Open to All?: Reassessing Capture Fisheries Tenure Systems in Southern Laos

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Abstract

Capture fisheries are among the many different common property resources in the Mekong River Basin described as being historically ‘open access’. It is widely accepted that this continues to be the case, and that a ‘tragedy of the commons’ is therefore inevitable. The myth that all fisheries resources in southern Laos were historically ‘open access’ is challenged in this chapter. Using the examples of the fence-filter trap and wing-trap fishery system in the Khone Falls area of Khong District, Champasak Province, the operation of fence-filter and wing traps along perennial and seasonal streams in southern Laos, and the pit-trap fishery system in Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province, it is demonstrated that pre-existing tenure systems for fisheries management are far from being ‘open access’. Rather, private resource ownership is socially and culturally sanctioned in these ecologically and socially very different fisheries, as part of a common property management system based on first claims to fishing sites and labor inputs. ‘Open access’ rarely exists in southern Laos, something that may not become evident without sustained field observations. However, discursively characterizing fisheries as ‘open access’ can be used to justify interventions by government and outside agencies.

Keywords

Common property resources Inland fisheries Mekong River Open access Tragedy of the commons 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

I thank Somphong Bounphasy and Kaikeo Oudomxay from the Global Association for People and the Environment (GAPE) for adding to my knowledge about pit-trap fisheries operation and management in Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province. I am also grateful for comments provided on an earlier draft by Roger Mollot and Kenneth Ruddle. Responsibility for any remaining shortcomings is mine alone.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of GeographyUniversity of Wisconsin-MadisonMadisonUSA

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