Gutting the Fisheries Act

One problem with the excessive monetization of natural resources (and the neoliberalization of 'natural' space in general) is that one begins to lose sight of the complex, qualitative 'benefits' (I use this term with considerable hesitation) provided by 'nature' which are impossible to quantify or measure. The term 'ecosystem services' is characteristic of this turn, the neoliberalization of nature. We have to ask ourselves what we are inadvertently missing out on when we treat abstract 'ecosystems' as just another economic sector - as if the production of oxygen were part of the service industry!

It may be prudent to ask a similar question with regard to a recent proposed change to the Canadian Fisheries Act (read about it in Gloria Galloway's article in the Globe and Mail). While the Act presently protects all fish habitats, the suggested amendment is to re-word the document to protect only those fish which have "economic, cultural, or ecological value". This raises the rhetorical question: What fish  have no ecological value? The very suggestion that some fish have no intrinsic ecological (or cultural) value is telling - telling of the extreme ignorance underlying the monetization of natural resources and the neoliberalization of 'natural' space. 

A second problem with suggesting that it is possible to determine with objective neutrality and quantitative accuracy the value of so called ecosystemic services is that you can end up with a twisted and illogical situation where according to reductio ad absurdum calculations, it is economically feasible to warrant the annihilation of an entire species (or the destabilization of a bio-geochemical system) simply because the economic value of doing so outweighs the supposed costs! 

The gutting of the Fisheries Act is a case in point. As Galloway notes in her article: The proposed ammendment "would allow for speedier approval of megaprojects like the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which will have to cross 600 different rivers and streams to bring bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to British Columbia’s coast for transport to China and other Asian markets." So off with their little fish heads! These little value-less piscian squatters are blocking economic development! 

Hence we arrive at the underlying motive involved in the neoliberalization of 'nature' - Contrary to the common thread where it is said that placing a price on natural resources will ensure their proper valuation in a world where economic considerations rule, the real motivation is to enable the very tried-and-true market processes that are known to facilitate the accumulation of capital.