ESPON 2'1'5: Territorial Impacts of European Fisheries Policy

1
ESPON 2.1.5 Territorial Impacts of European
Fisheries Policy

• Final Revised Report
• Prepared for the Espoo Seminar 14-15 November
  2006
• Ove Langeland,
• Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional
  Research, (NIBR), Norway

2
Objectives and research questions

• Objectives
• Strengthen the knowledge of territorial, social
  and economic cohesion through an analysis of
  territorial impacts of the CFP - fisheries and
  aquaculture sector
• A European coastal typology
• Spatial effects at European level and individual
  countries and their coastal areas
• Territorial impacts in relation to ICZM
• Policy recommendation
• Hypothesis
• General territorial impact hypotheses
• Social and economic impact hypotheses
• ICZM/environment hypotheses
• Fishery hypotheses
• Example studies
• Central for hypotheses on urban-rural impacts of
  CFP
• Unit of analysis (NUTS 3) unfit for studying
  territorial impacts, only LAU fishery dependent
  areas

3
Key findings

• Diagnosis development of the Fisheries sector
• CFP Main territorial impacts of the conservation
  policy
• Capture fisheries sub-sector EU Fleet
  reduction, decreased value of landed catch,
  employment reduction. EFTA Resource situation
  relatively good, reduced employment due to
  technological changes
• Aquaculture Increased volume, value and
  employment in both EU and EFTA
• Processing industry EU Employment reduction in
  some countries and regions, increased landings
  from non-EU countries (globalisation). EFTA More
  difficult situation - factory trawlers,
  globalisation effects
• Environmental impacts and ICZM
• Fishery Fleet reduction, but chronic
  overexploitation of fishery resources is still
  the greatest environmental concern of CFP
• Aquaculture Challenge to minimize negative
  environmental impacts and balance aquaculture
  interests with other coastal interests
• ICZM Demands both horizontal and vertical
  co-ordination in order to be effective
• Spatial planning systems must cover both the
  terrestrial and the marine part of the coastal
  zone in order to be an effective tool for ICZM.

4
Key findings

• Social cohesion Impacts
• Different territorial fisheries systems/groups of
  coastal regions a North/South dimension in
  Europe, some of these territories are
  strengthened, others weakened, also different
  development trends within the systems
• Coastal regions with a large fisheries sector
  experience population declining processes more
  frequent than other coastal regions.
• Lack of co-ordination between the implementation
  of economic measures in the CFP and the fish
  resource regulation policy.
• Lack of integration between fisheries polices on
  national and European level, and a need for
  adjusting European sector policies of fisheries
  in accordance with European territorial policies.
  
• Economic cohesion Impacts
• The effectiveness of FIFG programmes depends
  heavily on the regions initial economic
  conditions and on the quality of national and
  regional administrations (absorptive capacity)
• In general FIFG funds have been distributed
  progressively among regions, but the
  progressiveness decreased from the 1994-99
  programming period to the 2000-06 period.

5
Policy options/recommendations

• General policy recommendation
• Policy measures to promote cohesion,
  territorially balanced development and
  polycentrism - but not one size fits all
• Policy recommendations related to environmental
  impacts and ICZM
• Integrate the terrestrial and marine environment
  in coastal planning and other ICZM activities.
• Combine the best elements of the statutory
  spatial planning system with the best elements of
  the voluntary partnership approach - integrated
  solutions at the regional level of government.
• Policy recommendations related to social cohesion
• Better co-coordination of the implementation of
  the economic measures in CFP (the FIFG) and the
  fish resource regulation policy.
• The interplay between fisheries policies
  implemented on national and European level should
  be better integrated.
• The fisheries policy should be adjusted in
  accordance with the European territorial policies
  
• Policy recommendations related to economic
  cohesion
• Stronger focus on disparities due to proximity to
  resources, economic alternatives and
  administrative efficiency
• Use example of dynamic regions as guides for the
  best practice.

6
Typologies, data and recommendation for ESPON 2013

• Typologies on ESPON space should try to combine
  European typologies with national typologies
  (national average) as a combined macro and micro
  typologies approach in territorial analyses.
• One should compare several sector policies in
  different coastal regions (area studies) in order
  to analyse territorial impacts in a more
  comprehensive way, and search for possible
  potentials and obstacles in different regions.
  The typology for coastal regions (NUTS 3)
  developed in 2.1.5 could be used for selecting
  the different regions.
• Develop a better specification of the concept
  related to fishery dependency
• One should strive for a better organisation of
  collection and use of data, for instance by
  developing a common Eurostat/ESPON database which
  is divided in a statistical database and an
  indicator database. Data should also be
  regionalised as far as possible.

7
Future research

• Study how territorial impacts can vary with
• The potential and preconditions for innovation
  and restructuring in different coastal regions
  and fisheries dependent areas, for instance
  between economically diversified regions, and
  more economically specialised regions, in urban
  and peripheral territories
• Different kinds of fisheries management, CFP on
  macro level, RAC on meso level and national
  implementation on micro level, and the interplay
  between the different management systems
• Differences in national implementation of sector
  policies, including fisheries policy
• How different ICZM approaches can function as
  tools for a sustainable and balanced development
  in coastal regions, with particular focus of the
  aquaculture industry.