Rights-Based Management: Conserving Fisheries. Protecting Economies

Healthy and plentiful fisheries are not only good for marine ecosystems, but they are critical to the health, employment and prosperity of over a billion people around the world that rely on fisheries for food and jobs. Yet, half the globe’s fisheries have been pushed to their limits and another third have been pushed beyond their limits. The percentage of these “overfished” species has nearly quadrupled since the 1970s. A rights-based management program is one tool to address this issue. They convey and manage exclusive entitlements that allow a person, company, fishing vessel, community or village to fish in a particular place at a particular time.