Giving fishermen new jobs in tourism actually makes them more likely to catch endangered fish.
April 14, 2026
Original Paper
Do Alternative Livelihoods Reduce Resource Pressure? Evidence from Tourism and Fisheries in the Galapagos
SSRN · 6528690
The Takeaway
In the Galapagos, providing alternative incomes didn't reduce fishing pressure; it gave fishers more revenue to invest in gear targeting high-profit species. This undermines the core conservation assumption that poverty is the primary driver of over-exploitation.
From the abstract
Developing alternative economic sectors is widely promoted as a strategy to reduce pressure on natural resources while improving livelihoods, yet opportunities to rigorously evaluate whether diversification reduces harvesting pressure are rare. We provide such an evaluation using unique linked data on tourism, artisanal fisheries, prices, and fisher occupations from the Galapagos Islands. We develop a resource-economic model in which both resource prices and the opportunity cost of harvesting de