The importance of the fisheries sector for small islands developing states

Abstract

Fish and fishery related activities play major role in islanders' lifestyles and have the power to determine the life of coastal societies. This is the case of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a group of states which has the closest link between people and the surrounding them ocean. From centuries, the inhabitants of these states rely on sea food, as the nature has deprived most of the islands from biodiversity richness. At the same tune, evolution led to the eventual creation of unique species, which highlight the incredibly expressed endemism of life forms. In a sharp contrast to terrestrial life, the marine is shared with bigger part states around the globe, as most commercially targeted fish are either straddling or migratory. A huge step ahead for SIDS members with oceanic access has been the obtained control over enormous sea territory as a result of the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) decisions. The introduction of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), ensured them significant spring of income from harvesting the marine resources, but also obliged them with some duties with regard to the management of these areas. The approach, chosen for this dissertation is case studies. By using this method, in order to reveal in what degree the selected states are making use of their apparent advantage, awarded to them from the memorable 1982 convention, this study includes comparison between the selected for this study states and one developed country, sharing same characteristics with SIDS, namely New Zealand. With its land surface of 270,534 sq km, EEZ as big as 4,053,000 sq km and populated from slightly more than four million people New Zealand's features resemble to the respective indicators of Papua New Guinea. By comparing some economic indicators, this research will try to reveal the differences in standards and what is determining disparities in terms of benefit from exploitation of ocean surfaces.