An institutional development process in community based coastal resource management: building the capacity and opportunity for community based co-management in a small-scale fisheries community

The term Community Based Coastal Resource Management (CB-CRM) is used to describe localized co-management systems wherein small-scale fisherfolk take up a dominant role in fisheries management. In this paper, a description is given of the development process for the establishment of such a community based co-management system, as it gradually evolved in the course of a CB-CRM project. The development process of a municipal federation of small-scale fisherfolk organizations in a semi-urban area in the Philippines is described and analyzed in five phases. It is concluded that progress in this CB-CRM project depended largely on local institutional development processes in the community. Discussed is how the implementation of specific strategies in the project may have contributed to the institutional development of the federation. Finally, some suggestions for improved CB-CRM project development in general are given.