture of certificate and eco-label rights, they also undermine the ability of small-scale and community-based fisheries that are embedded in larger unhealthy fishery contexts to acquire the right to the MSC stamp of sustainability. We conclude that MSC certification and eco-labeling create new institutions of private property rights and collective action, which can result in exclusionary practices, inclusionary collective action, or both. Much will depend on the specific common pool context and history of the fishery.
Transnational certification and ecolabeling programs have become an important new site of environ... more Transnational certification and ecolabeling programs have become an important new site of environmental governance, as well as an emerging arena for action and conflict in international trade. This paper explores the implementation of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification in salmon fisheries in the US state of Alaska in the early 2000s, the growing opposition within the industry to MSC certification through periods of reassessment, and the emergence of an alternative Alaska certification initiative in 2011. It suggests that these shifts were rooted in struggles over understudied third-party certification and labeling processes that we conceptualize as marketized governance. The paper further shows how certification and labeling can obscure and expose competing industry interests and power relations, provoke struggles over fisheries’ social representation, and open up novel avenues for cooperation and change, indicating ambiguity in the social and cultural implications of neoliberal modes of governance. Finally, the paper suggests that the ascendancy of the MSC has sparked the emergence of new political and economic geographies of certification and ecolabeling in Alaska and other jurisdictions where place‑specific and other initiatives vie for governance and market legitimacy.
Over the last decade, the proliferation of social and environmental certification programmes has ... more Over the last decade, the proliferation of social and environmental certification programmes has attracted the attention of a growing number of political scientists interested in new forms of ‘private’ transnational governance. However, we still lack analyses on the nature and extent of different state responses to and involvement in new private transnational governance arrangements in particular sectors and in different jurisdictions. This article advances our understanding of the interactions between nation-state and private transnational modes of governance by analysing the role of national government authorities in Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries certification in Atlantic Canada, known more for the disastrous collapse of Northern cod stocks than good marine stewardship. Focusing on the 2008 certification of Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) fisheries off the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the analysis finds that the implementation and maintenance of MSC certification in this case depended on significant support from government authorities. The delicate legitimacy of both authorities faces a period of uncertainty in this case since some certified shrimp stocks appear to be in decline and perhaps also migrating northward off Newfoundland and Labrador.
The sustainability of coastal regions in Newfoundland and Labrador has long been tied to changes ... more The sustainability of coastal regions in Newfoundland and Labrador has long been tied to changes in fisheries policies (Sinclair 1989). This report presents a detailed comparative study of the relationship between fisheries resource allocation policies in the northern shrimp fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador and regional development in key regions with substantial dependence on shrimp. The project explores how three different types of northern shrimp allocations influenced regional development in the areas of southeast Labrador, the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, and Fogo Island. Drawing on secondary sources and 54 in depth interviews, we found that shrimp allocation policy guided by the principles of adjacency and regional economic development goals resulted in the establishment of two innovative community-based organizations in southeast Labrador and the Northern Peninsula, and strengthened a third organization on Fogo Island. These organizations used relatively small shrimp allocations to help sustain local inshore and nearshore owner-operator fisheries within these regions, created or sustained employment for processing workers during a period of dramatic social-ecological restructuring triggered by the collapse of regional groundfish stocks in the early 1990s, helped sustain the tax base for regional communities and, to varying degrees, contributed to broader regional economic diversification and development outcomes.
These three case studies demonstrate that fisheries policies that clearly allocate resource shares to community-based organizations – with a mandate to use these resources and the profits/royalties they generate for regional economic development – can support viable fisheries and other industries that play a crucial role in the development of socially sustainable and resilient fisheries communities even in remote regions that are located far from larger populations and confront significant transportation and other challenges. The successes that we document in this report are based on business models that emphasize a holistic approach to regional economic development. Royalties are used to diversify coastal regions for long-term economic and social sustainability. While profitability remains a central goal, the business models of these community-based organisations stress the need for long-term economic and social sustainability, rather than short term profit. In this way, the three cases in this study provide strong evidence for the role that community-based organisations can play in developing successful business models in remote coastal communities. Outcomes of allocation policies in these cases measure up well against the objectives of social sustainability contained in various fisheries management frameworks in Canada and around the world. The results of this study suggest that community-based fishery allocations and shares should play a stronger role in fisheries policies in the future here and elsewhere.
In August 2008, the Northern shrimp, a prey of the iconic cod, became the first species managed b... more In August 2008, the Northern shrimp, a prey of the iconic cod, became the first species managed by the Canadian government to meet the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) standard for ‘sustainable and well-managed’ fisheries. Using the Northern shrimp fishery as a case study, this paper argues that rather than being simply a tool for sustainability or even earning market access, MSC certification allows fishery ‘clients’– those organizations that ultimately hold the MSC certificate – to control resource access and production relations. The processing association that acted as the initial client in this fishery gained new members by sharing access to certification in 2009 and expelled a community-based fishing co-operative from the client group in 2010. Certification dynamics in this case reflected, and were used to reinforce, a highly competitive political economy of production. These dynamics may have implications for future resource access, since shrimp stocks appear to be declining in key areas after three decades of growth.
