During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance and management of fisheries to a broader
approach that recognizes the participation of fishers, local stewardship, and shared decision-making.
Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the management team,
balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership with government. This approach is
called co-management.
This handbook describes the process of community-based co-management from its beginning, through
implementation, to turnover to the community. It provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists,
examples, questions and indicators for the planning and implementing of a process of community-based
co-management. It focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine, or marine) in
developing countries, but is also relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries and to the
management of other coastal resources (such as coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, and wetlands). This
handbook will be of significant interest to resource managers, practitioners, academics and students of
small-scale fisheries.
Specialists involved in fisheries and co-management.