Beyond individual quotas: The role of trust and cooperation in promoting stewardship of five Australian abalone fisheries

Abstract

Private property rights, such as individual transferable quotas, are thought to encourage fishers to act as resource stewards. To achieve this, however, fishers must be able to cooperate with each other. This paper examines the relationship between trust, cooperation and stewardship in five abalone (Haliotis) fisheries in southeastern Australia. Industry-led resource management initiatives are used as indicators of stewardship, sometimes including substantial sacrifice of catch quota. Higher levels of trust and cooperative capacity enabled greater levels of industry-based resource management in four of the five fisheries. In one case, however, high levels of trust and cooperative capacity di..