Rents, Rights and Restructuring: Namibia’s Lessons for the Governance of Africa’s Fisheries

This research paper by the South African Institute of International Affairs examines the governance of Namibia's fisheries since independence in 1990. It analyzes the country's efforts to rebuild fish stocks, capture economic rents, and promote local ownership through 'Namibianisation' policies, while highlighting the ecological challenges of the Benguela Current ecosystem and the risks of developing new deep-sea fisheries.

• Namibia successfully reduced illegal fishing in its waters shortly after independence by establishing a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in June 1990 and taking decisive enforcement action, including the detention of Spanish freezer vessels.
• The Namibian government implemented a comprehensive rent capture system using five fee categories—licence, observer, by-catch, Marine Research Fund levy, and quota fees—to fund fisheries research, monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS), and other economy-wide uses.
• To promote 'Namibianisation', the state uses a state-led model where fishing rights are not sold to the highest bidder but are allocated based on criteria such as Namibian ownership, employment of local crews, and investment in onshore processing.
• The government has intentionally forfeited significant resource rents by offering rebates on quota fees to incentivize firms with at least 51% beneficial Namibian ownership and at least 90% Namibian crew.
• Namibianisation policies have been undermined by 'fronting' and 'ownership creep', where foreign companies maintain control through proxy ownership or preferential shares, and new Namibian rights holders lease their quotas back to established firms for risk-free cash.
• The Northern Benguela (NB) ecosystem has undergone a likely irreversible regime shift following the collapse of the sardine fishery in the 1970s, with the ecological niche now filled by jellyfish, horse mackerel, and the bearded goby.
• Hake stocks have recovered very slowly and remain at approximately 20% of their pre-exploitation levels, while sardine stocks remain in a collapsed state.
• The Benguela Current Commission (BCC), formalised in March 2013, provides a permanent inter-governmental framework for Angola, Namibia, and South Africa to manage the Benguela Current large marine ecosystem (BCLME) and address shared stocks and climate variability.
• There is growing concern regarding the impact of seismic exploration for oil and gas on the tuna industry, with tuna catches falling from 4,000 tonnes in 2011 to less than 1,000 tonnes in 2013.

APA

Benkenstein, A. (2014). Rents, Rights and Restructuring: Namibia’s Lessons for the Governance of Africa’s Fisheries. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Occasional-Paper-207.pdf

Chicago

Benkenstein, Alex. Rents, Rights and Restructuring: Namibia’s Lessons for the Governance of Africa’s Fisheries. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2014. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Occasional-Paper-207.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Benkenstein |first1=Alex |title=Rents, Rights and Restructuring: Namibia’s Lessons for the Governance of Africa’s Fisheries |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=December 2014 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Occasional-Paper-207.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{benkenstein2014rents, author = {Benkenstein, Alex}, title = {{Rents, Rights and Restructuring: Namibia’s Lessons for the Governance of Africa’s Fisheries}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2014}, month = dec, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Occasional-Paper-207.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }