Wealth of Peruvian fishery

Abstract

Fisheries provide critical sources of employment, nutrition, and economic value for many countries, making fishery resources an essential component of natural capital. Accordingly, their efficient and sustainable management is fundamental for long-term development. One approach to evaluate sustainability is through the estimation of wealth, defined as the present value of profits derived from fishery assets. While previous global studies have estimated the natural wealth of fisheries -including for Peru- these assessments often omit processing profits, leading to potential underestimations. This study improves upon existing estimates by incorporating both extraction and processing profits to calculate Peru's fishery wealth over the period 1994–2022. Results reveal a 51 % increase in wealth during this timeframe. Moreover, the analysis shows that processing profits significantly exceed resource rents, highlighting the importance of including them to avoid substantial distortions in fishery wealth valuation. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd