FISHERY CO-MANAGEMENT
A Practical Handbook

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FISHERY CO-MANAGEMENT

A Practical Handbook

Robert S. Pomeroy
Department of Agricultural Resource Economics and
Connecticut Sea Grant College Program,
University of Connecticut, USA

Rebecca Rivera-Guieb
Independent Consultant and Board Member,
Coastal Community Resources and Livelihoods Development,
Inc., Philippines

CABI Publishing is a division of CAB International

Published in association with:
International Development Research Centre
PO Box 8500
Ottawa, ON
Canada K1G 3H9
www.idrc.ca / pub@idrc.ca
ISBN 1-55250-184-1 (IDRC e-book)

© International Development Research Centre 2006. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pomeroy, R. S. (Robert S.)
    Fishery co-management: a practical handbook / Robert S. Pomeroy, Rebecca Rivera-Guieb.
            p. cm.
    "International Development Research Centre."
    Includes bibliographical references.
    ISBN-10: 0-85199-088-6 (alk. paper)
    ISBN-13: 978-0-85199-088-0 (alk. paper)
    1. Fishery co-management--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Rivera-Guieb, Rebecca. II Title.

    SH329.C6P66 2005
    33.95′6--dc22
                                                                2005008086
ISBN        0 85199 088 6
         978  0 85199 088 0

Typeset by MRM Graphics Ltd, Winslow, Bucks
Printed and bound in the UK by Biddles Ltd, King's Lynn

Contents

Foreword

It is estimated that there are 51 million fishermen in the world of whom 50 million are small-scale, subsistence, or artisanal operators mainly living and working in the developing world. Unfortunately, the common-property fish resources that these fishermen depend upon for their livelihood are in a precarious state. Why do we find ourselves in this critical situation and what can we do to correct it? Researchers and stakeholders are actively searching for new forms of fishery management, and one of the most promising forms centres around approaches involving the users – the fishermen themselves – working in some form of shared or collaborative management with government authorities.

For many years, Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has maintained an active portfolio of projects examining co-management and communitybased management in fisheries and other resource systems. Since the publication of Managing Small-scale Fisheries (Berkes et al., 2001), there has been an increasing demand for guidance on what IDRC has learned about co-management, particularly across different geographical settings, socio-economic conditions, and histories of operation; and how it could apply to other types of fishing, link to other livelihoods, relate to other dynamic processes (such as the migration of fishermen), and respond to the seasonal nature of fish resources. This book attempts to respond to this demand by compiling recent experience from as wide a cross section of research as possible.

During the development of this book, both IDRC and the authors wrestled with the concept of co-management. Given the evolving nature of this science, for example, what does co-management cover and how widely is the concept accepted? Importantly, there has been increasing acceptance of the idea that co-management is not an end point but rather a process – a process of adaptive learning. Recognizing the diversity of both local contexts (ecological and social) and factors depleting the fishery (such and overfishing and habitat destruction), however, would it even be possible to put together a book of lessons learned? As you will soon discover, IDRC and the authors felt that it was neither possible nor desirable to produce a blueprint for fishery co-management. Rather, we agreed that it would be more useful to document the co-management process, as undertaken by both IDRC partners and others, and to put this experience into a form that could be shared with anyone interested in learning more about co-management and what others have learned. This shared and adaptive approach to learning is what this book is all about. In the pages that follow, you will find a complete picture of the co-management process: strengths, weaknesses, methods, activities, checklists and so on.

IDRC will continue to field-test this publication. Our evolving support for research on the co-management of natural resources is part of IDRC's ongoing work around governance, decentralization and adaptive learning, most of which are managed through the Centre's Rural Poverty and Environment programme. Details on this and other IDRC programmes can be found on our website: www.idrc.ca.

F. Brian Davy

Senior Program Specialist
Environment and Natural Resource Management
International Development Research Centre
Ottawa, Canada
email: bdavy@idrc.ca

Preface

In travelling around the world working on fisheries co-management, the question that people always seem to ask is: 'I understand the concept of co-management and it seems to be a good management strategy, but how do we make it work in practice?' This question was really the driving force behind the writing of this handbook. There seemed to be a need to have a practical reference on a process for community-based co-management. While there were a number of very good publications available which discuss individual activities and components of the process of community-based co-management, there was no one publication which could serve as a reference to the process from beginning or pre-implementation, through implementation, to post-implementation.

This handbook is meant to be a companion volume to the book, Managing Small-scale Fisheries: Alternative Directions and Methods, authored by Fikret Berkes, Robin Mahon, Patrick McConney, Richard Pollnac and Robert Pomeroy (2001). It is meant to provide more detail on the application of community-based co-management in small-scale fisheries. This handbook focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine or marine) in developing countries. The community-based co-management process described may also be relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries, as well as to other coastal resource (i.e. coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, wetlands) management.

This handbook is based on years of experience conducting research on and practising community-based co-management in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean and Latin America. There are far too many people who have shared their knowledge, experience and life with us to thank each one individually.

We hope this handbook will serve its purpose. We request feedback from you, the users, on how to improve the handbook. As co-management is a process, so is the development of a handbook. There is still a great deal to learn and share as we use community-based co-management to hopefully improve fisheries and marine resources and the lives of the people who depend upon these resources.

Robert S. Pomeroy and Rebecca Rivera-Guieb

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the International Development Research Centre, and especially Brian Davy, for supporting this project. We would also like to thank the Oak Foundation, and especially Kristian Parker, for supporting in part, Robert Pomeroy's contribution to the project.

The authors would also like to thank the reviewers who provided useful comments for the writing and revisions of this handbook, including Alan White, Maria Hauck, Merle Sowman, Mafaniso Hara, Hugh Govan, John Kurien, Toby Carson, Rene Agbayani, Peter van der Heijden, Gary Newkirk, Patrick McKinney, Gaynor Tanyang, Elmer Ferrer, Mike Reynaldo, Dick Balderrama, Jean Harris, Yves Renard and John Kearney. Thank you also to Bill Carman of IDRC for shepherding this book through the publication process and to Jenny Thorp for her editing.

Acknowledgements are made to the University of Connecticut and Connecticut Sea Grant Program, especially Ed Monahan and Emilio Pagoulatos.

Robert S. Pomeroy and Rebecca Rivera-Guieb

List of Figures

List of Boxes

List of Tables

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I Introduction

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1 Why This Handbook?

IDRC, R. Ramlochand.

During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance of fisheries to a broader approach that recognizes fishers' participation, local stewardship, and shared decision-making in the management of fisheries. Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the fisheries management team, balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership, rather than antagonistically, with government. This approach is called co-management.

Co-management is one of a number of promising new and alternative management approaches that have emerged in recent years for fisheries management. These new management approaches are part of a discussion of new directions for fisheries management presented in a recent book authored by Berkes et al. (2001), a companion volume to this publication. The authors present a vision for small-scale fisheries that sees the linkages between human and natural systems and recognizes the need for management approaches that address these linkages. It is a vision with a human face and a people focus – fishers and fishing communities. It recognizes that the underlying causes of fisheries resource overexploitation and environmental degradation are often of social, economic, institutional and/or political origins. It recognizes that fisheries management should focus on people, not fish, per se.

It is becoming increasingly clear that governments, with their finite resources, cannot solve all fishery problems. Local communities will need to take more responsibility for solving local problems. In order to do this, however, communities must be empowered and resources provided to make decisions locally and to take actions that meet local opportunities and problems. The assistance and support of government will still be needed to achieve these results, although the role and responsibilities of government will also need to change.

It is important for the fisheries manager to be creative and innovative. There is no blueprint formula for managing a fishery; each one is different. Different approaches will need to be tried and integrated. There will be success and there will be failure. There must be learning and adaptation. The community of fishers and the government, through a co-management arrangement, will need to work together to decide the best combination of approaches for their situation.

