Action 4 : Socio-economic structures for the exploitation of FADs and management

Organizer : Olivier Guyader (olivier.guyader@ifremer.fr)
http://wwz.ifremer.fr/economie_maritime

Motivation and objectives

Material and methods

Motivation and objectives

Fishing associated with FADS has developed on islands in different economic contexts and according to management modes that are variable: private or collective exploitation, with or without public financing. The impact of the modes of developing and managing FADs on the conditions of viability of the exploitations and on the remuneration of the means of production has been ill-assessed. The dynamics of investment in professional fishing units and of the allocation of the fishing effort between pelagic resources and coastal resources are also little known, whilst the impact of new production conditions on the valorization of the catches has been little studied.
In response to these facts, the work to be undertaken will attempt to provide new information, for a selection of islands in the Lesser Antilles, about the following aspects:

Structure of the takings and of the costs, according to types of exploitation and modes of management, and remuneration of the means of production.
Modes of commercialization and price structure.
Evaluation of the capital invested, and of employment.
Modalities for financing FADs.

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Material and methods

In order to improve knowledge about professional fishing fleets, surveys will be done of fishermen and the main people involved in the fishing industry. Surveys of a socio-economic nature will be based on prior surveys of boats in the fleet selected and the reconstitution of the annual calendar of the activities of the fishing units (metiers undertaken each month for the year n-1). On this basis, we will define typologies for the modes of exploitation that we shall attempt to homogenize between islands, using a common metiers referencing system. On the basis of this survey and the exploitation structures identified, we will define a representative sample of fishermen (fishing units) that will be the subject of a standardized socio-economic survey particularly enabling the characterization of modes for valorizing and commercializing the catches, the structure of the takings and of the variable and fixed costs of the fishing units (including FADS, employment and capital invested). We will also use surveys of catches, of the fishing effort per trip, which will be completed to acquire information of an economic nature (value of catches and cost of the fishing effort, etc.). We shall attempt to develop a comparative approach to the economic performance of the units exploiting private or collective FADs and to assess the economic incitation to fishing under FADS, compared to other fishing metiers. The information collected via the survey will be completed by data (intermediate consumption, identification of certain investments) about the environment of the companies, collected from supplier and fishing unit financing structures, where they exist. We shall also develop a common retrospective survey on a sample of fishing units, enabling us to better measure the evolution of the activity round FADS and the consequences in terms of allotment of the fishing effort between the island and the open sea.
On the basis of this work, we will study the link between modalities of management and of access to FADS and the conditions of development as well as the economic implications for fishing fleets.

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Implementation

The case studies selected are the fleets of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Dominique that operate round FADS. The economic data will be collected by direct survey of the fishermen and those people mainly involved in the profession (cooperatives, banks or commercialization structures, according to the case study). We will attempt to apply a common survey protocol in the different islands, and data from the surveys on landings will complete the annual economic data collected. It is intended that the pollsters of Martinique should help train people in collecting economic data in those neighbouring islands participating in the economic aspect of the project. The software used to capture the data will be the same for everyone and will use the same referencing system. The team from Ifremer will provide support for validation and data processing.

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Participants

Ifremer (Brest)

Adapting the "FESTIF" software to capture the economic data by introducing the systems of reference retained and questions specific to FADS.
Support of a statistician to define the sampling plans.
Expertise of the data collected and analysis of the results by an economist from the maritime economy department.

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Work schedule

Work schedule - Action 4 Global work schedule project

Mois 1 à 4 : enquêtes économiques auprès d’un échantillon de pêcheurs professionnels de Guadeloupe
Mois 5 à 8 : enquêtes auprès d’un échantillon de pêcheurs professionnels de Martinique
Mois 9 à 11 : Traitement de données et synthèse de l’information collectée (Guadeloupe-Martinique)
Mois 17 à 20 : enquêtes économiques auprès d’un échantillon de pêcheurs professionnels (Autres îles)
Mois 20 à 23 : Traitement de données et synthèse de l’information collectée

Meetings with project partners will be held :

Month 7 : see objective above.
Month 18 : presentation of initial results about the economic data for the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Month 23 : synthesis of the results from the islands selected and recommendations to be made at the outcome of the project.

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