Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 18
The New Zealand Best Fish Guide
Barry Weeber and Cath Wallace
18.1
Introduction
In the environmental and resource management literature and in policy circles,
there is an extensive literature on the use of voluntary instruments for environmen-
tal management problems versus the use of regulatory instruments (Bizer & Julich
1999, Khanna 2001, Alberini & Segerson 2002, Lyon & Maxwell 2003, Potoski
& Prakash 2004). The literature on the use of market-based instruments intersects
with that of voluntary instruments. The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society's
Best Fish Guide is one instrument used by civil society in New Zealand to inform
consumers and to engage consumer preferences with the aim of allowing environ-
mentally sound consumer choice for fish and for improved environmental outcomes.
The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, known usually as Forest and Bird,
is New Zealand's largest grassroots broad membership conservation society with
40 000 members and 55 branches in New Zealand. It was established in 1923. It
now has an active interest in all aspects of conservation including marine man-
agement and conservation. It is somewhat akin to the Audubon Society in the US.
Most of Forest and Bird's energy, activity and funding come from the membership
and their fundraising, though there is a modest number of advocacy, research and
administrative staff in the Wellington Central Office and in four regional offices.
The New Zealand Best Fish Guide was produced in response to the failure of two
market-based instruments, the New Zealand fisheries Quota Management System
(QMS) and the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) fish product certification
scheme.
New Zealand has one of the largest marine areas (Exclusive Economic Zone -
EEZ) in the world. Based on fishing effort data reported to the Ministry of Fish-
eries, over 2000 local and chartered overseas commercial fishing vessels catch over
600 000 tonnes of fish annually in New Zealand waters. They do this by setting
10 000 km of nets and over 50 million hooks and making over 100 000 trawls and
90 000 dredge tows. Fishing takes place in all depths down to about 1500 m and
some pelagic longlining takes place over deeper waters.
New Zealand's Fisheries QMS was introduced in the mid-1980s with the hope
that ownership of quota would provide significant incentives for fish quota owners
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