Abstract
Institutions, and the collective action that created them and which they enable, can play an important role in poverty eradication. In Norway, the Raw Fish Act passed in 1938 in the aftermath of the international financial crisis that hit the fishing industry hard, and the fishers’ cooperative sales-organizations that it authorized testify to this. Most of all, they helped to empower fishers in their economic transactions throughout the value chain. Since the RFA’s enactment, it has undergone reform that has somewhat changed the mandate of the sales-organizations, but the basic principles and functions remain. Although the historical context and institutional designs of the Raw Fish Act and the cooperative sales-organizations that it mandated, are unique, together they addressed a problem that small-scale fishers are experiencing in other parts of the world - one of poverty, marginalization and exploitation. The Raw Fish Act and the system of mandated, cooperative sales-organizations radically altered this predicament and turned the table in fishers’ favor. The question, therefore, is what lessons do the Norwegian example offer that might be emulated elsewhere?
Highlights
By the turn of the nineteenth century Norway was among the poorest European nations
We argue that institutional designs must be fishery and country specific, the Raw Fish Act (RFA) and the cooperative salesorganization should offer inspiration for similar institutional reforms in other parts of the world
The provision to include this new function was stated as follows in the representation to Parliament (Ot.prp. no. 20, 2007-2008, p.134): “The sales-organizations have good knowledge of the challenges facing the government and fishers in the daily management of the fisheries resources and the control of the harvest.”. This new management function helped create a comanagement system in which sales-organizations were given a broader mandate than the 1951 Raw Fish Act originally instituted. This change was first codified in the 2008 Ocean Resources Act and reiterated most recently in the revised Raw Fish Act of 2013, where paragraph 17 reads: “The government can instruct the sales-organizations to control the accuracy of the catch information even if the catch does not relate to the sales-right of the sales-organization.”
Summary
By the turn of the nineteenth century Norway was among the poorest European nations. Only Greece and Portugal had a lower income level than Norway (Cappelen and Røed Larsen 2005). This rule ensures that the sales-organization is delegated regulatory authority beyond the raw fish price issue to include concerns such as the extent of catches that can be sold to specific buyers outside a particular community or region when there is a glut in the local market and local capacity to buy were too low. 20, 2007-2008, p.134): “The sales-organizations have good knowledge of the challenges facing the government and fishers in the daily management of the fisheries resources and the control of the harvest.” This new management function helped create a comanagement system in which sales-organizations were given a broader mandate than the 1951 Raw Fish Act originally instituted. This change was first codified in the 2008 Ocean Resources Act and reiterated most recently in the revised Raw Fish Act of 2013, where paragraph 17 reads: “The government can instruct the sales-organizations to control the accuracy of the catch information even if the catch does not relate to the sales-right of the sales-organization (our translation, RFA 2013).” Further on, the ministry can describe and regulate how this task should be carried out
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call