BETWEEN PLAN AND MARKET -THE QUOTA ALLOCATION SYSTEM IN NORWEGIAN FISHERIES

摘要

Norway has been characterized as a "hesitant reformer" regarding fisheries management. Instead of introducing a fully fledged ITQ-system after the crisis in the coastal fisheries in 1990, a new Individual Vessel Quota (IVQ) system was introduced. Later a structural policy was introduced, whereby fishing rights (and adjoining quotas) may be bought and sold together with the vessel. This system in turn necessitated a quota allocation system, and the article traces this system, its origins, structure and logic. Different allocation keys prescribe how all important commercial species are allocated to different fleet groups and down to the individual vessel. Having worked for nearly 20 years, the allocation system has been heavily institionalized and hence difficult to change. Several reforms have been suggested, but for the time being Norwegian fishers seem largely satisfied with the overall system, although fisheries administrators have ended up being more involved with detailed allocation issues, instead of less which was part of the idea behind the new system.