Green growth in fisheries

• Green growth has received a lot of attention in recent years.
• A conceptual framework for achieving green growth in fisheries is presented.
• A large potential for green growth is identified.
• The potential green growth is reaped introducing optimal regulation.
• Incentive-based instruments are suggested for capturing green growth potential.

Climate change and economic growth have gained a substantial amount of attention over the last decade. Hence, in order to unite the two fields of interest, the concept of green growth has evolved. The concept of green growth focuses on how to achieve growth in environment-dependent sectors, without harming the environment. Fishery is an environment-dependent sector and it has been argued that there is no potential for green growth in the sector owing to global overexploitation, leaving no scope for production growth. The purpose of this paper is to explain what green growth is and to develop a conceptual framework. Furthermore, the aim is to show that a large green growth potential actually exists in fisheries and to show how this potential can be achieved. The potential green growth appears as value-added instead of production growth. The potential can be achieved by reducing overcapacity, investing in the rebuilding of fish stocks and a coordinated regulation of marine activities that interact with fisheries. Incentive-based regulation of fisheries that counterbalances services of the ecosystems is an important instrument to achieve green growth.