The concept of co-management has gained acceptance among governments, development agencies and development practitioners as an alternative fisheries management strategy to the top-down, centralized government management approach. However, the actual process of co-management has often been problematic as the definition of co-management is quite broad and means different things to different people. In addition, the complexity of issues and relationships and the time involved in planning and implementing co-management arrangements has also led to problems with implementation. This has often led to misunderstandings among the co-management partners and vague adoption of the concept as a fisheries management strategy.

1.1. What This Handbook Is

One of the difficulties in planning and implementing co-management is the lack of specific direction on 'how to do it'. There are a number of different activities and interventions in the process of community-based co-management. While there are a number of very good publications (many often difficult to obtain, especially in a developing country) which discuss individual activities and components of the process of community-based co-management, there is no single publication which provides a reference to the process from beginning or pre-implementation, through to implementation, and to turnover to the community or post-implementation. That is the purpose of this handbook; to provide a practical reference on a process for community-based co-management for use by the various co-management partners. This handbook is meant to be a working document that is revised and adapted to a specific situation.

This handbook focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine or marine) in developing countries. The community-based co-management process may also be relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries, as well as to other coastal resource (i.e. coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, wetlands) management. Community-based co-management seems to be found in, and be most relevant to, developing countries due to the need for overall community and economic development and social empowerment, in addition to resource management (see Chapter 2, Section 2.8 for more discussion about different types of co-management).

1.2. What This Handbook Isn't

It should be noted that this handbook will not present a 'one size fits all' or blueprint process to co-management. It will also not present step-by-step procedures to co-management. This is not possible as there are as many approaches to co-management as there are communities. Each situation in which co-management may be used is different and will require a unique response. Rather, this handbook will present a process which is 'generic' in that it will provide the handbook user with a place to start and with an understanding of how 'a' process works and the variety of activities and methods than can be used to plan and implement co-management. This handbook will serve as a source of information for the practical planning and implementation of co-management at the community level. The process presented is meant to be 'a' process that should be adapted to the local situation. Each co-management activity and method will be covered in enough detail to allow the handbook user to understand and use it. However, it would be impossible to completely address in depth each activity and method in this publication. References and internet links will be provided for the user to obtain additional information.

1.3. Who This Handbook is For

This handbook is written for use by the initiators and facilitators of co-management – government, change agents, community leaders and community members, as well as motivated fishers. The handbook is written to allow each partner in co-management to clearly understand their role and responsibility in the co-management process, and how to relate to the other partners in co-management. The handbook is meant to be used to plan and implement co-management, as a reference source to specific co-management activities and as a training reference. More will be said about each partner and their roles and responsibilities in Chapter 4.

1.4. Using This Handbook

This handbook is meant to support a process of community-based co-management for fisheries. As discussed, it is not a step-by-step guide. Rather, the handbook provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists, examples, questions and indicators for planning and implementing community-based co-management.

The user should become familiar with the complete process presented, think about the situation where co-management will be considered for use, and adapt the co-management process to the community. The community may just be beginning co-management or it may already be implementing a process of co-management. Some or all of the activities and methods may be relevant. Other activities and methods may need to be undertaken. When you have identified an activity or method that is appropriate, you can read more about it in the handbook and in the additional references cited.

2 What is Community-based Co-management?

IDRC, R. Charbonneau.

This chapter contains a discussion of concepts and definitions about community-based co-management.

2.1. Co-management Defined

Cooperative management or co-management can be defined as a partnership arrangement in which the community of local resource users (fishers), government, other stakeholders (boat owners, fish traders, boat builders, business

Fig. 2.1. Co-management is a partnership.

people, etc.) and external agents (non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic and research institutions) share the responsibility and authority for the management of the fishery (Fig. 2.1). Through consultations and negotiations, the partners develop a formal agreement on their respective roles, responsibilities and rights in management, referred to as 'negotiated power'. Co-management is also called participatory, joint, stakeholder, multi-party or collaborative management.

Co-management covers various partnership arrangements and degrees of power sharing and integration of local (informal, traditional, customary) and centralized government management systems (Fig. 2.2). Fisheries co-management can be classified into five broad types according to the roles government and fishers play (Sen and Nielsen, 1996):

• Instructive: There is only minimal exchange of information between government and fishers. This type of co-management regime is only different from centralized management in the sense that the mechanisms exist for dialogue with users, but the process itself tends to be government informing fishers on the decisions they plan to make.

• Consultative: Mechanisms exist for government to consult with fishers but all decisions are taken by government.

• Cooperative: This type of co-management is where government and fishers cooperate together as equal partners in decision-making.

• Advisory: Fishers advise government of decisions to be taken and government endorses these decisions.

• Informative: Government has delegated authority to make decisions to

Fig. 2.2. Co-management integrates local and centralized government management systems.

fisher groups who are responsible for informing government of these decisions.

It is generally acknowledged that not all responsibility and authority should be vested at the community level (Box 2.1). The amount and types of responsibility and/or authority that the state level and the various community

levels have will differ, and depend upon country and site-specific conditions. The substance of this sharing of responsibility and authority will be negotiated between community members and government and be within the boundaries of government policy. Determining what kind and how much responsibility and/or authority to allocate to the community level is ultimately a political decision in which government will always play a more decisive role. However, the key to co-management is negotiated power where the interaction of the state and non-state actors would be an important factor in defining a common and acceptable balance in sharing power and allocating responsibilities.

2.2. Co-management as a Process

There is no blueprint or model for co-management but rather a variety of arrangements from which to choose to suit a specific context. Co-management should be viewed not as a single strategy to solve all problems of fisheries management, but rather as a process of resource management, maturing, adjusting and adapting to changing conditions over time. A healthy co-management process will change over time in response to changes in the level of trust, credibility, legitimacy and success of the partners and the whole co-management arrangement. Co-management involves aspects of democratization, social empowerment, power sharing and decentralization. Co-management attempts to overcome the distrust, corruption, fragmentation and inefficiency of existing fisheries management arrangements through collaboration. Co-management is adaptive; that is, through a learning process, information is shared among partners, leading to continuous modifications and improvements in management. Through co-management, the partners actively contribute and work together on fisheries management. They share the costs and benefits and the successes and failures.

Co-management is not a regulatory technique, although regulations are used in co-management. It is a participatory management strategy that provides and maintains a forum or structure for action on empowerment, rule making, conflict management, power sharing, social learning, dialogue and communication, and development among the partners. Co-management is a consensus-driven process of recognizing different values, needs, concerns and interests involved in managing the resource. Partnerships, roles and responsibilities are pursued, strengthened and redefined at different times in the co-management process, depending on the needs and opportunities, the legal environment, the political support, capacities of partners and trust between partners. The co-management process may include formal and/or informal organizations of fishers and other stakeholders.

The establishment and operation of co-management can be complex, costly, time consuming and sometimes confusing. Research has shown that it may take 3 to 5 years to organize and initiate activities and interventions at the community level. It will also take this time for the partners to address concerns about legitimacy, trust, accountability and transparency.

Co-management can be considered as a middle course between the government's concern about social efficiency and equity and local concerns for active participation and self-regulation. Co-management involves a formal or informal agreement among partners to share power and to share the right to manage. Co-management can serve as a mechanism not only for fisheries management but also for community, economic and social development as it promotes fisher and community participation in solving problems and addressing needs. In some cases, co-management may be simply a formal recognition of a fisheries management system that already exists; some informal and customary community-based management strategies are already in place, operating side-by-side with formal state-level management strategies.

