The Trap Behind Peru’s Anchoveta Fisheries Management
A new study by Humboldt Tipping members shows that Peru's efforts to regulate anchoveta are unintentionally failing to achieve the goal of making the fishery more sustainable and stopping overfishing. Since the 1990s, the government has introduced laws to try and make the growth of the anchoveta sector sustainable. However, instead of solving the problem, these policies strengthened and empowered large industrial players and some small-scale fishers, who quickly adapted to market demands but left traditional fishers behind.
The research shows how informal and illegal activities have become intertwined with formal practices, creating what are known as socio-ecological traps. In these traps, social inequalities and environmental damage (in this case, the depletion of anchoveta biomass) reinforce each other, making it increasingly difficult to change the system. Powerful groups benefit from the blurred boundaries between legal and illegal activities, finding ways to bypass restrictive policies like fishing quotas and vessel permits that were specifically designed to prevent overfishing.
How can these socio-ecological traps be avoided? The study suggests two changes: first, all fishing groups, not just the most powerful, must be involved in real decision-making processes over how marine resources are managed. Second, regulations must be enforced across all sectors to prevent resource depletion, even when it may slow economic growth.
To learn more about socio-ecological traps, how they are formed, and how they influence Peru’s anchoveta industry, you can access the full paper here.
Original publication:
Damonte, Gerardo, Isabel Gonzales, and Susana Higueras. “The Elusive Sustainable Growth: The Formation of Institutional Socio-Ecological Traps in Peruvian Anchoveta Fisheries.” Marine Policy 176 (2025): 106657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106657.
