4:00 am - 5:00 am
GSB 550, 116 st 89 ave, 515 general ser, edmonton Alberta
Title: Competitive advantage, institutional rules and the willingness to adopt biodegradable fishing gear
Speaker: Huu-Luat Do, PhD Student, Natural Resource Economic Department, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: GSB 550
Abstract:
The use of biodegradable fishing gear (BFG) is increasingly seen as a solution to mitigate the negative impacts associated with abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), such as ghost fishing and marine plastic pollution. However, a major concern with such an environmentally-friendly technique is its potential to reduce fishing efficiency due to its degradable characteristics, which may diminish competitive advantage. To contribute to the limited empirical evidence, we conducted a survey experiment to investigate how variations in fishing efficiency, compared to conventional fishing gear, influence Norwegian fishers’ willingness to adopt biodegradable fishing gear. Additionally, we also take into account how the adoption of biodegradable gear is influenced under different conditions of adoption by other fishers. Our findings reveal that fishers are willing to adopt biodegradable fishing gear without conditions if its fishing efficiency is comparable to conventional gear. However, this unconditional adoption decreases as the relative efficiency of biodegradable gear decreases. This competition concern is particularly notable among non-large fishers. Furthermore, our study indicates that marine environment protection concerns drive adoption, while economic concerns drive opposition. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at ensuring similarity in fishing efficiency or promoting widespread adoption would likely increase the adoption of biodegradable fishing gear.
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