Overharvesting

Overharvesting is the act of removing renewable natural resources at a rate that exceeds their capacity to recover, leading to declines in populations and, in some cases, permanent loss. It commonly involves fisheries, forests, and wild plant resources, but can apply to any harvest of living resources. The term emphasizes sustainability and is used in ecological, economic, and policy contexts.

Factors driving overharvesting include high demand and market prices, technological advances (highly efficient gear, tracking, rapid transport), subsidies that encourage extraction, weak governance, illegal or unreported harvesting, and uncertain property rights. When multiple users share a resource, the incentive to harvest aggressively increases, a phenomenon related to the tragedy of the commons. Lack of robust monitoring and enforcement can mask unsustainable extraction.

Ecologically, overharvesting reduces population size, genetic diversity, and resilience, disrupts predator-prey dynamics, and erodes ecosystem services such as pollination, carbon storage, and habitat structure. Economically and socially, it can cause price volatility, job losses, and food insecurity for communities reliant on the resource. Once populations fall below critical thresholds, recovery can be slow or impossible, especially for long-lived species with low reproductive rates or when habitat is damaged.

Prominent cases include the collapse of North Atlantic cod populations after decades of overfishing, and the decline of bluefin tuna in multiple ranges. Management responses focus on limiting harvests through quotas, size and season restrictions, gear rules, marine protected areas, and rights-based approaches like catch shares. Ecosystem-based management, stronger enforcement, alternative livelihoods, and consumer demand signals are also used to reduce pressure and support recovery.