Individual vessel quotas in Germany and Denmark: A fair distribution process?

Sustainability is one of the main focuses of the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Drawing on the definition of Brundtland (Our common future: world commission on environment and development, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987) the evaluation of a fishery management regime calls for the investigation of its impact on sustainability of the fishery. An important aspect of that is inter- and intra-generational fairness in the distribution of access rights. Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) schemes are widely discussed management systems that allow for economic rationalization and are expected to entail increased economic efficiency in the fishery. In order to analyze the impacts of ITQs on sustainability, we focus on three major concerns of inter- and intra-generational fairness connected to ITQs, using the examples of hte German and Danish quota systems: the initial allocation of quota shares, changes in the fleet structure, and the implications for newcomers in the fishing industry. In this chapter, we investigate the just use of quota management exemplified by ITQ systems in Germany and Denmark. The methodology of investigating intra- and intergenerational fairness is first explained before this approach is applied to the German and Danish fisheries quota management systems. The last section discusses the results and examines whether ITQs can be classified as a sustainable and thus inter- and intra-generationally just management tool.