Legitimate network governance in small-scale fisheries in northern Chile

ABSTRACT

By introducing Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries (TURF), the Chilean government has devolved authority over the appropriation of benthic fisheries to local fishers’ organisations. Yet there is little evidence of how this local governance works for membership organisations. Drawing on the theory of lateral network governance, the role of legitimacy in governance outcomes is examined by conducting a comparative case study of two TURF networks in northern Chile. Counterintuitively, more effective governance outcomes were found in the TURF network characterised by a less favourable legitimacy structure of decision-making than the case with a better legitimacy structure. Considering context and network evolution, it is suggested that although organisational renewal and high membership turnover potentially fragment legitimacy, they also enable novel collective action and better governance outcomes. The observed divergence of actual legitimacy from formal governance structure underscores the need for dynamic analysis of collective resource governance beyond the formal chart.

摘要

智利北部小型渔业网络治理的合法性. Area Development and Policy. 通过引入 “渔业领土使用权”(TURF), 智利政府将底栖渔场的使用权下放给了当地渔民组织。然而,少有研究证明此类地方治理如何作用于组织内的成员。基于横向网络治理理论,我们通过对智利北部两个 TURF 网络进行了比较案例研究,考察了合法性在治理结果中的作用。与直觉相反,我们发现在决策合法性结构较差的 TURF 网络中,其治理结果比合法性结构较好的网络更有效。考虑到背景和网络的演化,我们认为,虽然组织的更新和较高的成员更替率可能会破坏合法性,但它们也能促成新的集体行动和更好的治理结果。在实际合法性与正式治理结构之间所观察到的差异强调了,对正式网络结构之外的集体资源治理进行动态分析的必要性。

RESUMEN

Gobernanza en red legítima en la pesca artesanal del norte de Chile. Area Development and Policy. Con la introducción de los Derechos Territoriales de Uso para la Pesca (TURF), el gobierno chileno ha delegado la autoridad sobre la apropiación de las pesquerías bentónicas a las organizaciones de pescadores locales. Sin embargo, hay escasa evidencia de cómo funciona esta gobernanza local para las organizaciones de membresía. A partir de la teoría de la gobernanza lateral de redes, se examina el papel de la legitimidad en los resultados de la gobernanza mediante un estudio comparativo de dos redes TURF situadas en el norte de Chile. Contraintuitivamente, se observaron resultados de gobernanza más eficaces en la red TURF con una estructura de legitimidad en la toma de decisiones menos favorable, en comparación con el caso en que dicha estructura era mejor. Considerando el contexto y la evolución de la red, cabe sugerir que, aunque la renovación organizativa y la alta rotación de miembros fragmentan potencialmente la legitimidad, también impulsan una acción colectiva novedosa y mejores resultados de gobernanza. La divergencia observada entre la legitimidad practicada y la estructura formal de gobernanza subraya la necesidad de un análisis dinámico de la gobernanza de los recursos colectivos más allá del esquema formal.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Законное сетевое управление в мелкомасштабном рыболовстве на севере Чили. Area Development and Policy. Введя территориальные права на рыболовство (TURF), правительство Чили передало полномочия по присвоению донных рыбных запасов местным организациям рыбаков. Тем не менее, доступно немного свидетельств того, как это местное управление работает для членских организаций. Опираясь на теорию латерального сетевого управления, авторы исследуют роль легитимности в результатах управления путем проведения сравнительного тематического исследования двух сетей TURF на севере Чили. Вопреки здравому смыслу, более эффективные результаты управления были обнаружены в сети TURF, характеризующейся менее благоприятной структурой легитимности принятия решений, чем в случае с лучшей структурой легитимности. Учитывая контекст и эволюцию сети, предполагается, что, хотя обновление организации и высокая текучесть членов потенциально подрывают легитимность, они также обеспечивают новые коллективные действия и лучшие результаты управления. Наблюдаемое расхождение фактической легитимности с формальной структурой управления подчеркивает необходимость динамического анализа коллективного управления ресурсами за рамками формальной схемы.

KEYWORDS:

• Benthic fisheries
• collaboration
• decision-making
• governance
• legitimacy
• networks
• Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries

关键词:

• 底栖渔业
• 协作
• 决策
• 治理
• 合法性
• 网络
• 渔业领土使用权

Palabras clave:

• pesca bentónica
• colaboración
• toma de decisiones
• gobernanza
• legitimidad
• redes
• derechos de uso territorial para la pesca

Ключевые слова:

• донный промысел
• сотрудничество
• принятие решений
• управление
• легитимность
• сети
• права территориального использования для рыболовства

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their sincere gratitude to the fishers’ organisations of the Tarapacá region of Chile, who provided valuable collaboration in the pilot study and who supported the empirical fieldwork. Likewise, thanks are extended to the public agencies and consultants who generously shared their expertise with this research. In addition, the authors acknowledge the constructive comments and suggestions by the anonymous reviewers to earlier versions of this manuscript.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2023.2289368

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Chilean abalone is only the trade name for Concholepas concholepas, due to its similarity to other abalone species and its culinary use. Strictly speaking, however, it belongs to the Muricidae family and not to the Haliotidae family.

2. Difference between SERNAPESCA’s official membership list and the organisation’s list of the TURF network.

3. We have drawn the data in this section from the interviews and cross-checked them with private SUBPESCA and SERNAPESCA documents obtained under a confidentiality agreement. Rather than presenting specific landings data, we report on percentage variances. Landings statistics for both loco and sea urchin are based on commercial measurements of benthic species, and are measured in units. The regional price per unit of both resources is linked to the US dollar exchange rate used in December 2018.

4. The faction analysis does not always offer a unique best solution and some members could be sorted into different factions as they have an equal number of ties to members in different factions. In such cases we have used substantive knowledge of the case to sort them into the most appropriate faction. The factions used in our analysis achieve a high goodness of fit as measured by the final proportion correct. This ratio measures the extent to which the observed network, including ties running across factions and ties missing within factions, fits a perfect factional structure. Theoretically, in a perfect faction structure, there are no ties between factions, whereas all ties are realised within the factions (Carolan, 2014). In the case of Phisqa we measure a final proportion correct of over 80% and in Tunka of over 63%.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst [grant number 91609001].