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Papers by Paul Foley
and ocean spaces is a significant issue for many coastal and Indigenous communities due to intensifying activity and competition in the marine environment. The general trend of loss of access has implications for these
communities, and for Canadian society. In this review and policy perspective, we argue that access for coastal and Indigenous communities should be a priority consideration in all policies and decision-making processes related to fisheries and the ocean in Canada. This paper reviews how access affects the well-being of coastal communities, factors that support or undermine access, and research priorities to inform policy. Recommended actions include: ensuring access is transparently considered in all ocean-related decisions; supporting research to fill knowledge gaps on access to enable effective responses; making data accessible and including communities in decision-making that grants or restricts access to adjacent marine resources and spaces; ensuring updated laws, policies and planning processes explicitly incorporate access considerations; and, identifying and prioritizing actions to maintain and increase access. Taking action now could reverse the current trend and ensure that coastal and Indigenous communities thrive in the future. This is not just a Canadian issue. Globally, the ability of coastal and Indigenous communities to access and benefit from the marine environment should be at the forefront in all deliberations related to the oceans.
regional development in Atlantic Canada’s northern shrimp fisheries. Since the extension of Canadian
jurisdiction over its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1977, federal policy makers have allocated
shrimp licenses and quotas to cooperatives, community based organizations, inshore fish harvesters,
large fishing companies as well as Indigenous groups. However, our knowledge of the relationship
between fisheries policy and regional development outcomes in this fishery remains very limited, with
the exception of case studies of a few organizations and regions in southeast Labrador and in
Newfoundland. Despite the long history of substantial allocations of shrimp in northern
Labrador/Nunatsiavut,1 we know little about how effective allocation policies have been in meeting
regional development goals for Indigenous communities in the region (Figure 1). The objective of this
research is to build on and extend our larger research project by identifying allocation policies that have
enabled Nunatsiavut communities, and people to benefit from the shrimp fishery and to identify those
development benefits in a systematic way. The research findings help us meet two further practical
objectives: to provide research evidence to inform federal, provincial, and municipal policymaking and
decision-making and to assist regional bodies and community groups in their decision-making and
activities aimed at improving social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions.
These three case studies demonstrate that fisheries policies that clearly allocate resource shares to community-based organizations – with a mandate to use these resources and the profits/royalties they generate for regional economic development – can support viable fisheries and other industries that play a crucial role in the development of socially sustainable and resilient fisheries communities even in remote regions that are located far from larger populations and confront significant transportation and other challenges. The successes that we document in this report are based on business models that emphasize a holistic approach to regional economic development. Royalties are used to diversify coastal regions for long-term economic and social sustainability. While profitability remains a central goal, the business models of these community-based organisations stress the need for long-term economic and social sustainability, rather than short term profit. In this way, the three cases in this study provide strong evidence for the role that community-based organisations can play in developing successful business models in remote coastal communities. Outcomes of allocation policies in these cases measure up well against the objectives of social sustainability contained in various fisheries management frameworks in Canada and around the world. The results of this study suggest that community-based fishery allocations and shares should play a stronger role in fisheries policies in the future here and elsewhere.
and ocean spaces is a significant issue for many coastal and Indigenous communities due to intensifying activity and competition in the marine environment. The general trend of loss of access has implications for these
communities, and for Canadian society. In this review and policy perspective, we argue that access for coastal and Indigenous communities should be a priority consideration in all policies and decision-making processes related to fisheries and the ocean in Canada. This paper reviews how access affects the well-being of coastal communities, factors that support or undermine access, and research priorities to inform policy. Recommended actions include: ensuring access is transparently considered in all ocean-related decisions; supporting research to fill knowledge gaps on access to enable effective responses; making data accessible and including communities in decision-making that grants or restricts access to adjacent marine resources and spaces; ensuring updated laws, policies and planning processes explicitly incorporate access considerations; and, identifying and prioritizing actions to maintain and increase access. Taking action now could reverse the current trend and ensure that coastal and Indigenous communities thrive in the future. This is not just a Canadian issue. Globally, the ability of coastal and Indigenous communities to access and benefit from the marine environment should be at the forefront in all deliberations related to the oceans.
regional development in Atlantic Canada’s northern shrimp fisheries. Since the extension of Canadian
jurisdiction over its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1977, federal policy makers have allocated
shrimp licenses and quotas to cooperatives, community based organizations, inshore fish harvesters,
large fishing companies as well as Indigenous groups. However, our knowledge of the relationship
between fisheries policy and regional development outcomes in this fishery remains very limited, with
the exception of case studies of a few organizations and regions in southeast Labrador and in
Newfoundland. Despite the long history of substantial allocations of shrimp in northern
Labrador/Nunatsiavut,1 we know little about how effective allocation policies have been in meeting
regional development goals for Indigenous communities in the region (Figure 1). The objective of this
research is to build on and extend our larger research project by identifying allocation policies that have
enabled Nunatsiavut communities, and people to benefit from the shrimp fishery and to identify those
development benefits in a systematic way. The research findings help us meet two further practical
objectives: to provide research evidence to inform federal, provincial, and municipal policymaking and
decision-making and to assist regional bodies and community groups in their decision-making and
activities aimed at improving social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions.
These three case studies demonstrate that fisheries policies that clearly allocate resource shares to community-based organizations – with a mandate to use these resources and the profits/royalties they generate for regional economic development – can support viable fisheries and other industries that play a crucial role in the development of socially sustainable and resilient fisheries communities even in remote regions that are located far from larger populations and confront significant transportation and other challenges. The successes that we document in this report are based on business models that emphasize a holistic approach to regional economic development. Royalties are used to diversify coastal regions for long-term economic and social sustainability. While profitability remains a central goal, the business models of these community-based organisations stress the need for long-term economic and social sustainability, rather than short term profit. In this way, the three cases in this study provide strong evidence for the role that community-based organisations can play in developing successful business models in remote coastal communities. Outcomes of allocation policies in these cases measure up well against the objectives of social sustainability contained in various fisheries management frameworks in Canada and around the world. The results of this study suggest that community-based fishery allocations and shares should play a stronger role in fisheries policies in the future here and elsewhere.