Navigating the Trilemma. Fishery Policy between Economic, Societal and Environmental Sustainability.

Worldwide, national fishery policy agencies struggle to navigate between resource management, economic development for fishermen, and concerns for the livelihood of coastal communities. These concerns overlap the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The challenges tend to be ascribed to either limited access to fishery recourses, limited economic resources, or downward demographic trends in coastal regions. However, we argue that the problem of fisheries sustainability is one of an inherent fishery policy trilemma that faces coastal nations across the globe. The trilemma consists of three policy goals that imply that solving any two, counter solving of the third. The three policy goals are 1) to secure a sustainable resource management, 2) to secure economic sustainability through increased productivity for the fleet, and 3) to secure jobs and livelihood for the coastal population – a social sustainability.

We demonstrate the trilemma through a critical case study of the Norwegian fisheries policy. Norway is one of the richest countries in the world. It is also one of the largest fishing nations, as well as a country with a well-functioning welfare state. Thus, if challenges facing fishery nations worldwide was a result of limited fish recourses, economic resources, or lack of rural development options, Norway would be one of the least likely countries to face such challenges. Yet, in this paper we demonstrate a series of fishery policy problems in Norway best ascribed to the fishery policy trilemma, and based on this, we discuss the challenges of sustainable development in fisheries.

The data in this study is policy documents from the last 30 years, as well as statistics on the structural development of fisheries and coastal communities.