Co-management of Resources and Conflict Management: The Case of the Fishermen's Confreries in Catalonia

Abstract

"One of the most outstanding characteristics of the traditional fishing organizations on the Catalan littoral, the Fishermen's Confreries, has always been their capacity for handling the great majority of the conflicts which arise within their territorial limits. However, at present, with the de-centralization of power resulting from the creation of the autonomous Catalan State, this capacity for conflict management is being severely limited, although the Confreries still maintain a relevant role in the marshaling of the sector, due to the status given to them by the fact that they are public law institutions. This allows them to act alongside the State as co-managers of all fishing activity within the bounds of their respective territorial limits.

"In this paper an attempt is made to show both the ways in which the regimes of appropriation of resources are changing, and the ways of solving the conflicts which these changes are causing. To this end, we shall take as a reference the concepts of operative and property rights through collective election, as defined by Schlager and Ostrom, in order to see how and why, due to the changes mentioned above, a re-definition of the role of fishermen's organizations on the Catalan littoral is currently being produced, provoking an increase in the protagonism of the State to the detriment of the Confreries.

"To do this, we shall briefly outline some of the most significant conflicts that presently exist concerning fishing activity on the Catalan Mediterranean littoral, exposing the different arguments given by each side in order to defend their rights. Through these, we shall see how the concepts of resources and areas of collective appropriation are being re-defined. We shall then describe, for each of the conflicts chosen, the kind of solutions arrived at, and the actors who intervene in the search for these solutions, with the ultimate aim of demonstrating that, despite this apparently unfavorable situation, the Confreries continue to be the only organizations with sufficient legitimacy to deal with the majority of conflicts arising within their territorial limits, sharing with the State the greater part of the responsibility for management of resources and fishing activity."