Leadership, social capital and incentives promote successful fisheries

Abstract

One billion people depend on seafood as their primary source of protein and 25% of the world's total animal protein comes from fisheries. Yet a third of fish stocks worldwide are overexploited or depleted. Using individual case studies, many have argued that community-based co-management should prevent the tragedy of the commons because cooperative management by fishers, managers and scientists often results in sustainable fisheries. However, general and multidisciplinary evaluations of co-management regimes and the conditions for social, economic and ecological success within such regimes are lacking. Here we examine 130 co-managed fisheries in a wide range of countries with different degrees of development, ecosystems, fishing sectors and type of resources. We identified strong leadership as the most important attribute contributing to success, followed by individual or community quotas, social cohesion and protected areas. Less important conditions included enforcement mechanisms, long-term management policies and life history of the resources. Fisheries were most successful when at least eight co-management attributes were present, showing a strong positive relationship between the number of these attributes and success, owing to redundancy in management regulations. Our results demonstrate the critical importance of prominent community leaders and robust social capital, combined with clear incentives through catch shares and conservation benefits derived from protected areas, for successfully managing aquatic resources and securing the livelihoods of communities depending on them. Our study offers hope that co-management, the only realistic solution for the majority of the world's fisheries, can solve many of the problems facing global fisheries.

Tipping Toward Sustainability: Emerging Pathways of Transformation

“…However, agency clearly plays a role at each stage of the process. Key persons can play pivotal roles in such learning processes including providing leadership, building trust, developing visions, and sense-making (Westley 2002;Olsson et al 2004;Huitema and Meijerink 2009;Gutiérrez et al 2011). These individuals can be important brokers for connecting people and networks (Bebbington 1997;Crona 2006;Ernstson et al 2010) and also play a key role as nodes in learning networks (Manring 2007).…”

The Key Role of the Barefoot Fisheries Advisors in the Co-managed TURF System of Galicia (NW Spain)

“…The Galician fisheries administration only considers the BFAs as biologists not recognizing their social role. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that social issues like community leaders, robust social capital, and clear incentives are of critical importance for promoting successful fisheries in co-management regimes (Gutiérrez et al 2011). Social aspects should be in the core of the training program mentioned before.…”

Local and regional experiences with assessing and fostering ocean health

“…In one study, for instance, 130 co-managed fisheries across 44 countries were surveyed and coupled with Ostrom's categories of socialecological systems to produce a set of 19 variables related to comanagement [32,34]. One of these variables, leadership, was found to be a key indicator of success across the great majority of surveyed fisheries, regardless of the type of fishery or its geographical location.…”