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In the News

Tragedy of the Commons - Illegal overfishing by Chinese trawlers leaves Sierra Leone locals ‘starving’

Graham Watson

1st February 2022

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Common access resources will always suffer from over-exploitation, and in this case it's the oceans off the West African coast that are been over-fished by the Chinese.

This is a topic that I've looked at over many years, and still it continues.

Not only is this problematic because of the negative externalities that result, but it also seems to have adverse distributional consequences because Chinese fishermen are exploiting the scare fish stocks at the expense of local fishermen and as a result there is some evidence that the local population is 'starving'.

Of course, the fact that many of these Chinese vessels are far larger and more technologically advanced than those of their African counterparts exacerbates the problem

Explaining the Tragedy of the Commons - A Level and IB Economics
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Graham Watson

Graham Watson has taught Economics for over twenty years. He contributes to tutor2u, reads voraciously and is interested in all aspects of Teaching and Learning.

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