Non-state actors and global fisheries governance

Sammanfattning: Transboundary policy problems such as overfishing of shared fish stocks, or illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing represent significant governance challenges. States have established international legal frameworks and engage in international organizations (e.g., Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, RFMOs), to address these challenges. The ability of states and the effectiveness of these organizations has been criticized and many problems remain. In addition to states, however, non-state actors (NSAs), including international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), multinational corporations, business associations, and research organizations, also matter for governanceoutcomes. Such actors engage by directly participating in RFMOs, and by forming transnational partnerships (sometimes with state actors). Despite a growing literature in global environmental governance and sustainability science on NSAs, there is no conclusive evidence on the conditions for NSA participation, the factors shaping advocacy strategies used, and the implications for effectiveness from their engagement. This licentiate thesis explore these research gaps by presenting two papers. Paper Istudies the long-term effects of INGO participation on effectiveness (indicated by target fish stocks health) across seven RFMOs, and the conditions for INGO participation. It finds that INGO participation is shape by the RFMOs own institutional capacity, and by competitive pressures from other NSAs. It does not finds that INGO participation and RFMO effectiveness are correlated, indicating a lack of ability or incentives for INGOs to engages as target fish stock health declines. Paper IIstudies the variation in advocacy strategies used by transnational partnerships to shape IUU fishing policy. It finds that transnational partnerships engage in advocacy and extensively use inside strategies, e.g. by engaging directly with policymakers and participating in international organizations, in combination with service provision strategies, e.g. monitoring at sea or in ports. It also finds that changes in the institutional environment pertaining to the increasing institutional complexity, as well as in the policy environment related to increasing complexity and salience of IUU fishing shapes the strategies used by transnational partnerships. Taken together, this thesis contributes to ongoing debates about NSAs participation and implications for effectiveness in the literatures on global environmental governance and sustainability science, and illustrates the benefit of considering factors in the institutional and policy environment for understanding conditions for NSA participation and strategies.