Relational resource geographies of beche-de-mer under moratorium/
Lucas Watt
- 2024
Moratorium is a common marine resource management strategy used by nation‐states that abruptly reclassifies the harvesting and trade of designated resources as ‘illegal’ for a defined period. Nation‐states use moratoria to help ecological stocks of overharvested marine species to recover. This article examine how the moratorium affected relational trade flows of beche‐de‐mer. Through the ethnographic fieldwork, it detail how beche‐de‐mer continued to be traded during and post moratorium within such a relational resource geography. It argue that the relational ties between itaukei communities and Chinese‐Fijian buyers that subsequently connect to international markets undermined the moratorium restrictions, as well as the new conditionalities of trade after the moratorium was lifted. Such relationality in the marine resource trade renders moratoria an ineffective marine resource management strategy as it is inattentive to Pacific context.