{
  "abstract": "The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is a landmark in multilateral environmental governance, yet its current phase of negotiations on addressing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing is contentious due to perceived welfare risks for small-scale fishers. In framing the debate around prohibiting subsidies, negotiators have thus far given little attention to which financial instruments could take their place, which is a missed opportunity. Here we argue that positive incentives — financial instruments designed to encourage sustainable fishing actions or reward positive environmental outcomes — are a neglected but powerful complement to prohibition. Drawing on evidence from co-designed, rigorously evaluated pilot programs in Indonesian small-scale fisheries, we show that positive subsidies could mitigate overfishing while protecting small-scale fishing communities. We propose that the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, and analogous national reforms, should explicitly distinguish capacity-reducing from capacity-enhancing instruments, preserve policy space for transparent and evidence-based positive subsidies, and recognise community co-designed programs within special and differential treatment. Reframing fisheries subsidy reform from prohibition to redirection would advance the goals of the Agreement: decoupling public support from fishing effort, protecting small-scale fishing communities, and creating new mechanisms to incentivise ecosystem recovery. It could also facilitate negotiations by addressing the concerns of fisher folk and developing coastal states.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Hollie Booth"
    },
    {
      "name": "Luky Adrianto"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2p82ygr8b6v06.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.32942/x27965",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2p82ygr8b6v06",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15108/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Policy"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Studies"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Indonesia"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Marine Biology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Natural Resources and Conservation"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "World Trade Organization"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "decoupling"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "fisheries subsidies"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "marine biodiversity"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "marine conservation"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "payments for ecosystem services"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "small-scale fisheries"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3320|World Trade Organization Law"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213872122",
  "pdf_url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/object/15108/download/26212/",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2p82ygr8b6v06.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:26Z",
      "native_id": "15108",
      "source": "ecoevorxiv",
      "url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15108/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Marine Biology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Beyond the prohibition list: redirecting negative subsidies into positive incentives could mitigate overfishing and protect coastal communities in WTO fisheries reform",
  "title_text": "Beyond the prohibition list: redirecting negative subsidies into positive incentives could mitigate overfishing and protect coastal communities in WTO fisheries reform",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:26Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2p82ygr8b6v06",
  "venue": "EcoEvoRxiv",
  "versions": []
}