ABSTRACT
Recently, the Pew Environment Group released a study that finds that E. U. fisheries have
failed to reduce fleet capacity thus exerting fishing pressure on stocks at two time sustainable
levels. Overcapacity and overcapitalisation was identified as the principal failure of the Common
Fisheries Policy. The study highlights that member-states failed to take environmental and
social concerns into consideration when allocating public funding.
This conclusion may be important in the CFP reform (2012) and put the discussion about the
tools to get sustainable management.
The idea of creating markets for fishing rights as a means of internalising the externalities
derived from the common property nature of fisheries have received considerable attention by
the founding fathers of Law and Economics and Fisheries Economics. The solution is to create
a market of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) and confide in the self-regulation of such a
system to conduct fisheries to economic efficiency and promote inter-temporal sustainable use.
Rights Based Management schemes have already been experimented in specific fisheries and
localizations. These experiences have teaching results about good practices of sustainable
management and the limitations of these tools. The conclusions are fundamental to explore the
feasibility of these tools as instruments of conservation in the CFP. The purpose of this
communication is to enter this debate.
Key Words: Fisheries, Individual Transferable Quotas Rights Based Management
