Having the cake and eating it too: To manage or own the Svalbard Fisheries Protection Zone

Abstract

The Svalbard Fisheries Protection Zone (SFPZ) is an international institution that is on an institutional path that is gradually moving it towards a transformation into a Norwegian property regime. Disturbances to this institutionalization have historically come from fisheries disputes. However, there are other valuable resources in these waters that are harvestable, and the implications of future offshore oil drilling within the SFPZ and climate change causing rising temperatures and new species compositions in the area are possibly much greater. Though other actors routinely challenge Norway's inspection routines in the zone, this article suggests that as a management regime, it is a surprisingly robust institution still in its current state. This is especially true with regards to the de facto cooperation with Russia on fisheries issues. Russia has much to gain by Norway being de jure owners of the Svalbard zone, in terms of fisheries protection and the prevention of undesirable activities in the SFPZ. But although this relationship is relatively strong in the present, potential future changes may upset this delicate balance and be too critical of a juncture.