These are the key findings from research conducted by centre researchers Henrik Österblom and Beatrice Crona, with colleagues. In their Science article Globalisation — Roving bandits and Marine Resources, they describe how market demands put a growing strain on local marine resources.

Now The Swedish FAO committee have taken an interest in the issue.
 
- It is uplifting that the Swedish FAO committee follows up on this. There is a growing awareness that illegal fisheries and roving bandits are important barriers to sustainability. It is very interesting to note that our efforts as scientists to map these phenomenon only a few years ago, is already making its way into this discussion paper primarily aimed to policy makers, which we hope can influence the priorities of the Swedish FAO committee, says Henrik Österblom.
 
Rapidly changing market demands
In their report to the Swedish FAO committee, Österblom and Crona describe how mobile traders, better know as ‘roving bandits´, take advantage of slack trade rules and ruthlessly harvest from unprotected marine resources in order to feed the growing market demands. The result is a depletion of local fish stocks that literally pushes the boundaries for what is sustainable exploitation.
 
In scientific circles, the effect of roving bandits have been coined as 'the tragedy of commons', whereby a freely accessible resource is competently depleted. Whatever is not taken by one harvester, will be taken by the next.
 
The unregulated harvest for green sea urchins in Maine during the mid-1980s is an example of this. Following the depletion of its main predator, cod, green sea urchins grew so rapidly in numbers that it drew the attention of the Japanese sushi market, which is known for its dependence on sea urchins.
 
Spurred by Japanese market demand, an unregulated harvest began in 1987. Within ten years, the green sea urchin population had almost become extinct.
 
- This is the result of market dynamics developing so fast that local institutions fail to delay the exploitation of the resources available, says Beatrice Crona.

Increasing ecological vulnerability
Furthermore, the change of food webs and decreasing biodiversity erodes the resilience of marine ecosystems and renders them vulnerable to environmental changes.
 
- The increasing fishing pressure on coral reefs is a result of increasing market demands from areas such as restaurants and aquariums. This has led to overfished reefs left increasingly vulnerable to hurricanes and mortality caused by global warning, Crona says.
 
Multilevel problem solving necessary
So far, Österblom and Crona say, attempts to halt the rapid exploitation have proven inefficient, mainly because present regulations fail to be enacted in time. Once the regulations have been put in place, the resources have already been harvested close to the point of extinction, in many cases.
 
Together with fellow author Beatrice Crona, Österblom recommends specific action to be taken in order to reverse the expanding depletion of harvested species:
 
- Appropriate restraining institutions must be put in place before the supply is at risk

- Global, regional and national bodies must monitor trade and resource trends and disseminate problem-solving information

- Harvesting permits, certification and control over delivery of products must be implemented in order to slow down the commercial demand

- Property rights and co-management regimes must encourage local protection
 
Furthermore, multilevel governance institutions operating on both a local and international level are necessary in order to help any initiatives to succeed.

Source: Crona, B. and Österblom, H., 2008,  Swedish FAO Committee Publication series 5 ISSN: 1652-9316