Impacts of Development Assistance: Lessons Learned for Better Fisheries and Aquaculture Governance

摘要

In light of the increasing importance of development assistance, further thought needs to be given to its impact on the governance of fisheries and aquaculture in developing countries. From West African and South-East Asian examples, three of the mainaxes of development assistance can be identified: increasing small-scale fishing capacity, connections to export markets, and small-scale aquaculture development. Some impacts of this assistance can be pointed out, such as the setting up of large small-scale capacity or overcapacity, an increasing dependence on export markets and a decrease in food security in West Africa, and damage to the environment as a result of small-scale shrimp aquaculture development in South-East Asia. By favouring these axesof development, development assistance contributes to the emergence or to the maintenance of governance systems, which poses some problems. These problems relate to fisheries governance systems and can be described as follows: fisheries governance limited to fisheries management, the weakening of public power and public actions, and the fragmentation of fisheries administration and civil society. These problems are amplified by development assistance and they contribute to certain breaches of good governance principles, of which some examples will be provided. Some lessons can be drawn from an analysis of fisheries governance systems that have been supported by development assistance. These are: a need for a new approach to fisheries governance that lies beyond the framework of fisheries management, integration of fisheries or aquaculture development assistance programmes into national and regional public policies, the rehabilitation of fisheries administrations and the strengthening of institutions.