The Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS), Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Wildlife Conservation Society, New York City, NY, USA.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 Jun;5(6):715-725. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01444-w. Epub 2021 May 10.
Economic activities in the ocean (that is, the 'blue economy') provide value to society, yet also jeopardize marine ecosystems. For example, fisheries are an essential source of income and food security for billions of people, yet bycatch poses a major threat to marine biodiversity, creating trade-offs between economic growth and biodiversity conservation. This Perspective explores bycatch levies as a market-based instrument for reconciling these trade-offs. We outline the theory and practice of bycatch levies to demonstrate how they could incentivize bycatch prevention and raise revenue for compensatory conservation, provided they are well designed, as part of a policy mix for sustainable and equitable ocean governance. We then explore ways forward for mainstreaming bycatch levies into the blue economy. While compensatory bycatch mitigation has been controversial, increasing adoption of net outcome approaches to biodiversity conservation suggests they could become mainstreamed within the next decade. Bycatch levies could raise billions of dollars towards closing global biodiversity financing gaps, delivering net outcomes for biodiversity under the United Nations Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework while enabling blue growth, and moving towards win-wins for economic welfare and biodiversity conservation.
海洋经济活动（即“蓝色经济”）为社会带来价值，但也危及海洋生态系统。例如，渔业是数十亿人的重要收入和粮食安全来源，但副渔获物对海洋生物多样性构成了重大威胁，在经济增长和生物多样性保护之间产生了权衡。本观点探讨了副渔获物征费作为一种基于市场的手段，以调和这些权衡。我们概述了副渔获物征费的理论和实践，以展示它们如何能够激励副渔获物的预防，并为补偿性保护筹集资金，前提是它们设计得当，作为可持续和公平的海洋治理政策组合的一部分。然后，我们探讨了将副渔获物征费纳入蓝色经济的前进道路。虽然补偿性副渔获物缓解措施一直存在争议，但越来越多的人采用生物多样性保护的净结果方法表明，它们可能在未来十年内成为主流。副渔获物征费可以为全球生物多样性融资缺口筹集数十亿美元，在联合国 2020 年后全球生物多样性框架下实现生物多样性的净结果，同时促进蓝色增长，并实现经济福利和生物多样性保护的双赢。