2.3. Stakeholder Involvement

Other than fishers, stakeholders (individuals, groups or organizations who are in one way or another interested, involved or affected (positively or negatively) by a particular action) that derive economic benefit from the resource (for example, boat owners, fish traders, business suppliers, police, politicians, consumers) should also be considered in co-management (see Chapter 4). These stakeholders often hold considerable political and/or economic influence in the community and over resource use and management. A proper balance of representation among stakeholders will prove crucial to the success of co-management (Box 2.2). A central question, however, is which stakeholders should

be represented and involved and how those representatives should be chosen. While it is useful to have representation of all stakeholders, a line must be drawn or the process will break down from the representation of too many interests. As will be discussed in Chapter 5, stakeholder analysis can help to identify those stakeholders who should be included in co-management. This question can be partially answered by determining the spatial scale at which co-management should operate. The best opportunity for co-management seems to occur at the local or 'community' scale (although national-level fisheries advisory bodies to government can also be effective).

2.4. Equity and Social Justice

Through co-management, equity and social justice in fisheries management is sought. Equity and the equitable sharing of power among and between government, fishers and other stakeholders in a community are often thorny issues in co-management. These issues are often visible along social and economic divides in a given community, such as gender roles. Those fishers who will receive the costs (and benefits) of management and regulation need to have a voice in decision-making about fisheries management. Equity and social justice is brought about through empowerment and active participation in the planning and implementation of fisheries co-management. Responsibility means fishers have a share in the decision-making process and bear the costs and benefits of those decisions. The theme of co-management is that self-involvement in the management of the resource will lead to a stronger commitment to comply with the management strategy and regulations. The mutuality of interests and the sharing of responsibility among and between partners will help to narrow the distance between resource managers and fishers, bringing about closer compatibility of the objectives of management.

2.5. Co-management and Common Property

Co-management is based on common property theory (Box 2.3). Co-management provides for the collective governance of common property resources. Common property regimes are forms of management grounded in a set of individually accepted rights and rules for the sustainable and interdependent use of collective goods. A collective good is defined as a resource that is managed and controlled by a group of users. A common property regime is composed of a recognized group of users, a well-defined resource that the group uses and manages, and a set of institutional arrangements for use of the resource. In some situations the group may formalize the institutional arrangements with an organizational structure for management. Common property represents private property for the group of co-owners (Gibbs and Bromley, 1987).

Common property resources share two key characteristics (Ostrom, 1991). First, these are resources for which exclusion (or control of access) of potential users is problematic. Second, the supply is limited; that is, consumption by one

user reduces its availability to others. It is also important to make a distinction between a resource unit and a resource system. A resource unit (what individuals use from the resource system such as fish) is not jointly used; while the resource system itself, the fishery, is subject to joint use.

Co-management is a governance arrangement located between pure state property and pure communal property regimes. It should be noted that while state law can enforce or strengthen communal property, it might not always do so. The level of help from the state will depend on its willingness to support communal property systems.

2.6. Institutional Arrangements and Collective Action

Common property regimes as collective resource management systems have been shown to develop when a group of individuals is highly dependent on a resource and when the availability of the resource is uncertain or limited (Runge, 1992). If the resource problem is repeatedly experienced, such as low or no catch, and if it exists within a single community of users, the fishers are likely to develop a collective institutional arrangement to deal with the problem. Institutional arrangements are sets of rights the fishers possess in relation to the resource and the rules that define what actions they can take in utilizing the resource. In the face of uncertainty in resource availability, fishers are more willing to group together to trade-off some benefit from individual use of the resource for the collective assurance that the resource will be used in a more equitable and sustainable manner (Gibbs and Bromley, 1987). Institutions, through rights and rules, provide incentives for the group members to take certain actions to achieve a desired outcome. Institutional arrangements require an investment of time on the members' part to build. Coordination and information activities are initial aspects of building institutions. The transaction process of developing institutions will have costs. These transaction costs can be defined as the costs of: (i) obtaining information about the resource and what users are doing with it; (ii) reaching agreements with others in the group with respect to its use; and (iii) enforcing agreements that have been reached. For common property regimes, these costs are part of the collective decision-making process.

An individual member of the group relies on reciprocal behaviour from other members of the group regarding their adherence to the agreed-upon rules for management. An individual's choice of behaviour in a collective action (action taken by a group (either directly or on its behalf through an organization) in pursuit of members perceived shared interests) situation will depend upon how he or she weighs the benefits and costs of various alternatives and their likely outcomes. An individual's choices are often affected by limited information which leads to uncertainty and by the level of opportunistic behaviour (taking advantage of a situation in your own self-interest so as to get the benefit while bearing less of the cost) that individual resource users can expect from other resource users. Individuals also have differing discount rates (the value people put on the future benefits from the resource versus today); many poor fishers, for example, attribute less value to benefits that they expect to receive in the future, and more value to those expected in the present (Ostrom, 1991).

In some situations, individuals may have incentives to adopt opportunistic strategies to circumvent the rules and to obtain disproportionate benefits at the cost of others. Three types of opportunistic behaviour may occur: (i) free riding, (ii) corruption, and (iii) rent seeking. Free riders (holding back on one's contribution so as to get the benefit while bearing less of the cost) respond to incentives to engage in other activities while other members of the group work. Corruption can occur when incentives exist for rules to be changed for an individual through, for example, the provision of illegal payments. Rent seeking (the gaining of excess profits from the resource) can occur when an individual's assets, for example, property rights, increase in value through special advantages (Ostrom, 1992; Tang, 1992). The imperative of the common property regime is to establish institutional arrangements which reduce or minimize transaction costs and counteract opportunistic behaviour.

The principal problem faced by group members of a common property regime is how to organize themselves. That is, how to change from a situation of independent action to one of collective action and coordinated strategies to obtain greater joint benefits and reduce joint harm. A sense of 'commonality', commitment and compliance must be established for the collective good. There are two broad classes of problems that must be overcome by the collective group. The first, called appropriation problems, is concerned with how to allocate the resource units (i.e. fish) in an economically efficient and equitable manner among the resource users. The second, called provision prob­lems, is focused on behavioural incentives to assigned duties to maintain and improve the resource over time.

Collective action does not occur where there is no organization that has authority to make decisions and to establish rules over the use of the resource. Note that institutions are not organizations. Organizations operationalize institutional arrangements (Bromley, 1991). There can be a variety of organizational forms for governing the resource, which may range from a government agency or enterprise to the fishers themselves. The common property regime will need to establish an agenda and goals which are to be achieved. This may include an identification of the problem or issue to be addressed, management and adjudication. The authority system to ensure that fishers' expectations are met is normally inherent in the organization.

Membership within common property regimes is not always equal. Some members may have fewer or lesser rights than others. Access to the resource, for example, may change or rotate for members through the year. Corresponding duties may or may not vary accordingly. The rights and duties of members of the group must be clearly specified.

Collective action entails problems of coordination that do not exist in other resource regimes, such as private property. In order to organize the harvesting, for example, fishers must develop rules to establish how rights are to be exercised. Rules give substance to rights, structure a situation, define the behaviour of the group's members and reduce conflict. Rules may create different incentive structures that affect cooperation or conflict among fishers (Tang, 1992). The type of rules that are devised will depend upon the severity of the problem the fishers face, the level of information they possess, sociocultural traditions, the extent of the bundle of rights they hold, the level of opportunistic behaviour, and the ease with which actions can be monitored and enforced. Rules require, permit or forbid some actions or outcome. Rules provide stability of expectations, and efforts to change rules can rapidly reduce their stability (Ostrom, 1991).

The institutions and rules fishers use may not always be the same as formal laws. The fishers may develop institutions and rules to meet their needs which are not legitimized by government.

For institutional arrangements to be maintained over time, it is important to develop workable procedures for monitoring the behaviour of fishers, enforcing against non-conforming behaviour with sanctions, and settling conflicts. The ease and costliness of monitoring rules devised to organize the fishing activity depend upon the physical nature of the resource, the rules-in-use and the level of conformance to the rules (Ostrom, 1990). The number of times that non-conformance must be measured affects the cost of monitoring. The ease and cost of monitoring will depend upon whether the fishers can monitor compliance themselves, as they fish or through self-monitoring incentives, or if they must establish more elaborate arrangements, such as external authorities.

