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Abstract
The failure of the centralized management system and the intense over-exploitation of benthonic
resources along the Chilean coast motivated the design and implementation of an innovative co-management
policy in 1999. Although its positive effects have already been recognized at biological
and organizational level, doubts have been posed with regards to its economic sustainability.
In this paper, we present a bio-economic evaluation at national level for one of the most important
and valuable benthonic resources, the Loco ecosystem. A dynamic simulation model is developed in
order to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of the traditional centralized management and the co-management
system recently implemented in Chile.
The results show that the amount of captures and effort devoted during the centralized management
period were significantly underestimated due to the existence of illegal captures. On the other side, the
results reveal that, after a fearful beginning, the values for revenues, capture and stock were larger
than those that would have been obtained in case the former centralized system had persisted.