Ussif Rashid Sumaila is an associate professor of economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 at the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and the Director of the Fisheries Centre and Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the UBC Fisheries Centre

Fisheries Centre

The Fisheries Centre, located at the University of British Columbia, promotes multidisciplinary study of aquatic ecosystems and broad-based collaboration with maritime communities, government, NGOs and other partners...

. He specializes in bioeconomics

Bioeconomics

Bioeconomics is closely related to the early development of theories in fisheries economics, initially in the mid 1950s by Canadian economists Scott Gordon and Anthony Scott...

, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries. Sumaila has experience working in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea. He received his Bachelor of Science degree with honours from Ahmadu Bello University University in Nigeria and received his PhD from Bergen University in Norway.

Sumaila's work on international fisheries subsidies has been influential in the Doha Round

Doha round

The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda is the current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization which commenced in November 2001. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the world, which will help facilitate the increase of global trade...

 of WTO

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

 negotiations concerning subsidies and countervailing measures. Expert advice from Sumaila has been sought by the White House, United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, Asian Development Bank

Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...

, and Parliament in Canada and the United Kingdom. Sumaila has also been featured in the popular documentary End of the Line

The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat

The End of The Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World And What We Eat is a book by journalist Charles Clover about overfishing. Clover, an environment editor of the Daily Telegraph , describes how modern fishing is destroying ocean ecosystems. He concludes that current worldwide fish...

.

Journal contributions

He has published articles in several journals including, Journal of Environmental Economicsand Management, Journal of Bioeconomics, Land Economics, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Environmental and Resource Economics and Ecological Economics. Sumaila’s work has generated a great deal of interest, and has been cited by, among others, the Economist, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and the Vancouver Sun.

Current projects

Lead author, Conditions Working Group of the Millenium Assessment Research Group WorldFish Centre, Penang, Malaysia.

Lead editor, Fisheries chapter of the United Nations Green Economy Report.

Books and book contributions

Edited

• Sumaila, U.R., A. Adinar and J. Albiac (Editors). Game theoretic applications to environmental and natural resource problems. Environment and Development Economics, in press.
• Sumaila, U.R., T. Charles and G. Sylvia (Editors). Topical Problems in Fisheries Economics: An Introduction. Marine Resource Economics, in press.
• Sumaila, U.R., G. Munro and J. Sutinen (Editors), 2007. Recent Developments in Fisheries Economics. Special Issue of Land Economics, in press.
• Bjørndal, T., D.V. Gordon, R. Arnason and U.R. Sumaila (Editors), 2006. Frontiers in the Economics of the Fishery: Papers in Honour of Professor Gordon Munro, Blackwell, Oxford, in press.

• Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog and S.I. Steinshamm (Editors), 2004. Namibia’s fisheries: Ecological, economic and social aspects. Eburon, Netherlands, 363 pp. [Hilborn R. 2005: Book Review of Namibia’s fisheries, Fish and Fisheries, 6, 88-88].
• Kowero, G., B. M. Campbell and U.R. Sumaila. (Editors), 2003. Policies and governance structures in woodlands of Southern Africa. CIFOR Press, Indonesia. [Provided the economic modeling input to the book].
• Sumaila, U.R. and A. Charles (Guest editors), 2002. Economics of protected marine areas. Special Issue of Natural Resource Modeling, 15 (3 and 4). Page 12/18
• Sumaila, U.R. and J. Alder (Guest editors), 2002. Social and economic aspects of protected marine areas implementation. Special Issue of Coastal Management, 30, No. 2.

Chapters

• Herrick, S.F., R. Hannesson, U.R. Sumaila, M. Ahmed and J. P.-Torres (in prep.). Global production and economics of small, pelagic fish; in, Climate Change and Small Pelagic Fish.
• Vincent, A.C.J., A.D. Marsden and U.R. Sumaila (in press). The role of globalization in creating and addressing seahorse conservation problems. In Taylor, W.W., Schetcher, M.B. and Wolfson, L.G. (Eds.), Globalization: Effects on fisheries resources. Cambridge University Press.
• Sumaila, U.R. and K. Stephanus (2006). Declines in Namibia's pilchard catch: the reasons and consequences. In Rognvaldur Hannesson, Manuel Barange and Samuel F. Herrick Jr. Climate Change and the Economics of the World's Fisheries- Examples of small pelagic stocks. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 205–214.
• Pauly, D., Alder, J., Bakun, A., Heileman, S., Kock, K.-H., Mace, P., Perrin, W., Stergiou, K.I., Sumaila, U.R., Verrios, M., Freire, K.M.F., Sadovy, Y., Christensen, V., Kaschner, K., Palomares, M.L.D., Tyedmers, P., Wabnitz, C., Watson, R., Worm, B (2005). Marine fisheries systems. In Hassan, R., Scholes, R., Ash, N. (Eds.), Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystems and human well-being: Current state and trends, Volume 1, pp. 477–511.
• Pullin R. and U.R. Sumaila (2005). Aquaculture. In Kooiman, J., M. Bavinck, S. Jentoft and R. Pullin (Eds.), Fish for Life: Interactive governance for fisheries. Amsterdam University Press,Amsterdam, pp. 93–108.
• Kooiman, J., S. Jentoft, M. Bavinck, R. Chuenpagdee and U. R. Sumaila (2005). Meta-principle. In Kooiman, J., M. Bavinck, S. Jentoft and R. Pullin (Eds.), Fish for Life: Interactive governance for fisheries. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 265–184.
• Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog, and S.I. Steinshamm (2004) Namibia’s fisheries: Introduction and overview. In Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog, and S.I. Steinshamm (Eds.), Ecological, Economic and Social Aspects of Namibia's Fisheries. Eburon, Netherlands, pp. 1–9.
• Armstrong, C.W., Sumaila, U.R., Erastus, A. and Msiska, O. (2004). Benefits and costs of the Nambianization policy. In Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog, and S.I. Steinshamm (Eds.), Ecological, Economic and Social Aspects of Namibia's Fisheries. Eburon, Netherlands, pp. 203–214.
• Armstrong, C.W. and Sumaila, U.R. (2004) The Namibian-South African hake fishery – Costs of non-cooperative management. In Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog, and S.I. Steinshamm (Eds.), Ecological, Economic and Social Aspects of Namibia's Fisheries. Eburon, Netherlands, pp. 231–244.
• Sumaila, U.R. and Steinshamn, S.I. (2004). A brief overview of current bioeconomic studies of Namibian fisheries. In Sumaila, U.R., D. Boyer, M. Skog, and S.I. Steinshamm (Eds.), Ecological, Economic and Social Aspects of Namibia's Fisheries. Eburon, Netherlands, pp. 165–186. Page 13/18
• Sumaila, U.R, J. Alder and H. Keith (2004). The cost of being apprehended for fishing illegally: Empirical evidence and policy implications. In Fish Piracy: Combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, pp. 201–230.

• Pitcher, T.J., Heymans, S.J.J., Ainsworth, C., Buchary, E.A., Sumaila, U.R. and Christensen, V. (2004) Opening the lost valley: Implementing a ‘Back To The Future’ restoration policy for marine ecosystems and their fisheries. In Knudsen, E.E., MacDonald, D.D. and Muirhead, J.K. (Eds.), Sustainable management of North American fisheries. American Fisheries Society Symposium 43: 165-193.
• Sumaila, U.R., A. Angelsen and G. Kowero (2003). A system dynamics model for management of miombo woodlands. In Kowero G., B.M. Campbell and U.R. Sumaila (Eds.), Policies and governance structures in woodlands of Southern Africa. CIFOR, Bogor, 438pp.
• Kowero, G. and U.R. Sumaila (2003). Manual for users of Miombosim: A simulation model for the management of miombo woodlands. In Kowero G., B.M. Campbell and U.R. Sumaila (Eds.), Policies and governance structures in woodlands of Southern Africa. CIFOR, Bogor, 438pp.
• Sainsbury, K. and U.R. Sumaila (2003). Incorporating ecosystem objectives into management of sustainable marine fisheries, including ‘best practice’ reference points and use of marine protected areas. In Sinclair, M. and G. Valdimarson (Eds.), Responsible fisheries in the marine ecosystem. CAB International, pp. 343–361.
• Sumaila, U.R. (2002). Recreational and commercial fishers in the Namibian silver cob fishery. In Pitcher, T.J. and Hollingworth, C.E. (Eds.), Recreational fisheries: Ecological, economic and social evaluation. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK, pp. 51–62.
• Hoagland, P., U.R. Sumaila and S. Farrow (2001). Marine protected areas. In Steele, J.H., S.A. Thorpe and K.K. Turekian (Eds.), Encyclopedia of ocean sciences. Academic Press, London, pp. 1654–1659.
• Sumaila, U.R. and M. Bawumia (2000). Ecosystem justice and the marketplace. In Coward, H., Ommer, R., and Pitcher, T. J. (Eds.), Fish ethics: Justice in the Canadian fisheries. Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, pp. 140 – 153.
• Sumaila, U.R. (1998). Protected marine reserves as hedge against uncertainty: An economist’s perspective. In Pitcher, T.J., D. Pauly and P. Hart (Eds.), Reinventing Fisheries Management. Chapman and Hall, England, pp. 301–309.
• Bonfil R., G. Munro, U.R. Sumaila, H. Valtysson, M. Wright, T. Pitcher, D. Preikshot, N. Haggan and D. Pauly (1998). Impacts of distant water fleets: an ecological, economic and social assessment. In The footprints of distant water fleet on world fisheries. Endangered Seas Campaign, WWF International, Godalming, Surrey, 122 p.
• Sumaila, U.R. (1998). Optimal landing strategies for the Arcto-Norwegian cod stock: Trawlers versus Coastal vessels. In S. Jentoft (Ed.), Commons in Cold Climate: Coastal Fisheries and Reindeer Pastorialism in North Norway. Parthenon Publishing, England, pp. 115–120. Page 14/18
• Angelsen, A. and U.R. Sumaila (1997). Hard methods for soft policies: Environmental and social cost benefit analysis. In F.A. Wilson (Ed.), Towards Sustainable Project Development. Edward Edgar, UK, pp. 20–42.