مدیریت شیلات دریایی و ساحلی در تایوان برای رسیدن به توسعه پایدار با استفاده از شاخص های سیاست

This study establishes an offshore and coastal fisheries policy indicator system to evaluate the performance of policies to achieve sustainable development in offshore and coastal fisheries. A modified Delphi method is used to establish this system, and the weights of indicators are calculated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to aggregate indicators. Results show that ecological policies have not achieved their goals because production and catch per unit effort are decreasing. Indicators with respect to management efficiency have increased after the implementation of the buyback and off-fishing programs. However, net returns indicator, which is affected by increasing cost and production value, is stable. Due to inefficient management resulting from insufficient resources, indicators for the number of illegal fishing cases per year and the number of smuggled aquatic production incidents have increased. This shows that requirement for enhanced compliance is necessary. The objective for cultivating talents in fisheries has not been achieved because average wage for fishers is lower than the average civil wage, resulting in an increase in the hiring of foreign fishers.

World War II resulted in a decrease in the production of offshore and coastal fisheries in Taiwan. Subsequently, between 1946 and 1950, the Taiwan government set goals to restore marine capture fisheries and promoted several policy measures, such as programs for repairing fishing vessels and fishing material provision to enhance offshore and coastal fisheries [1]. A five-stage, each taking four years, economic construction plan from 1953 to 1973 was initiated by the government to encourage production in fisheries. The first and second stages were crucial (1953–1960),in which they focused on offshore and coastal fisheries, and provided aid to fishermen to build fishing vessels using loans from America. This fishing vessel on loan program was implemented to ensure that all fishermen actively engaged in fishing. The Taiwanese government introduced a program to freeze the licensing of bull trawlers less than 120 GRT and otter trawlers less than 300 GRT to prevent the decline of offshore and coastal fishery resources. A program to install artificial reefs and cultivate coastal fishery resource was implemented in 1974. 25 fishery resources conservation areas were established in 1978 to release fish fries. A program to investigate and evaluate coastal fishery resources conservation and artificial reef areas as part of the “agriculture structure promotion and farmer wage increase” plan was implemented to enhance the resources of offshore and coastal fisheries in 1986 [2]. The Executive Yuan implemented the fishery development program to conserve resources in 1990. In 1991, a program on zero-increase in fishery production was implemented, which showed that the government focused fishery policies on eco-friendly fisheries, sustainable development, and the increase of income of fishermen through multi-operation. A seventh program to freeze fishing license was also introduced in 1991. Almost 30% of large-scale longline fishing vessels and 18% of coastal fishing vessels were scrapped from 1991 to 2008 [3] (Fig. 1).In the past 40 years, the number of fishing vessels increased 3.24 times, while total tonnage and horsepower of fishing vessels increased 7.82 times and 35.18 times, respectively [4]. Production of offshore and coastal fisheries has decreased from 370.9 thousand tons in 1980 to 135.4 thousand tons in 2007 [5], and the composition of fish species has also changed considerably [6]. These figures show the decline in fishery resources and over-investment. Consequently, the socio-economic benefits of fisheries have also decreased [4], [7] and [8]. Despite considerable efforts by the Taiwanese government, the status quo of offshore and coastal fisheries is generally unacceptable [9]. Therefore, it is worth evaluating the policies of offshore and coastal fisheries of Taiwan using policy indicators that are based on ecological, economic, and livelihood dimensions to find gaps between the goals and achievements of these policies.

It is crucial to evaluate the performance of measures in sustainable fisheries using policy indicator systems. The Taiwanese government has implemented several measures; however, their effectiveness is limited. In the ecological dimension, officers (0.364) and scholars (0.368) regarded natural habitat (C4) as crucial in enabling the Taiwanese government to emphasize the promotion of marine-protected areas and positive community-based management [11] and [45]. In the production dimension, although measures such as fishing boat reduction (I6) and suspension of fishing activities (I7) have been implemented successfully, the net monetary return has not increased due to an increase in costs (I14). This shows that both policies require adjustments, especially with regard to targets ( Fig. 7). In the livelihood dimension, a decrease in the ratio of the average wage of fishers to the average civil wage (I23) has resulted in social issues, especially a decrease in the number of Taiwanese fishermen and an increase in foreign fishing crews. This has resulted in safety issues for the captains and crews of fishing vessels. Furthermore, illegal fishing and smuggling may have increased as a result of insufficient enforcement from a shortage of enforcement officers ( Fig. 8). Therefore, it is crucial for the Taiwanese government to acquire new patrol boats and to establish and strengthen institutions for the training of fishing enforcement officers to strengthen the enforcement of fisheries.