Changing Fisheries Management Institutions in the French Mediterranean

Abstract

"In the French Mediterranean, local institutions devoted to fisheries management exit since the 14th century. They are called Prud'homies. Originally, they received from the king the power to design and enforce regulation for the sake of fisheries management over a territory, including the possibility to stand as a court. One of their duties was to ensure 'equal access to the resources for their members'. There is one Prud'homie for each fishing port and its leader, the Prud'homme, is elected by the fishermen assembly.

"This continued until 1945, when the state created a new type of fishermen organisation. This is a pyramidal non elective system with local fisheries committees (CLP) and a central committee of marine fisheries (CCPM). In the Mediterranean, the local committees took over part of the Prud'homies authority with the mandate of 'resource management', the implementation power being transformed to the administration. In practice, fisheries management and dispute settlement used mainly the Prud'homies. The transition from a local guild-type of representation to an administrative representation failed and until 1993 the CLP played a minor role in decision-making.

"In 1992, a reform of the national system gave more legitimacy to local committees by making them elective and extended their competence. Crew and skippers now vote for their local representatives both in local committees and Prud'homies. Although the respective roles are clearly defined by the law, many legitimacy and competence conflicts arise today. The CLP proposes regulations, the administration implements them and the Prud'homie has a conciliation function. The Prud'homie went to the court to dispute the election of local committee members. The paper seeks to analyse this conflicting situation between the two institutions. This project is part of the European Union Commission funded research project 'Management of Renewable Resources: institutions, regional difference and conflict avoidance related to environmental policies and illustrated by marine resource management.'"