Fishers who violate the rules need to have sanctions imposed upon them. What constitutes an effective sanction will vary depending upon the nature of the group of fishers. In most cases, sanctions are likely to increase with the severity of the offence (Ostrom, 1992).

Conflicts may arise within the common property regime and between users. The intensity and frequency of conflicts are likely to be closely related to the perceived relative scarcity of the resource. Several factors can lead to conflict, including: (i) absence of recognized rules, (ii) divergence in the interpretation of the rules, and (iii) outright trespass of a rule. Part of the institutional process must include a mechanism for discussing and resolving what is and is not a rule violation and how to settle the dispute. This can be done formally or informally. In general, for monitoring and sanctions to be effective, the fisher must have a stake in institutional processes and be involved in monitoring and enforcement (Townsend and Wilson, 1987).

Common property regimes and their associated institutional arrangements need to be dynamic in order to adjust to new opportunities, internal growth, externalities and institutional dissonance (Ostrom, 1992). Institution building is a long-term process and often is based on trial and error. Allocation rules, for example, may need to change as a result of poor compliance. The structuring of institutions must be an ongoing process to meet the changing conditions.

Whether or not local, self-governing institutions can be developed is often dependent upon governmental policies. In countries which do not recognize the rights of local community organizations or do not create opportunities for communities to organize themselves in a de facto manner, it is more difficult for fishers to successfully find solutions to collective action problems. Many governments are not willing to give up management authority over resources or do not believe that self-governing organizations can be successful. There is no single answer for how to resolve these differences.

2.7. Community-based Management

Community-based management (CBM) is a central element of co-management. There is some debate over the similarities and differences between co-management and CBM. Community-based resource management, as explained by Korten (1987), includes several elements: a group of people with common interests, mechanisms for effective and equitable management of conflict, community control and management of productive resources, local systems or mechanisms for capture and use of available resources, broadly distributed participation in control of resources within the community, and local accountability in management. Sajise (1995) has defined community-based resource management (CBRM) as 'a process by which the people themselves are given the opportunity and/or responsibility to manage their own resources; define their needs, goals, and aspirations; and to make decisions affecting their well-being.' Sajise (1995) further states that:

CBRM as an approach emphasizes a community's capability, responsibility and accountability with regard to managing resources. It is inherently evolutionary, participatory and locale-specific and considers the technical, sociocultural, economic, political and environmental factors impinging upon the community.

CBRM is basically seen as community empowerment for resource productivity, sustainability and equity.

Ferrer and Nozawa (1997) state that:

community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM) is people-centered, community-oriented and resource-based. It starts from the basic premise that people have the innate capacity to understand and act on their own problems. It begins where the people are, i.e., what the people already know, and builds on this knowledge to develop further their knowledge and create a consciousness.

They further state that:

it strives for more active people's participation in the planning, implementation and evaluation of coastal resources management programmes. CBCRM allows each community to develop a management strategy which meets its own particular needs and conditions, thus enabling a greater degree of flexibility and modification. A central theme of CBCRM is empowerment, specifically the control over and ability to manage productive resources in the interest of one's own family and community. It invokes a basic principle of control and accountability which maintains that control over an action should rest with the people who bear its consequences.

Fellizar (1994) writes:

CBRM can be looked at in various ways. It can be a process, a strategy, an approach, a goal or a tool. It is a process through which the people themselves are given the opportunity and/or responsibility to manage their own resources; define their needs, goals and aspirations; and make decisions affecting their well-being. A strategy for achieving a people-centered development, CBRM has a decision-making focus in which the sustainable use of natural resources in a given area lies with the people in the local communities. CBRM is an approach through which communities are given the opportunity and responsibility to manage in a sustained way the community resources, define or identify the amount of resources and future needs, and their goals and aspirations, and make decisions affecting their common well-being as determined by technical, sociocultural, economic, political and environmental factors. It is a tool which facilitates the development of multilevel resource management skills vital to the realization of potentials of the community. Also, CBRM stands for people empowerment and achieving equity and sustainability in natural resource management. The key concepts are community, resources, management, access and control over resources, viable organizations and availability of suitable technology for resource management and utilization.

Rivera (1997) states that the CBCRM approach has several characteristics. It is consensus-driven and geared towards achieving a balance of interests. The emphasis is on communities and at its core is the community organization. It is a process of governance and political decision-making and it is geared towards the formation of partnerships and power-sharing. Rivera (1997) writes:

It can be argued that CBCRM is a politically negotiated process of making decisions on the ownership, control and overall policy directions of coastal resources. Questions of resource allocation, distribution of resource benefits and management arrangements among stakeholders will always have to be included. Moreover, CBCRMs central concern is the empowerment of groups and social actors and a sense of self-reliance at the micro-level that stimulates a more synergistic and dynamic linkage to the meso- and macro-levels. Further, it can be argued that CBCRM is the route to co-management. It is maintained that power issues are central to the formation of co-management schemes. Hence, partnerships between government and communities should take careful consideration of the capacities of communities in making and sustaining these partnerships.

Rivera states that in the Philippines, much of the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on CBCRM can really be considered as co-management. Co-management is referred to by the NGOs as tripartite formation between government, community and the NGO. NGOs also refer to co-management as 'scaling-up', i.e. the recognition that the state cannot be ignored in sustaining local actions. The scaling-up efforts of NGOs include project replication, expansion of the geographic scale of management efforts (i.e. single community to multi-jurisdictional), building grassroots movements and influencing policy reform.

2.8. CBM and Co-management

The above definitions of community-based resource management show that while there are many similarities and differences between co-management and CBM, there are differences in the focus of each strategy. These differences centre on the level and timing of government participation in the process. CBM is people-centred and community-focused, while co-management focuses on these issues plus on a partnership arrangement between government and the local community of resource users. The process of resource management is organized differently too. Co-management has a broader scope and scale than CBM with a focus both inside and outside the community. The government may play a minor role in CBM; co-management, on the other hand, by definition includes a major and active government role.

Co-management often addresses issues beyond the community level, at regional and national levels, and of multiple stakeholders, and allows these issues, as they affect the community, to be brought more effectively into the domain of the community. CBM practitioners sometimes view government as an external player and adversary, to be brought into the process only at a late stage, if at all. This can lead to misunderstandings and lack of full support from government. Co-management strategies, on the other hand, involve government agencies, resource managers and elected officials early and equally, along with the community and stakeholders, developing trust between the participants.

When CBM is considered an integral part of co-management, it can be called community-based co-management. Community-based co-management includes the characteristics of both CBM and co-management; that is, it is people-centred, community-oriented, resource-based and partnership-based. Thus, community-based co-management has the community as its focus, yet recognizes that to sustain such action, a horizontal (across the community) and vertical (with external to the community organizations and institutions such as government) link is necessary. Community-based co-management is most often found in developing countries due to their need for overall community and economic development and social empowerment, in addition to resource management.

One variation of community-based co-management is traditional or customary co-management. Such systems are or were used to manage coastal fisheries in various countries around the world. Existing examples in Asia and the Pacific have been documented over a wide discontinuous geographical range (Ruddle, 1994). Many of these systems play a valuable role in fisheries management and will be useful into the future, locally and nationally. Traditional or customary co-management is a formal recognition of the informal systems as used, for example, in Vanuatu and Fiji. Co-management can serve as a mechanism to legally recognize and protect these traditional and customary systems and to specify authority and responsibility between the community and government. It also involves a definition of shared powers and authority.

Stakeholder-centred co-management seems to be more common in developed countries, where the emphasis is to get the users participating in the resource management process. It can best be characterized as government–industry partnership that involves user groups in the making of resource management decisions. This category of co-management focuses on having fishers and other stakeholders represented through various organizational arrangements in management. Unlike community-based co-management, little or no attention is given to community development and social empowerment of fishers. Examples of stakeholder-centred co-management can be seen in several countries in northern Europe and North America (Nielsen and Vedsmand, 1995; McCay and Jentoft, 1996).

