Learning and adaptation: the role of fisheries comanagement in building resilient social-ecological systems

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how robust self-organizations can be formed within fisheries co-management systems. Over the last 30 years, co-management has been increasingly advocated as a blueprint solution for small-scale fisheries crisis. Many governments, NGOs, and international and donor organizations are catalyzing projects for implementing fisheries comanagement. On the one hand, the international attention devoted to promoting and supporting co-management is an important accomplishment; it recognizes that without the help and support of fishers, government can do little to help achieve sustainable, equitable, and resilient fisheries management. On the other hand, as co-management becomes "mainstream," it risks being regarded as a straightforward technical and organizational process, through which states devolve both rights and responsibilities for the difficult tasks of resource conservation and livelihood improvement.