Capital Effects in Fisheries The Challenge and Opportunity

Ecotrust Canada’s Fisheries Program

» Our vision is that fisheries and marine resource use meet

the social and economic needs of adjacent communities

without compromising ecological integrity or the ability of

future generations to meet their needs.

Ecotrust Canada’s Fisheries Program

» We work with the fishing industry and the communities

reliant on fishing to build solutions to the challenging and

complex issues facing them.

» Our work on social finance for solution building have been

a part of trying to help address these identified challenges.

Looking back…

» Fisheries were complex and had challenges that required

change, but it was an enviable lifestyle choice, decent

living, full time work, respected by the community, and

steeped with culture and tradition.

Keystone of Culture and Economy

Canadian wild capture seafood industry is worth 3.5+ billion

but that is just one layer of value

T Buck Suzuki, Ecotrust Canada

Keystone of Culture and Economy

Who Fish is Gifted to for Food

Still a Keystone of Culture and Economy

Seafest Prince Rupert 2010

Challenges Facing Fisheries Today

» Shifting allocations and licencing policies

» Failing infrastructure

» Access loss to communities

» “Arm chair fishermen” or Corporate consolidation

» Fluctuating market prices

» Rising costs (lease fees, equipment, monitoring, fuel)

» Competition for ocean space and resource use

» Succession

» High cost of access (licences, quota, season start up)

» And…

Challenges Facing Fisheries Today

» Limited or no access to capital due to:

» High or variable risk nature of industry,

» Lack of credit history and/or low financial literacy

» Minimal capacity to build proposal for financing

» Low understanding of industry by financers

» Those with the greatest access to capital have the

advantage; small boat fishermen or small rural

communities typically don’t have it.

Why Does This Matter?

» Loss of economic benefit to adjacent communities

» Loss of capacity and infrastructure that support other

community needs

» Migration away from community and/or high poverty levels

» Many spin off negative impacts on health and welfare of

communities and citizens on our coast, traditionally reliant

on their local ocean resources.

» Increased costs to society

» And because, there is still hope and opportunity

Turning the Tide

SMFCA Visioning Workshop

Turning the Tide – Building Solutions

» Licence banks/cooperative governance and financial

models

» Community fisheries strategic planning

» Market levers – traceability, labeling and branding

» Innovation in management and monitoring tools

Fisheries Diversification

Database

Community Objectives

Decision points

Historical/ Ecological data

Revenue data

Socioeconomic & Cost data

Risk/Future Indicators

Multiple Scenarios

Basket of Fish

Long term fisheries/PICFI planning and economic

independence

Minimize exposure to risk/ Vulnerability for fishery

Policy Change

INPUTS

OUTPUTS

Building Solutions – Community planning

Building Solutions – Connecting to Markets

Lots of Work to do

» Supportive policy environment

» Supportive and diverse markets

» Educated seafood buyers and eaters

» Local business development capacity

» Aware and informed financial institutions and financers

Need Access to Capital!

Types of Social Finance,

and Current Reality

Reality of what is available

What is most often needed to

make the desired change

Need Capital For a Range of

Enabling Activity

» Season start up

» Fishery start up

» Infrastructure development

» Business and market development

Necessary Conditions to Enable Financing

» Must have security of access to leverage investment from

both outside financers and fishermen.

» Need collaboration and economy of scale to acquire and

maintain markets and improve business case

» Good governance and management plans designed to

achieve triple bottom line objectives.

» Complimentary regulatory environment

» Need capacity and facilitation to connect the opportunity

to those willing to consider innovative social finance.

The Opportunity

» Reverse current trends and regain benefits back to the

community and to fishermen.

» Coordinating assets through broader collaboration, can

reduce risk, and maximize benefit.

» ROI for fishermen, communities, and financers can be

greatly increased by building local viable and sustainable

fleets.

» Social finance is designed to address just such an

opportunity; fisheries can be a great example of how to do

social finance right with high triple bottom line returns

Thank you for listening!

For more information contact

Tasha Sutcliffe at tasha@ecotrust.ca