TY - JOUR
T1 - Voodoo versus fishing committees
T2 - The role of traditional and contemporary institutions in fisheries management
AU - Briones Alonso, Elena
AU - Houssa, Romain
AU - Verpoorten, Marijke
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - We study the co-existence of two community-based institutions for fisheries management in Benin: a traditional institution embedded in the Voodoo religion and a recent secular institution in the form of fishing committees. Using household survey data on fishing activities, we find that rules of both institutions have a statistically significant but small impact on the use of unsustainable fishing gear. We further find that Voodoo fishers who break the traditional Voodoo-based rule follow the fishing committee rule to the same extent as other fishers. This finding is consistent with a possible transition from the traditional Voodoo-based institution to the secular fishing committee institution. More research is needed to fully assess the effectiveness of, and interactions between, the two institutions.
AB - We study the co-existence of two community-based institutions for fisheries management in Benin: a traditional institution embedded in the Voodoo religion and a recent secular institution in the form of fishing committees. Using household survey data on fishing activities, we find that rules of both institutions have a statistically significant but small impact on the use of unsustainable fishing gear. We further find that Voodoo fishers who break the traditional Voodoo-based rule follow the fishing committee rule to the same extent as other fishers. This finding is consistent with a possible transition from the traditional Voodoo-based institution to the secular fishing committee institution. More research is needed to fully assess the effectiveness of, and interactions between, the two institutions.
KW - Benin
KW - Community-based natural resource management
KW - Fisheries
KW - Institutions
KW - Religion
KW - Voodoo
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84951779027&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.024
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.11.024
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84951779027
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 122
SP - 61
EP - 70
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -