The community: a missing link of fisheries management (original) (raw)

Fisheries management, as it is currently done in most countries, ignores the community level. Instead, it is almost exclusively based on a relationship between a government agency and individual users. This paper calls for a stronger emphasis on the roles that communities can play in "sheries management. E!ective resource management is a necessary condition for the viability of "sheries communities, but I argue that viable communities are also an important contribution to the preservation of healthy "sh stocks. Thus, before one can hope to rebuild "sh stocks, one must start to rebuild communities; one cannot succeed without the other. The paper also o!ers some re#ections on solutions and strategies, in particular on co-management as a potential community-building institution and how communities can play a supportive role in "sheries co-management.