Fisheries co-management: a comparative analysis

The paper is based on a review of 22 case studies on fisheries co-management in small-scale, semi-industrial and industrial fisheries in developing and developed countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and the Pacific. Case studies are classified according to a typology of co-management arrangements. The typology is based on the nature of the decision-making arrangements between governments and users. Decision-making arrangements refer to the roles of governments and user groups, the management tasks and the stages in the management process. Eleven case studies are analysed in detail. The analysis shows that co-management covers a wide variety of collaborative arrangements between governments and users. On the basis of the information from these case studies, a number of observations are made concerning the determinants of the type of co-management regime in place. Determinants include the capabilities and aspirations of user groups, the type of approach, the difficulty of the decision to be taken, the type of management tasks, the stage in the management process, boundaries, types of user groups and political culture and social norms. The paper concludes with the issues that require further research.