This research sub-module investigates institutional changes, especially in harvest rules, access to resources, markets and trade policies, in Canadian and international contexts. While documenting the need for Newfoundland and Labrador's fisheries to comply with various sets of standards, regulations and principles, the sub-module also explores creative ways to achieve that compliance and, where appropriate, to change governance structures to better align with sustainable development principles.

 

'Access to Resources & Markets' is innovative in how it uses the concept of access, integrating a highly grounded/ecological approach (access to resources) with a highly integrated local to global approach (access to local and export markets). The sub-module also uses document analysis and key informant interviews to analyze the changes in fisheries policies, including the new Fisheries Act, looking at policies related to fleet separation, owner-operator and the Policy to Preserve the Independence of the Inshore Fleet in Canada’s Atlantic Fisheries, for instance.

 

While these policies aim to protect owner-operator fish harvesters from corporate control and to ensure that benefits from fish resources flow to independent fishers and coastal communities, they are being undermined by private agreements that result in concentration of fishing licenses by processing companies and other investors, similar to the effects of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs). It is therefore expected that key informant interviews will reveal information and dynamics unavailable in existing documents.