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Tuna Dreams: Resource Nationalism and the Pacific Islands' Tuna Industry

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  • Rachel A. Schurman

Abstract

The 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea was expected by many to lead to a drastic redistribution of income from the world's fisheries. This article explores the extent to which this happened by examining the case of the Pacific Islands' tuna industry. The analysis shows that even though these developing countries gained legal jurisdiction over some of the largest tuna stocks in the world, they encountered tremendous obstacles when they attempted to convert those tenure rights into concrete economic gains. Notwithstanding their success in organizing and co‐operating amongst themselves, the Pacific Island countries (PICs) were unable to compel the distant water fishing nations to pay them more than a nominal access fee. When the PICs tried instead to develop their own tuna industries, they were disadvantaged by being located at the raw material end of the commodity chain. This case study suggests that a change in property rights is only a starting point for achieving increased equity in a global natural resource industry; not only do the new resource owners have to develop expertise in managing their ‘property’; they also need to develop a good understanding of the organization and operation of these natural resource industries.

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  • Rachel A. Schurman, 1998. "Tuna Dreams: Resource Nationalism and the Pacific Islands' Tuna Industry," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 107-136, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:29:y:1998:i:1:p:107-136
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00072
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    Cited by:

    1. Nichols, Rachel & Yamazaki, Satoshi & Jennings, Sarah & Watson, Reg A., 2015. "Fishing access agreements and harvesting decisions of host and distant water fishing nations," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 77-85.
    2. Li, Wenhua & Adachi, Tsuyoshi, 2017. "Quantitative estimation of resource nationalism by binary choice logit model for panel data," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 247-258.
    3. Petersen, Elizabeth H., 2002. "Economic Policy, Institutions And Fisheries Development In The Pacific," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19606, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Gibbon, Peter, 2001. "Upgrading Primary Production: A Global Commodity Chain Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 345-363, February.
    5. Cramer, Christopher, 1999. "Can Africa Industrialize by Processing Primary Commodities? The Case of Mozambican Cashew Nuts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1247-1266, July.

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