Fishing Regions’ Development

On behalf of the Estonian Ministry of Agriculture, Ernst & Young Baltic AS conducted a study on “The impact of Fishing Region’s Sustainable Development Measures on sea side and inner water fishing and local development”. The content of this work is to evaluate the use of the fishing fonds’ 2007-2013 development plan measure 4.1. “Fishing regions’ sustainable development”. Estonian regions related to fishing can be divided into two kinds: seaside and inner water regions. Seaside fishing regions are conditionally three: Väinamere region (including Saaremaa and the western part of Hiiumaa), Pärnu region, Finnish bay region. Inner water fishing regions are Peipsi, Lämmi and Pihkva Lake region as well as Võrtsijärve region. The research included an analysis of: a) measures for development performance; b) measuring impact on seaside and inner water fishing regions as well as the regional development as a whole; c) the functioning of local fishing activity groups. According to official data, in Estonia there are 2.371 fishers. In three years, the support for designated projects amounted to an overall sum of 27 million Euros, which includes also the fishing fond’s support sum of 21 Million Euro. Funding decisions were taken for 591 projects, which means 74% of the requested. As from the end of 2013, the disbursement amounts to about 68 %. In addition to this consolidated review, the research results have shown the average of all fishing regions and their comparison. Geomedia consultant Rivo Noorkõiv was part of the research project’s team.