Assessing the impact of new Individual Vessel Quota legislation on the sustainability of the Peruvian anchoveta fishery

Abstract: The Peruvian anchoveta fishery was for nearly 60 years characterized by the unsustainable dynamics of open access resource pools. This thesis investigates whether the 2009 Peruvian Legislative Decree 1084 on Individual Vessel Quotas (IVQ's) is an effective response to the industrial overcapacity and race-to-fish problems that threatened the environment before its implementation. It employs Common-Pool Resource theory to assess the impact of the new IVQ scheme on collective dynamics, and Ribot and Peluso's access theory (2009) to elucidate evolving power relations in the fishery. In this framework, DL1084 is evaluated as a regulatory instrument, as a lens on fisheries governance in Peru, and as a source of insight into how environmental impact serves in developing regulations of natural resource exploitation. A triangulated mixed-method design is employed: (1) a two-stream literature review of fisheries management and of the fishery's political ecology; (2) a quantitative analysis of daily state-published landings reports; and (3) seven in-depth intensive interviews with key actors in the fishery, conducted in Peru over two field-trips of approximately 2 months in total. Results indicate that although IVQ's supported existing trends towards large-scale economic efficiency and altered extreme competitive strategies previously associated with open access, fishing companies have built larger ships, favour bigger catches and still concentrate fishing effort around a given annual peak. Meanwhile, capacity has again increased in the unregulated artisanal fishery sector. DL1084 appears to reflect a broader process of growing private sector involvement in managing the fishery, made official by its institutionalization of market self-regulation. Ultimately, it evidences deep structure and capacity limitations in the state's ability to govern marine resources. The law was nevertheless seen as a landmark for the environmental legal process in Peru and an opportunity for reform. This thesis suggests that studying such legislations can provide insight into state identity and the evolving relationship between a nation and its geography.