Allocating fishing rights in South Africa: a participatory approach A. R. JOUBERT Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa R. JANSSEN Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands T. J. STEWART Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa Abstract A new fishing rights allocation system was introduced in South Africa in 2001. The system, its appli- cation and the complaints by fishers were assessed. In response to the weaknesses in the 2001 system, a partici- patory multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA)-based approach was proposed as a new system for evaluating applicants. To test the approach, workshops were held with fishers and the authority responsible for allocating rights. The MCDA system allowed the concerns (criteria) of different stakeholders to be integrated into a coherent framework and for their priorities to be reflected in scores and weights. Simple MCDA approaches, accessible to fishers and the authority, were used to elicit scores and weights, thus providing a record of the process and a theoretically justifiable basis for the use of a weighted sum of scores. Although the perception was that the authority and fishersÕ priorities were very different, they proved to be similar and could be accommodated in an integrated system. KEYWORDS: fishing rights allocation, multicriteria decision analysis. Introduction Fishing quota systems have been seen as a solution to the problem of over-capitalisation, of ever-increasing effort, of the derby effect (where fishers rush to harvest as much as possible of the seasonÕs quota where it is not individually allocated), and thus a way to reduce over- fishing. Along with deciding on the duration, divisibil- ity and transferability of the rights, implementation of a quota approach for any fishery faces the questions of: who should get the initial and possible subsequent quotas, how large should the quotas be, and what should they cost (Scott 2000a,b). In most countries where quotas have been introduced, the primary concern has been with reducing effort, over-capitalisa- tion and over-fishing. South Africa has had company quotas since 1979 for hake, Merluccius spp., and the early 1980s for west coast rock lobster, Jasus lalandii (H. Milne-Edwards). Since the late 1990s, the South African government has extended the quota system to most fisheries. With the extension of the quota system and the change to democracy in 1994, there was a need to reduce over-fishing and over-capitalisation, as well as to increase access to the fishery (in the form of fishing rights) of those who had previously been disadvantaged by the apartheid system and therefore had had limited access to quotas or opportunities to exploit their quotas effectively. Adjustment in all spheres of business, government, professions and society to reflect the demographics of South Africa (transformation) is a government priority. The South African governmentÕs choice to extend the quota-based system, the potential inequitable distributional effects of quota systems (Ford 2001 Correspondence: Alison Joubert, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa (e-mail: ajoubert@stats.uct.ac.za) Fisheries Management and Ecology, 2008, 15, 27–37 Ó 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2400.2007.00566.x