Should we pay small-scale fishers to protect threatened sharks?

Following the success for sharks at CITES, we’d like to discuss our recent research on incentive-based approaches to reduce catches of threatened and CITES-listed sharks while ensuring coastal communities don’t suffer as a result of conservation.

In a landmark decision, governments from across the world have recently agreed to limit or regulate most of the global shark fin trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This has been hailed as a ‘game-changer’, as it stipulates that international trade in many threatened species is kept within sustainable limits. However, much work remains for this decision to deliver gains for threatened sharks.