The Danish model encompassing tradable fishing quotas could lead to the degradation of Europe’s marine environment. Fishermen and a number of civil-society organizations are now putting pressure on the Danish Fisheries Minister, Mette Gjerskov, to halt a controversial reform of EU fisheries policy.
According to the Danish Society for a Living Sea (DSLS), a Danish system that allows trade with fish quotas, is detrimental to both fishermen and the sea. Together with a number of other organizations, fishermen in DSLS have therefore initiated a campaign opposing the plans to extend the model to the rest of the EU member-states.
Fishing has become a casino-economy. So much money is being spent on buying fishing rights, which have in turn fallen prey to speculation, said fisherman and president of DSLS, Knud Andersen, to Modkraft.
Knud Andersen thinks that the Danish model of tradable quotas has led to a capitalization in the fisheries sector, reorienting focus in the sector towards widespread speculation in quotas and away from actual fishing.
However, in the EU Commission’s proposal for a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), it is specified that a model similar to the neoliberal Danish model should be made mandatory for all member states in the union. In light of this seminal development, the Commission’s proposal has attracted opposition in the Danish NGO community.
Seven environmental and development groups have joined forces with DSLS in the campaign to put pressure on Mette Gjerskov, the Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, to use the Danish EU-Presidency to halt the Commission’s plans.
Among others, these encompass the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, Africa Contact and PUGAD.
In a joint letter to Mette Gjerskov the 8 organizations have put forward a number of demands to the Danish EU-presidency, in light of the forthcoming reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, which will be negotiated during the Danish and Cypriot presidencies (see the letter here in Danish: http://www.afrika.dk/st%C3%B8t-b%C3%A6redygtigt-fiskeri).
One especially controversial aspect of the reform is the mandatory introduction of a system of “tradable quotas” (or Transferable Fishing Concessions, as they are called in the Commission’s Proposal), which entails that a certain share of the fish becomes private property, that can then be bought, sold and leased as the owner’ sees fit.
According to the Commission, this system will form a crucial part of the overall solution to the widespread overfishing currently taking place in EU and global waters. In relation hereto, the Commission has made explicit references to the successful implementation of the TFC model in Denmark.
However, according to small-scale fishermen and environmentalists the Danish model is all but successful. According to Knud Andersen of DSLS, the Danish model has resulted in a shift to more precarious large-scale economies in the Danish fishery due to a concentration of fishing
quotas. Altogether this has led to more rather than less unsustainable fishing socioeconomically and environmentally speaking.
The system of tradable quotas has meant that fishing has shifted from small vessels, which predominantly use environmentally friendly methods, to larger vessels and, consequently, trawl fishing, which destroys marine biodiversity and uses far more fuel, has prevailed, he said.
Finally, there are fewer jobs in coastal areas than there were before, because manual work has been replaced by the increased consumption of diesel fuel. The concentration of ownership of fishing rights has severely hit fishermen in small port towns on Zealand, Funen and Jutland, whereas the large industrialized ports on the north-west coast have gained extensively from the concentration.
Among the critics is also researcher Jeppe Hoest, a Ph.D. Fellow at Copenhagen University, who defines the Danish quota system as a ‘neoliberal system.”
Minister of Fisheries, Mette Gjerskov, told Modkraft that she anticipates that it will not be easy to implement the Commission’s plans to spread the criticized Danish model.
There is going to be plenty of resistance to this from other member states and it is about finding a common solution. Broadening out the Danish model does therefore not involve forcing the tradable quotas onto people. That would be a bad point of departure for negotiations, the Minister said.
Carsten Pedersen of the Fisheries Professionals Network, which consists of several of the initiators of the campaign, said: ” We are supportive of the fact that the Minister seems to have taken account of our demands that the TFC-system should not be made mandatory for the other members. Now we have to follow the negotiations in both the European Parliament and the Council to see how the Minister will implement this position in her work during the Presidency.”
Danish NGOs will be hosting a conference in Copenhagen on 23 March as the next step in the campaign against the TFC system.