Fiskefria Omrrden Ur Ett Samhhllsekonomiskt Perspektiv: En Konceptuell Analys (An Economic Perspective on Marine Protected Areas: A Conceptual Analysis)

Abstract

Swedish Abstract: Huvudsyftet med foreliggande rapport ar att pa ett overgripande och konceptuellt plan beskriva inneborden av en samhallsekonomisk nytto- och kostnadsanalys, eller samhallsekonomisk bedomning, och hur en sadan kan och bor genomforas for att analysera samhallsnyttan av fiskefria omraden. Vidare syftar rapporten till att exemplifiera vilken typ av empiriska data och metoder som finns tillgangliga for en sadan analys med hjalp av den fritidsfiskeundersokning som arligen gors i regi av Hav och Vattenmyndigheten.English Abstract: The main purpose of this report is to give a general and conceptual plan outline of the implications of a socio-economic cost benefit analysis, and how this can and should be conducted to analyze the social benefit of fishing free zones. Furthermore, the report aims to exemplify the type of empirical data and methods available for such analysis with the help of the recreational fishing survey carried out annually under the auspices of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. Socio-economic cost benefit analysis is a well-established tool for various socio-economic operations and projects. As such, such analyzes thus provide useful information for decision-making. The report is structured as following. Section 2 provides a very general description of recreational fishing along the Swedish coast. In the section 3 a brief account of the legislation and the rules that govern recreational fishing is provided. A description of the fishing-free areas along the Swedish coast and in the Swedish Great Lakes region, as well as the rationale for their establishment, is given in section 4. Section 5 provides a brief and perfunctory account on the theoretical foundations of welfare economic analysis, with a focus on economic efficiency. An account of how an economic analysis should be implemented specifically for fishing free areas given in Section 6. Practical methods to value non-market goods in general, and how these can be used to estimate the benefits and costs as a result of fishing free areas are outlined in section 7. In section 8 a relatively simple empirical illustration, based on data from the above mentioned recreational fishing survey is provided. Section 9, finally, provides some concluding remarks.