Economic performance of benthic resource management areas in the Bío-Bío region

Abstract

The economic performance of Benthic Resource Management Areas (BRMA’s) was assessed and analyzed for the Bío-Bío region between 2001 and 2003. This study included 22 areas with Use Agreements declaring ‘loco’ (Concholepas concholepas) to be the main benthic resource. Several characteristics were also considered as potential determinant factors for BRMA performance. These variables were defined and grouped into four types of characteristics: economic, environmental-biological, institutional-organizational, and organizational leader. The variables were then contrasted between areas according to the loco harvest situation. Moreover, the economic performance profiles of BRMA’s with loco harvests were analyzed according to the considered variables. The results indicate, beyond the different environmental-biological aspects, important differences in economic and institutional-organizational characteristics between areas with and without loco harvests during the period analyzed. Moreover, we conclude that some key variables are associated with economic performance in the areas that harvested loco during the study period, including economic (selling price) and environmental-biological (resource density, habitable polygon) variables.