It should be noted that co-management and integrated coastal management (ICM) share many similarities such as the coordination of various stakeholders at different levels and an active role of government (Christie and White, 1997).

2.9. Advantages and Disadvantages

The potential advantages of co-management include:

1. A more transparent, accountable and autonomous management system.

2. A more democratic and participatory system.

3. More economical than centralized management systems; requiring less to be spent on management administration and enforcement, in the long run.

4. Through involvement in management, fishers take responsibility for a number of managerial functions.

5. Makes maximum use of indigenous knowledge and expertise to provide information on the resource base and to complement scientific information for management.

6. Improved stewardship of aquatic and coastal resources and management.

7. Management is accountable to local areas. Fishing communities are able to devise and administer management plans and regulatory measures that are more appropriate to local conditions. (Localized solutions to local problems.)

8. By giving the fishers a sense of ownership over the resource, co-management provides a powerful incentive for them to view the resource as a long-term asset rather than to discount its future returns.

9. Various interests and stakeholders are brought together to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the resource.

10. Since the community is involved in the formulation and implementation of co-management measures, a higher degree of acceptability, legitimacy and compliance to plans and regulations can be expected.

11. Community members can enforce standards of behaviour more effectively than bureaucracies can.

12. Increased communication and understanding among all concerned can minimize social conflict and maintain or improve social cohesion in the community.

Despite all these advantages, co-management has several disadvantages and problems, including:

1. It may not be suitable for every fishing community. Many communities may not be willing or able to take on the responsibility of co-management.

2. Leadership and appropriate local institutions, such as fisher organizations, may not exist within the community to initiate or sustain co-management efforts.

3. In the short-run, there are high initial investments of time, financial resources and human resources to establish co-management.

4. For many individuals and communities, the incentive(s) – economic, social and/or political – to engage in co-management may not be present.

5. The risks involved in changing fisheries management strategies may be too high for some communities and fishers.

6. The costs for individuals to participate in co-management strategies (time, money) may outweigh the expected benefits.

7. Sufficient political will may not exist to support co-management.

8. Unease of political leaders and government officials to share power.

9. The community may not have the capacity to be an effective and equitable governing institution.

10. Actions by user groups outside the immediate community may undermine or destroy the management activities undertaken by the community.

11. Particular local resource characteristics, such as fish migratory patterns, may make it difficult or impossible for the community to manage the resource.

12. The need to develop a consensus from a wide range of interests may lengthen the decision-making process and result in weaker, compromised measures.

13. There may be shifts in 'power bases' (political, economic, social) that are not in the best interests of all partners.

14. There are those who feel that co-management is too costly and time consuming and that other alternatives, such as stricter regulations, may be better.

15. There is always a possibility of unbalanced and inequitable sharing of power between government and communities and the use of co-management by some political leaders solely for their own purposes.

3 What is a Process for Community-based Co-management?

IDRC, M. Verde.

As stated earlier, the purpose of this handbook is to provide a practical reference on a process for community-based co-management for use by the initiators and facilitators of co-management. There is no blueprint or right process for community-based co-management. As already stated, there are a variety of different processes which can be tailored to meet a site-specific situation and context. In some cases there may already be a fisher organization capable of engaging in co-management, while in another there will be a need to organize fishers. In another case, an informal or customary fisheries management system may be functioning well in the community and the need is to reach a co-management agreement with government to provide support. In another, fishers may only now be discussing informally among themselves the need to engage in some form of collective action.

This handbook will present a process of community-based co-management, not the process of community-based co-management. The process to be presented in this handbook can be thought of as a generic process that can serve as a reference to those who want to initiate a community-based co-management programme. Start at the beginning or start in the middle depending upon the situation. The process presented is based on the authors' experience with community-based coastal resources management and co-management and on the experience of NGOs, development projects, governments and other institutions around the world. It takes lessons learned from successes and failures and provides a process to adopt, adapt or revise to the local situation and context. The activities presented in the process are present in some form in all the cases that the authors are familiar with.

Community-based co-management can be initiated in several ways. The process presented in this handbook is a community-level and community-initiated programme of community-based co-management that is implemented in partnership with an external agent (such as an NGO or academic or research institution) and government. Alternatively, it may be an externally initiated programme where the external agent or government agency identifies a problem (or problems), then establishes a programme in collaboration with the community. In another case, it may be initiated as part of a larger donor-assisted development programme, where there is little early consultation with the community. Co-management could also be initiated by the government fisheries department working with fishers to establish a national level fisheries advisory body to guide policy.

The ways in which the fishers approach the community-based co-management programme will depend, in part, on how the programme is initiated and their sense of ownership over the process. While the origin and initiation of the community-based co-management programme may differ (beginning or pre-implementation phase), it is the authors' experience that the implementation phase activities in the process presented in this handbook are usually present.

This chapter of the handbook will provide an overview of the phases, components and activities of the process. Much more detail of each will be provided later in the handbook.

3.1. A Process of Community-based Co-management

The implementation of community-based co-management can be viewed as having three phases: 'beginning' or pre-implementation, implementation and 'turnover' or post-implementation (Fig. 3.1).

It should be noted that many of the process activities described in this handbook are continuous and overlapping, especially during the implementation phase (Box 3.1). The co-management process is dynamic

Fig. 3.1. There are three phases in a process of community-based co-management.

rather than linear, often cyclic as it evolves, and adaptive. The three phases are not distinct but actually flow into and overlap each other. Some implementation activities may finish and enter a post-implementation phase while at the same time new implementation activities are being initiated.

3.1.1. 'Beginnings' or pre-implementation

The pre-implementation phase may start when fishers and other stakeholders recognize a resource(s) problem that may threaten their livelihood, income, and/or social and community structure. This is especially true where the resource users are highly dependent on a resource(s), availability of the resource(s) is uncertain or limited, and the users are highly identified with their fishing area. If the resource(s) problem, such as low or no catch, repeatedly occurs, if it exists within a single community of fishers and if the users are unable or unwilling to move to another fishing area, the fishers are more likely to take action to deal with the problem. Fishers will individually and collectively begin to discuss the problem and seek information, a process that often leads to consensus-building and agreement on a plan of action. This plan of action may be specifically designed to initiate a process of change and seek assistance to do so. The fishers may identify different stakeholders who should be included in this programme.

At this early stage, an enthusiastic individual(s) may step forward as the prime mover(s) of the co-management programme. The fishers may seek assistance from the government or external agents on possible solutions or courses of action to deal with the problem. These external agents and/or government may enter at this point to assist the community by organizing meetings and providing information to prepare a preliminary programme plan and strategy. A proposal for outside funding of the programme may be prepared. Initial approvals for the programme may be obtained from different levels of government and local officials and leaders.

At this point, linkages are established and strengthened between fishers, other stakeholders, external agents and government so that a partnership is developed. A formal or informal agreement for cooperation may be established at this time. The development and strengthening of these linkages and networking at institutional, group and individual levels, is a continuous process during the life of the co-management programme.

3.1.2. Implementation

The implementation of community-based co-management has four linked and complementary components:

1. Resource management.

2. Community and economic development/livelihoods.

3. Capacity building.

4. Institutional support/networking/advocacy.

Please note that no one component exists in isolation but they are linked and complementary to each other. For example, it is often found that solutions to fisheries management problems lie outside the fishery, thus requiring household livelihood and community development issues to be addressed.

The resource management component consists of activities to manage, protect, conserve, rehabilitate, regulate and enhance marine and coastal resources.

The community and economic development/livelihood component's purpose is to raise income, improve living standards and generate employment through alternative and supplemental livelihood development. It addresses both individual and family needs, as well as community needs such as community social services and infrastructure development, enterprise development, and regional economic development, which includes business and industrial development.

The capacity building component, aimed at individuals (both women and men) and organizations, involves empowerment and participation, education, training, leadership and organization development.

