Resources and International Trade of Seahorse: A Case Study of Globalization

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Resources and International Trade of Seahorse A
Case Study of Globalization

• Topic 6

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Why Seahorse?

• The Seahorse is sold for traditional medicines,
  aquarium display and curiosities, at rates not
  sustainable.
• The great increase in this trade occurred during
  the 1980s, concurrent with increased
  globalization, leads us to consider possible
  connections between the two changes.
• Chinas economic growth and the global diaspora
  of Chinese people apparently contributed to
  higher demand for seahorses, as did greater
  interest in exotic species and in increased
  technical capacity to keep them in home aquarium.

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Expansion of the Sea Urchin Exploitation
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Key elements of globalization that contributes to
the decline of marine life

• A) increasing flow of money,
• B) materials,
• C) information,
• D) people across boundaries.
• Each flow is facilitated by technological
  developments in transportation and communications.

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In addition, economic pressures associated
with globalization may have fostered more
small-scale fisheries for seahorses.
The supply of seahorses was probably enhanced by
the global spread of shrimp trawling and by an
increasing tendency to utilize by-catch from
such non-selective fishing gear.
Global spread of communication, technology and
transport and trade in closely associated
commodities (life fish, shrimp, lobster or crab)
have contributed to expansion of seahorse
trade.
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• On the positive side, greater international
  communication and travel has probably contributed
  to strong conservation responses to seahorse
  population declines good media coverage,
  management and research collaboration, donor
  support, and development of alternative
  livelihoods. Seeking a future for seahorse
  fisheries will require recognition and management
  of general issues in marine conservation, many of
  them related to globalization.

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Trawl pressures needs to be reduced, and
management of fisheries will have to improve to
ensure functional eco-systems. A key change might
be the assignment of extraction rights and
management responsibility to fishers. Among
many uncertainties, it seems clear that
sustainable fisheries will also depend on
reducing effort through the development of
alternative livelihoods and stabilization of
human population sizes.
International ecological certification could
promote seahorse management, although new
international trade regulations for seahorses and
other marine fishes of commercial importance has
proven controversial.
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The impacts of globalization on resource
management are widely debated, with mixed
evidence emerging. Arguments in favor of
globalization relay heavily on the notion that
all nations can become wealthier if each
specializes in what it does best (David Ricardos
theory of comparative advantage, see Sraffa _at_
Dobbs, 1951-1973). Increasing wealth should
then allow people to spend more on environmental
and social programs (Dollar Kraay, 2002, OECD
1997) and to adopt more environmentally friendly
production techniques (Antweiler, Copeland
Taylor, 2001). In addition, some argue that
free trade agreements and organization s offer
the opportunity to force removal of subsidies and
promote overexploitation (Stone, 1997 Yu,
sutherland Clark, 2002)
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And should allow environmentally friendly
technologies to diffuse more rapidly (Antweiler
et al,. 2001. In theory, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) is working to discipline
fisheries subsidies, convincing member countries
to sign an agreement on subsidies and
countervailing measures (WTO 1994)
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The most common concern about globalization tend
on the impacts of free trade. First, by allowing
greater production and consumption, critics
argue, free trade will increase depletion of
natural resources, an assertion for which there
is substantial empirical evidence (Neumayer,
2000). This depletion and degradation will be
exacerbated if management is ineffective, if
damage is transboundary in nature, if property
rights are poorly defined (Brander Taylor 1997,
Brander Taylor, 1998). A second concern is
that countries may lower environmental standards
to attract investment, leading to a race to the
bottom where all countries drop these standards
in competition with one another (Daly, 1993,
Neumayer, 2000). This hypothesis lacks an
empirical support.
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A third concern is that free trade rules, such as
those implemented under North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) will undermine environmental
legislation.

• Such rules do make allowances for national
  environmental legislation and regulations and for
  international enviornmental agreements (Neumayer,
  2000, Yu et al, 2002) but the effectiveness of
  these provisions igreatly dimninished by the
  heavy vurdens of proof, lenghty process required,
  and by the ofter weak otcomes (Kibel, 2001,
  Nogales, 2002, Valley,m 2004).
• Finally, it is argued that producers and traders
  very seldom absorb the full environmental costs
  (Externalities) of their actions. If these costs
  were considered more comprehensively, much
  international trade would probably be
  uneconomical (Daly, 1993, Goldsmith, 1996).

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• Role of Globalization in Promoting Increased
  Demand for Seahorses
• 1) Increased Chinas economic growth causes
  greater availability of disposable income which
  promotes increase to the quantity of seahorses
  sought for medicinal purposes.
• 2) Because of changing life patterns in
  industrialized China people start to prefer
  pre-packed seahorse medicines, i.e., ground,
  dried animals, thus eliminating many constraints
  presented by consumers buying whole dried
  seahorses.
• 3) The large Chinese diaspora is popularizing in
  other parts of the world the use of seahorses
  that now start to have a global demand.

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A third reason globalization enhances demand of
life seahorses is the fact that aquarium hobbysts
appear to have gained an appreciation of exotic
fish species, seahorses among them. Partly as a
result of travel to exotic locations, media
coverage of these animals and the growing number
of public aquariums more than 100 significant
free-standing aquariums have opened globally
since early 1990s. As a just one measure of
greater exposure to distant environments,
international tourist arrival increased from 457
million in 1990 to 699 million in 2000 an
annual average increase of 4.3 (World Tourism
Organization, 2003, and Fig. 2).
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How globalization may help reduce pressures on
seahorses?

• Advanced international communication is playing a
  significant role in alerting stakeholders and
  larger communities to problems posed by
  overexploitation, and is then engaging them in
  finding conservation responses.
• In case of seahorses, extensive international use
  of media, web sites, shared databases, exhibits
  (especially in public aquariums), and academic
  outlets have enhanced flows of information to and
  from a wide array of interested parties.
• As an example, one Seahorse Project in UBC
  attracted coverage of newspapers, magazines and
  broadcast media in at least 13 languages and 30
  countries during the decade since the mid of
  1990s.
• Seahorses displayed in almost all public
  aquariums around the world, with at least ten
  institutions in North America and Europe mounting
  significant focal exhibits on seahorse biology
  and conservation, reaching at least then million
  people.