Management of fishery resources: tragedies, private appropriation or reinvention of the art of cooperation in governing resources

Starting with the nature of the serious, world-wide fishery crisis, this ar ticle shows that the recent vulnerability of marine ecosystems and resource s, resulting from an obsolete paradigm of rationality and the control of na ture (the seas), cannot be overcome by privatization of access to the resou rces through ITQs. Conversely, the ecosystems approach, open to a reevaluat ion of the historic contribution of the community-based types of management invented by coastal fishing cultures, particularly at risk within the EU, may contribute to the development of more responsible, more democratic gove rnance, at least within those cultures.