Evaluation of Water Bioresources Management Efficiency in Domestic Fishing Industry

• Main Author: Mikhailova Elena G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Vologda Research Center 2018-03-01
• Series: Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
• Subjects: efficiency; decoupling; fishing industry; water bioresources; resource efficiency; eco- efficiency
• Online Access: http://esc.vscc.ac.ru/article/2508/full?_lang=en

Efficient use of natural resources is an integral part of sustainable development. Resource management efficiency criteria should cover all components of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social. The purpose for the study is to assess the possibility of applying tools for measuring natural resources management efficiency in relation to water biological resources. The most developed are methodological approaches to assessing the economic efficiency of resource management. Despite the importance of environmental assessment and the availability of the methodological framework, there still remain some gaps in data availability for analyzing the impact of the fishing industry on the environment. The specific features of natural resources extraction and processing are particularly evident in indicators of environmental efficiency of resource saving. The paper substantiates the importance of taking into account emissions of water bioresources, unreported fishing, technological losses in assessing water bioresources management efficiency. We calculated indicators characterizing economic efficiency of water bioresources management in Russia in 2010–2015: material efficiency, fuel efficiency, and resource efficiency. The increase in material and fuel efficiency indicates an increase in the economic efficiency of material cost in the fishing industry. The growth in resource efficiency was significantly less than the growth in cost indicators: the average growth rate was about 2 percent in six years. It is proposed to evaluate social efficiency taking into account the interests of both industry workers and consumers of fish and fish products. The obtained estimates of social efficiency indicate the redistribution of effect from consumers to producers, rather than increased efficiency. As a result of assessing the performance of indicators of water bioresources usage, the effect of resource decoupling in the fishing industry has not been revealed. The existing gaps in the availability of statistics on the impact of fishing on the environment impede full application of the impact decoupling method. In order to reveal the impact decoupling, is proposed to use the indicator of trawling time as an indirect indicator of environmental impact on the example of pollock fishery. The article focuses on information support of environmental, economic and social efficiency assessment of resource use in the fishing industry. The applied methods include quantitative description and data analysis: calculation of absolute and relative indicators, time series construction, correlation analysis, and comparative analysis