The institutional support/networking/advocacy component involves conflict management mechanisms, individual and organizational linkages, interactive learning, legal support, policy development, government restructuring, issue advocacy, networking with other communities and organizations, forums for sharing, and institution building and strengthening.

There are a number of specific activities and interventions in the implementation phase of community-based co-management.

Community entry and integration

Community entry and integration are usually the first steps in implementation. Field workers and community organizers (COs) (either from the community or from outside it) provided by the external agent begin to identify the main stakeholders, those groups and individuals with an interest in co-management, and facilitate the process. It is often difficult to determine who is and who is not a legitimate stakeholder and at what level in the co-management partnership they should be involved. The field workers and community organizers establish initial relationships and credibility with community members, targeting project participants and local leaders at this time. The COs, working with the local people, identify and study the communication and participation structures in the community, including local social structures and power relations, forums for discussion and conflict management, communication barriers by gender and class, and participation in decision-making.

A series of meetings and discussions is held with resource users, stakeholders and government officials to share the concept and process of community-based co-management, to begin to develop communication and a consensus on their interests and concerns, and to build awareness about resource protection, management and rehabilitation. Community members actively participate in these activities. Other activities include identifying key individuals and groups to be involved in co-management, the organizing of a start-up team composed of community members (Box 3.2), answering questions about the programme, raising awareness about issues, the process and the programme, and participating in community activities such as fishing and local events. Government and local leader approvals are sought. At this

point, it is useful for the CO, working with community members, to conduct a feasibility analysis to determine whether a co-management arrangement would be possible. The legal, political, institutional, economic and sociocultural feasibility need to be considered (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1996). A household census may be conducted to collect socio-economic data on the community to initially identify problems, needs and opportunities. Community integration of field workers and community organizers can be a long process and requires those workers to have the skills, energy, commitment and personality to listen, share and work with the people of the community on an equal basis.

Research and participatory research

Participatory research is conducted to collect and analyse baseline data on the community, its people and its natural resources and to generate new knowledge. The baseline data are used in the preparation of development and management plans and strategies, for decision-making, for monitoring and evaluation and for process documentation. A participatory research process involves the people of the community, working with the researchers, in the design, collection, analysis and validation of the output. The participatory research process can also raise awareness and educate community members about their community and natural resources, as well as being useful in the formulation of potential solutions. Participatory research, which is conducted using a mix of scientific and rapid-appraisal methods, includes the collection of traditional and indigenous knowledge.

Participatory research can have four components, conducted in an interactive and iterative manner: (i) resource and ecological assessment (REA); (ii) socio-economic assessment (SEA); (iii) legal, policy and institutional assessment (LIA); and (iv) problem, needs, issues and opportunities assessment (PNIO). A REA provides a scientific and technical information base on the coastal and marine resources of the area. It usually includes three interrelated assessments: capture fisheries, coastal habitat (coral reef, mangrove, seagrass) and water quality. A SEA, which provides baseline information and a profile on social, demographic, gender, cultural and economic characteristics and conditions in the community, includes both stakeholder and conflict analyses. An LIA profiles the institutional arrangements (formal and informal rights and rules), organizational arrangements, legislation and policies and programmes (internal and external to the community) for coastal resources management. The PNIO is a participatory assessment of opportunities, problems, issues and needs, which is conducted by and with the stakeholders through a series of community meetings, key informant interviews, surveys and one-on-one discussions. Community members share with each other, as well as with government and external agents, ideas for their community's future and their vision on how to achieve that future.

Drawing on the baseline data from these four assessments, participants discuss the feasibility of developing a co-management agreement. The baseline data also serve as a basis for the future monitoring of the programme and for the evaluation of success and impacts.

Environmental education and capacity building

Environmental education and training, integral and ongoing activities of the community-based co-management programme, are the main methods of capacity building for community members and government. The external agent usually implements these activities, based on the assessments conducted earlier. The education and training should recognize and build upon the existing experience and knowledge of community members and government. Information is exchanged and the CO can learn from and with community members and government. Education methods, formal and informal, include small-group work, seminars, cross visits, role-playing, radio, video and fisher-to-fisher sharing of local knowledge. Environmental education is a priority goal of these activities, as is the building of community members' and government officials' and staffs' capabilities and confidence so they can make informed choices and decisions about problem articulation, management and development objectives, strategies and plans, and implementation.

Community organizing

Because community organizing is the foundation for mobilizing local human resources, community organizations and leaders are needed to take on the responsibility and authority for management and development activities. These organizations and leaders may already exist in the community, may emerge by themselves or may be newly established. Their focus is on participation, representation, and power sharing in the community. The members of any such group or organization must be willing to take on the responsibility. Existing organizations and leaders in the community are identified through the stakeholder analysis and LIA. Various types of organizational structures can become involved, including associations, cooperatives, unions, management councils and advisory committees, and may have differing levels of participation. Organizations may be formed at levels ranging from the fisher to the village to the municipal/district to the province/state. Organizing is often associated with work aimed at community members who are economically disadvantaged and/or with the least political power.

Education and training can empower the organization or leaders, developing their ability to take on management responsibility. Leadership development is an important part of this step, since strong and dedicated leadership is necessary if community-based co-management is to succeed. Existing community leaders, such as elected officials and senior fishers, play an important role but may be too closely tied to the existing community power structure to be advocates of improved equity. New leaders, often individuals with the motivation but not the means to take on leadership, can invigorate the process and increase its legitimacy. Terms of office for leaders should be short enough to decrease the possibility of corruption and power grabbing.

Adequate time must be provided for the organizing and leadership development processes. Lack of social preparation is often the cause of programme failure. It is during this step that the roles and responsibilities of organizations, leaders and stakeholders are delineated and clarified. Formal and informal fora for discussion and debate should be established, with stated place, time and rules for their meetings. Bridges are built between groups and organizations to improve communication and collaboration. The core groups and organizations advocate for support for policies, laws and local initiatives. Initial consultations and/or planning meetings are held among the partners to develop the co-management agreement.

Co-management plan and strategy

The community-level organizations, working in partnership with other stakeholders and the government, develop a resource management and community development plan whose objectives and strategies include a co-management agreement. Community members participate in the creation of the plan, validating its drafts along the way. The plan will include a common vision for the future, identification of a coordination mechanism and a financing strategy.

Reaching the co-management agreement may involve a series of meetings to negotiate and reach a consensus on its structure and to support management of conflicts. These meetings will involve identifying the key issues, as well as extensive bargaining and compromising in order to reach decisions.

The co-management agreement may include, specifically stated, a definition of roles, responsibilities and authority; identification of fora for meetings; conflict management mechanisms; and rule-making procedures. The agreement should be widely circulated to inform and obtain comments from relevant communities and stakeholders. A co-management body may be established at the end of the process of developing the agreement to represent all the partners. Participants would specify who is represented on the co-management body, what is its mandate and its level of authority and tasks. Indicators of success or monitoring and evaluation of the plan are specified. This can be done through a logical framework analysis (LFA) where outputs, activities, verifiable indicators and means of verification are stated.

The financial resources to implement the co-management plan should be identified early in the programme and made available before implementation. If external funding is needed to implement all or part of the plan, this is the time to identify a source and apply for the funds.

It should be noted again that the strengthening of linkages and partnerships and networking between resource users, stakeholders, government and the external agent is an ongoing and continuous process that extends beyond the implementation phase. The roles and responsibilities of the partners will change and adjust as the community-based co-management programme matures.

Institutional support will be sought, for example, to have formal recognition of the community organization or passage of a government ordinance legitimizing local institutional arrangements (rights and rules). The process of rights- and rules-making can be as difficult, yet as critical, as any other activity in the co-management programme.

Conflict management

Since conflicts will inevitably arise, the agreement must contain forms and mechanisms to address and resolve conflict. Conflict management is a process of dialogue and negotiation. A facilitator (a person who enables organizations to work more effectively), mediator (serves as a neutral party to assist stakeholders in finding a resolution to the conflict) or arbiter (makes a decision for the stakeholders at the request of the stakeholders) may be needed to guide the process towards constructive results. Participants should designate a forum for negotiation and agree on some rules for the process. They may generate and discuss various options for action, formally agreeing on one of those options. The conflict management mechanism should be multi-level to allow for an appeal process.

Plan implementation

The activities and interventions of the co-management plan are implemented through sub-projects. These may be resource management-related, such as marine reserve or sanctuary creation, mangrove reforestation, erosion management or fishing gear restriction. On the other hand, they may be about community development: such as a water well, a road or livelihood development, such as agriculture, aquaculture or small business enterprise. As needed, the responsibilities and rights of partners are clarified, conflicts are managed, and the agreement is enforced – possibly resulting in changes in the agreement or the development of a new agreement (Maine et al., 1996).

Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation should be central elements of the overall implementation process, although evaluation may also be conducted during the turnover or post-implementation phase. The indicators of success specified earlier are used in monitoring and evaluation, both done in a participatory mode. Participatory monitoring allows for adaptive management: interactive learning and a feedback system of success and failure while the programme is being implemented. It provides the community and external agents with information, during the life of the programme, so they can assess whether activities are progressing as planned, and whether modifications are needed. Participatory evaluation allows those internal and external to the community to evaluate programme objectives against results. It allows for planning for the future based on experience. The baseline information collected earlier in the programme can be used in the evaluation. The co-management agreement is also monitored on an ongoing basis, with the partners reviewing the results. Performance indicators may be used to measure progress of the co-management agreement, programme and implementation.

3.1.3. 'Turnover' or post-implementation

At this point, the programme, with assistance from an external agent and external funding, is fully taken over by the community and becomes self-sustaining. The post-implementation phase begins. The external agents work through a planned phase-out from the community and the other co-management partners. The phase-out should be planned and well understood by all to eliminate surprises and minimize problems. A self-sustaining funding strategy is put in place. New activities may be planned and implemented. Where feasible, people in other communities replicate and extend the results of the project. Fisher-to-fisher training and cross visits can be an effective way to train people in other communities. Project replication and extension can also enhance the credibility of the community-based co-management system in the eyes of the community and the co-management partners, since success often breeds success (White et al., 1994; Johannes, 1998). Change and adaptation are central elements of post-implementation.

3.2. Doing It

In the next sections of this handbook, much more detail will be provided on the phases, components and activities described above.

4 Who are You and What is Your Role in Community-based Co-management?

R. Pomeroy.

4.1. Stakeholders

Stakeholders in community-based co-management can be defined as individuals, groups or organizations of people who are interested, involved or affected (positively or negatively) by marine and coastal resources use and management. This may originate from geographical proximity, historical association, dependence for livelihood, institutional mandate, economic interest, or a variety of other concerns. Stakeholders in coastal communities include fishers, their families and households, boat owners, fish traders, community-based groups, seasonal or part-time fishers, local business owners, local traditional authorities, elected government officials, representatives of government agencies, non-governmental organizations and others. There may be different stakeholders depending on their interests, their ways of perceiving problems and opportunities concerning marine and coastal resources, and different perceptions about and needs for management. Not all stakeholders have the same stake or level of interest in marine and coastal resources and thus may be less or more active and have different entitlements to a role in the co-management programme (see Chapter 6, Section 6.2.10 for more discussion on stakeholders).

Different types of stakeholders may be distinguished using some considerations and criteria, which include:

• Existing rights to marine and coastal resources;

• Continuity of relationship to resource (resident fisher versus migratory fisher);

• Unique knowledge and skills for the management of the resources at stake;

• Losses and damage incurred in the management process;

• Historical and cultural relations to the resources;

• Degree of economic and social reliance on the resources;

• Degree of effort and interest in management;

• Equity in the access to the resources and the distribution of benefits from their use;

• Compatibility of the interests and activities of the stakeholders;

• Present or potential impact of the activities of the stakeholders on the resource base (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1997).

Those who score high on several of these considerations and criteria may be considered 'primary' stakeholders and would assume a more active role in co-management, such as being on the management body. Secondary stakeholders may score on only one or two and be involved in a less important way, such as involvement on a consultative body (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1997).

Coastal communities are not all the same and are composed of people with different economic and social status, clans and family groups, language, ethnicity, customs and interests, which can create complexity for management. Even fishers from the same community and using the same fishing gear may have different interests. Coastal communities generally include a variety of stakeholders with divergent interests and views about co-management depending upon their involvement with the resources. These differences need to be recognized, understood and respected if co-management is to be promoted and involve the whole community.

4.2. Stakeholders in Community-based Co-management

For the purposes of this handbook, four key stakeholders or partners in community-based co-management are identified:

1. Resource users (fishers, family/household, community-based fisher group);

2. Government (national, regional, local);

3. Other stakeholders (community members, boat owners, fish traders, boat builders, business people, community-based groups, etc.);

4. Change agents (NGOs, academic and research institutions, development agencies, etc.).

This section of the handbook is written to discuss the role and responsibility of each of these four partners in the community-based co-management programme, and the relationship of the partners to each other.

4.2.1. Resource users

The local community is made up of individuals with differing interests in marine and coastal resource co-management. At the community-level, co-management projects usually have as their primary target fishers, that is, individuals who make their livelihood harvesting and using marine and coastal resources. The fishers are the individuals who, through their use of the resource, directly impact upon it and who are in turn directly impacted by management measures. Fishers are considered by many to be the real day-to-day managers of the resource, and as such, should be active participants in management. Fishers are usually the target of organizing and capacity-building activities.

Fishers' family and household are also stakeholders in co-management. Both the family and the household unit are identified, as, depending upon the culture, a household may include more than one family unit and several generations. In most fishing families, the fisher is usually a male. However, there are cases when decisions are made by both the husband and wife, and the spouse can be influential. Fisheries management programmes often leave out women, as the focus of the programme is the male fisher. Since women are involved in decision-making, and since women and children may be involved in aspects of production and marketing of the resource, it is clear that they are stakeholders, and should be partners, in co-management. Participation efforts, capacity-building efforts, and livelihood activities of the co-management programme, among others, should target women and, where appropriate, children.

Community-based fisher groups are formal and informal groups of local fishers established to support the social, cultural, economic and environmental interests of its members or of the community as a whole. These groups play an important role of bringing together fishers with similar interests concerning the resource and livelihood.

The main assets of community-based fisher groups are:

• Local knowledge, skills and resources;

• Built-in flexibility;

• Strong ties to the resource users, their families and the community;

• Direct responsiveness to local interests and conditions;

• Sociocultural cohesiveness;

• Capacity to serve the interests of its members;

• Confidence and trust of the local people (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1997).

Examples of community-based resource user groups are the people's organizations (POs) in the Philippines, the community fisheries (CF) organizations in Cambodia, and the mass organizations in Vietnam such as farmers/fishers union, women's union and youth union. In some cases, separate women's organizations are formed at the community level in the Philippines.

In general, the role of the community-based fisher groups in community-based co-management includes:

• Identification of issues and concerns of the community;

• Mobilization and leadership of co-management activities;

• Participation in research, data gathering and analysis;

• Participation in the planning, design and implementation of co-management activities;

• Community-based enforcement and self-regulation;

• Monitoring and evaluation;

• Advocacy to lobby for changes in or development of policy;

• Establish a people's movement for participation and change.

4.2.2. Government

Both the national and local government units (i.e. province/state, city, town, municipality, district, village) have jurisdiction over fisheries and coastal resources. Each government level has different mandates, authority and responsibility.

Increasingly, government policies and programmes stress the need for greater fisher participation and the development of local organizations to handle some aspect of resource management. Government must, however, not just call for more fisher involvement and participation, but also establish commensurate legal rights and authorities and devolve some of their powers. The delegation of authority and power sharing to manage the resource may be one of the most difficult tasks in establishing co-management. Government must not only foster conditions for resource user participation but sustain it.

