Alternatives to conventional management: lessons from small-scale fisheries.

One of the insights from complexity thinking is that multiplicity of scales means, there is no one "correct" perspective in a complex system. A fishing community may focus on livelihoods, regional managers on user-group conflicts, and the central government on export earnings from shrimp. The perspective depends on the interests of the observers and their reading of the history and context of the fishery. A complex social-ecological system cannot be captured using a single perspective. It can be best understood through a multiplicity of perspectives.

Local and Traditional Knowledge

Much progress has been made in the scientific study of fisheries, marine ecology and oceanography. Yet despite the accumulation of a great deal of scientific data, there is insufficient information to manage fish stocks, especially those in multispecies fisheries in tropical seas. We have long been taught to believe that fisheries management requires extensive research, sophisticated models, large amounts of data, and highly trained experts. We now know that these ingredients are not always sufficient, and we are coming to realize that simpler approaches can be more practicable and cost-efficient (Pitcher et al. 1998). Especially in small-scale fisheries, management can work with lower inputs of data, including qualitative indicators, and local and traditional knowledge, as means of evaluating the resource and determining future directions (McConney and Mahon 1998, Neis and Felt 2000).

Traditional ecological knowledge may be defined as a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission (Berkes et al. 2000). Traditional ecological knowledge is both cumulative and dynamic, building on experience and adapting to change. It is an attribute of societies with historical continuity in resource use in a particular area. Practical knowledge that does not have such historical and multigenerational character can simply be called local knowledge. Both local and traditional knowledge are relevant to management, and have been used in many contexts from Oceania (Johannes 1998) to Newfoundland (Neis et al. 1999).

How can fishery management be improved by supplementing scientific data with local and traditional knowledge? How can information from resource users themselves broaden the base of knowledge necessary for sustainable resource use? There are two considerations regarding the use of fishers' knowledge: its use in place of expensive scientific data, and its use to achieve consensus regarding management action.

Regarding the first, Johannes (1998) provides several examples in which the use of local knowledge and commonsense has led to improved management systems. He takes care to point out that such "dataless management" does not mean management without information. Johannes (1998) emphasizes the importance of supplementing traditional knowledge with the use of studies on similar fisheries in other locations, including the use of marine protected areas as sources of baseline data.

Regarding the second, the ability to take the steps needed to improve a fishery will be considerably strengthened when the stakeholders can agree on some measures to effect change. The key element is agreement or consensus. Thus, achieving consensus will be an important part of participatory management that is based on local and traditional knowledge. Given the various uncertainties, it is acceptable, and even desirable, to approach management through simple rational schemes that can be understood by all of the participants.

The use of local and traditional knowledge is closely related to civic society and democratic objectives. As part of the trend towards stronger civil society institutions, information produced by specialists is no longer confined to specific groups but becomes widely available. Citizen action and civic science use locally produced information, as well as science. As the barriers between the scientist/manager and the resource user/citizen break down, local and traditional knowledge also start to play a role in resource management. Using fishers' knowledge helps widen the range of information available for decision-making, particularly important for complex, multi-scale systems (Berkes and Folke 1998). Such a wider range of information is not only important, but in many cases necessary for decision-making.

Sustainable Livelihoods and Management Objectives

There is agreement on the larger goals of management: preventing biological and commercial extinction and promoting sustainable use. But the specific goals are more controversial and elusive. They have changed over time, from the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach, to maximum economic yield (MEY), to optimum sustainable yield (OSY) (Larkin 1977, Charles 2001). Benefits from a fishery can be measured in different ways, as the quantity of fish harvested (biological), or as revenue from the fishery (economic), or as a composite benefit to society, including sustainable livelihoods and sustainable communities.

The idea of optimal yields emerged as it became evident that the benefits from a fishery could be measured in many other ways than simply the weight or the landed value of the catch. The problem, however, is that multiple objectives are messy. Maximization of a single objective is much easier than optimisation that must address trade-offs and compromises. Nevertheless, the OSY approach is useful because it necessitates a process of reaching consensus on the most appropriate objectives, hence bringing people into the decision-making model more explicitly than is the case with MSY and MEY.

Most of the objectives commonly stated for fisheries management fall into three categories (Clark 1985). One set relates to resource sustainability, ensuring that the biological productive capacity of the resource is maintained. The other two sets are social and economic, and relate either to the optimization of returns from the fishery (efficiency), or to the distribution of those returns among stakeholders (equity). Some 22 fishery objectives may be recognized, six of them related to sustainability, 12 related to efficiency, and eight related to equity (Table 1). Any of these objectives may be a valid goal for a fishery, but it is not possible to achieve them all for a single fishery. Some of the objectives are incompatible with one another. For example, management can aim to maximize the biological yield or the economic yield but not both.

One of the characteristics of small-scale fisheries is the importance of the social context of the fishery, such as kinship and other social relations. In fishing communities, norms, networks and trust relationships (so-called social capital) tend to be important, as are reciprocal relations, values and local institutions. Fishing is not merely a job but a way of life (Pollnac and Poggie 1988), not merely a source of employment but also a livelihood that produces food for the household. In developing countries as well as in the small-scale fisheries of countries like USA and Canada, fishing is often part of a complex of livelihood activities, which may include agriculture and other part-time occupations in which, for example, women may play a major role (Apostle et al. 1998, Jentoft 2000).

Fishing may be a seasonal activity that is part of livelihoods of households and communities. Many small-scale fishers are dependent on a diversity of species and habitats for their livelihoods (Allison and Ellis 2001). The ability to follow a seasonal round of activities and the ability to switch species (fishing more when the resource is abundant; moving on when it is not) allows them the flexibility to change and adapt as conditions dictate. Such a pattern of fishing makes for resilient livelihoods; it also has the potential of maintaining biodiversity by limiting heavy exploitation on any one species.

Flexibility in fishing requires access to a range of resources. Hence, equity-related objectives of small-scale fisheries are important; they need to be balanced against efficiency objectives such as maximizing yield or revenue. All equity and efficiency objectives, in turn, need to be underpinned by resource sustainability objectives. The conventional objective of maximizing biological yields or economic returns often ignores the larger question of the ecological and social costs of maximization. A broader view of fishery objectives recognizes that a sustainable fishery exists only within the context of a fishing community and an ecosystem that supports it.

Community-Based Management and Participatory Governance

The participatory style of management requires partnerships between the manager and the resource user. However, building such partnerships has never been easy; it requires fishers who are sufficiently well organized to carry out such a partnership; it requires appropriate community-based institutions. Further, it requires an appropriate policy environment and government willingness to engage in participatory management. It also requires appropriate government institutions to interact with fisher organizations--because it 'takes two to tango" (Pomeroy and Berkes 1997).