Will spatial property rights lead to ocean conservation?

Christopher CostelloBren School – UC Santa Barbara

California and the World OceanSeptember 9, 2010

Connectivity in marine systemsA human action in one place affects:

1. Ecosystem service provision2. Level of service in future3. Level of service in other places4. Other services of value

I’ll focus on fisheries

Movies: “Flow Fish and Fishing” UC Santa Barbara

Marine spatial planning

• MSP considers– Services & values– Impacts– Ecological interactions

• How far will MSP go?– Where, who, how much– Devolve decisions

locally?Spatial planning in Lesser Sunda, Indonesia

Courtesy of The Nature Conservancy

Spatial property rights in ocean?

• Spatially exclusive areas allocated– Individuals– Communities– Cooperatives

• Little or no gov’t regulation inside– Co-management

• Territorial User Right Fisheries (TURFs)

TURFs in ChileCastilla (2010)

TURFs for fisheries management

• Spatial exclusivity:– Align profitability and

sustainability– Local actions benefit

owners of TURF– Conservation incentive

• Bioeconomic models predict effects:– Conservation– Profitability of fishery

Hypothetical TURFs in S. CaliforniaCostello & Kaffine (2010)

Spatial externalities with TURFs

• Models reveal externality:– Harvest in one TURF affects

other TURFs– Incentive to overharvest

• TURF size?– White & Costello (2010)

• Requires cooperation across TURFs.Red Sea Urchin, California

Photo: C. Costello

Cooperatives on TURFs

• Coordinate harvest across TURFs

• Ensures against over-harvest

• Higher profits

• Higher fish stocks

Chignik Cooperative, Alaska

FEDECOOP: Baja California, Mexico

“Private” conservation?

• Models show:– Coordinated TURFs close

strategic areas to fishing– “Private MPAs”– Higher profits

• Global evidence:– TURFs lead to private

conservation areas– Japan, Chile, Oceania, New

Zealand, Australia, MexicoOptimal MPAs in hypothetical TURF fishery

Costello & Kaffine (2010)

Opportunities and challenges• Opportunities

– Market vs. political process– Easements, parks, marine

conservation agreements– Multi-use areas

• Challenges– Restrictions– Allocation, transferability– Oversight, tenure length– When is “space” right

dimension?– Climate change

Conclusions• Spatial Property Rights may be next step in

practically applying principles of MSP

• Connectivity induces spatial externality – can be corrected by cooperation

• In places with TURFs, private-sector conservation results

• A platform for market-based conservation