As a first step, the national government must establish conditions for (or at least not impede) the co-management programme to originate and prosper. At a minimum, government must not challenge fishers' rights to hold meetings to discuss problems and solutions and to develop organizations and institutional arrangements (rights and rules) for management. Fishers must feel safe to openly hold meetings at their initiative and discuss problems and solutions in public fora. They must not feel threatened if they criticize existing government policies and management methods.

As a second step, fishers must be given access to government and government officials to express their concerns and ideas. Fishers should feel that government officials will listen and take action as necessary. As a third step, fishers should be given the right to develop their own organizations and to form networks and coalitions for cooperation and coordination. Too often there has been the formation of government-sponsored organizations which are officially recognized but ineffective since they do not represent the fishers. However, these may be the only type of organization a government may allow. Fishers must be free to develop organizations on their own initiative that meet their needs and that are legitimate to them. The issue is government's willingness to share authority and responsibility with the fisher organization and what function and form this will take.

One fundamental debate in co-management is the perception that fishers cannot always be entrusted to manage resources on their own. Unless government and officials who implement government policies can be convinced of the desire and the ability of fishers to manage themselves, not much progress can be made in co-management. The acknowledgement and acceptance of local-level management is partly the task of fishers to take on the new responsibilities, to organize themselves and, on the ability of the local community, to control the resources in question. On the other hand, communities and change agents often point out that government resource managers are reluctant to share authority. In this case, peers who have already 'bought into' co-management and/or a targeted education programme can be used to inform and, hopefully, persuade the resource managers to support co-management. While there are cases that show how politicians could use co-management to pursue their own personal goals and hang on to political power, it would be a mistake to interpret this for all government resource managers and officials. The success of co-management is fundamentally based on the trust extended among the partners and the commitment to collectively work towards a common vision.

A question for government is what management functions are best handled by the community, as opposed to the national or local government. Seven management functions have been identified that may be enhanced by the joint action of users and government resource managers at the local level: (i) data gathering; (ii) logistical decisions such as who can harvest and when; (iii) allocation decisions; (iv) protection of resources from environmental damage; (v) enforcement of regulations; (vi) enhancement of long-term planning; and (vii) more inclusive decision-making. No single formula exists to implement a co-management agreement to cover these functions. The answer depends on country-specific and site-specific conditions, and is ultimately a political decision.

The roles of the national government and national agencies in community-based co-management include:

• Provide enabling legislation to authorize and legitimize the right to organize and to make and enforce co-management;

• Determination of form and process and provision of decentralization;

• Recognition of legitimacy of community-based informal management systems;

• Address problems and issues beyond the scope of local co-management arrangements;

• Provide technical assistance;

• Provide financial assistance;

• Ensure accountability of co-management through overseeing local arrangements and dealing with abuses of local authority;

• Conflict management;

• Appeal mechanism;

• Backstopping local monitoring and enforcement mechanisms;

• Applying regulatory standards;

• Research;

• Training and education;

• Coordination role to maintain a forum for local co-management partners to interact;

• Gatekeeper in case the local co-management partners do not act upon their responsibility;

• Determination of allocation of management functions.

The main role of the local government unit is to support community-based co-management initiatives within its jurisdiction (Box 4.1). In many countries, local government units have a good deal of authority and responsibility to manage fisheries and coastal resources within their jurisdiction. This authority and responsibility may be historical or it may have been recently decentralized from the central government. There must be political willingness among the local political 'power elite' to support co-management. In addition, local government staff and officials must also endorse and actively support the co-management programme.

The roles the local government unit plays include:

• Supporting community involvement in community-based co-management;

• Approving local regulations and ordinances;

• Enforcement of regulations;

• Appeal mechanism;

• Providing technical assistance and staff;

• Providing financial assistance;

• Backstopping community-led functions, activities and mechanisms;

• Provide and/or support conflict management mechanisms;

• Ensure legitimacy and accountability of co-management;

• Engage in multisectoral and inter-local government unit collaboration;

• Facilitate and coordinate co-management planning and implementation;

• Provide a supporting environment for partner dialogue;

• Institutionalize co-management for fisheries and coastal resources in local waters (DENR et al., 2001a).

4.2.3. Other stakeholders

A number of other members of the local community are directly and indirectly stakeholders in community-based co-management. These stakeholders will have varying interests in engaging in co-management, depending in part on their economic interests in the fishers and the resource. For example, a fish trader who is involved in a credit/marketing relationship with a fisher may not be supportive of the fishers organizing to be involved in co-management because it may be a potential threat to their relationship. It will be important to engage the fish trader in the co-management process through, at a minimum, education and discussion to understand the process, if not as an active partner. The role of each of these stakeholders in community-based co-management will be different and site-specific.

The stakeholders include:

• Business people: Local businesses such as boat owners, fish traders, fish processors, boat builders, hotel owners, recreational fishing guides, aquaculturists and shipping companies all use marine and coastal resources and have a strong economic stake in resource management issues. While they may not have to be direct participants, at a minimum they need to be consulted and educated so that they do not disrupt the co-management process. Local business people can provide an incentive and funding to resource users to manage resources.

• Community-based groups: Formal and informal groups of local community members established to support the social, cultural, gender, economic and environmental interests of its members or of the community as a whole. There can be a variety of community-based groups such as a women's group, religious organization, civic organization and service organization. There can also be community-based groups, other than community-based fisher groups, with a direct interest in the fishery and coastal resources, such as women's fish marketing association or coastal aquaculture organization. These community-based groups play an important role of bringing together individuals and groups with similar interests. These groups have local knowledge, skills and resources; strong ties to the community and the confidence and trust of the local people.

• Part-time and seasonal resource users: In many areas, there are a number of part-time or seasonal resource users who depend on the resource for a part of their livelihood, income and food. These may be upland farmers who come to the coast to fish during the dry season or migratory fishers chasing small pelagics. While not a part of the resident community, they are a part of the community of resource users. Certain management measures can impact their livelihood, income and food security.

• Resource management organizations: In some countries, the law encourages the formation of collaborative resource management councils that have government and community representatives. These boards and councils provide technical expertise and serve in an advisory capacity to the government. These organizations can be important partners in co-management.

The roles of these other stakeholders include:

• Identification of issues and concerns of the community;

• Participation in planning and implementation;

• Providing incentives for certain behaviour;

• Dissemination of information;

• Fostering participation;

• Conflict management;

• Facilitation.

4.2.4. Change agents

Change agents include non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, research institutions, development agencies and similar organizations who act in a catalytic and facilitation role for community-based co-management. The change agent is considered to be a catalyst of change and to act as an intermediary between communities and external institutions, such as government, the general public and businesses. Change agents are meant to 'spark' endogenous change 'from within', not to carry out the change programme; this is the responsibility of the organized community (Rivera, 1997). The facilitation role is to empower and enhance the capabilities of the community to manage their lives and resources. Through the process of building community self-reliance, the change agent creates an impetus for community-based co-management.

Most change agents have a conservation and/or social development focus. They may be registered with the government and be officially recognized as a legal entity. The change agent should maintain relative objectivity and provide technical and analytical skills. The change agent provides a variety of services such as information and independent advice, ideas and expertise, education and training, community organizing, social development, research, advocacy, and finance and resource mobilization. Many change agents have staff, such as community organizers, who live and work in the community. A community presence can increase the level of trust between communities and the change agent and increase total participation.

In the beginning, the change agent may play a more dominant role with the community, but this should gradually diminish as the co-management programme progresses. It is important to note that change agents should realize that it is the people themselves who should be the driving force behind the co-management process; that genuine participation and change have to start with the people (Rivera, 1997). Problems can arise when people become too dependent upon the change agent or when the change agent directly interferes in the process, rather than guiding it or serving as a catalyst. Problems can also occur when the change agent's ideological views on development are not acceptable to the community or government. The role of the change agent in community-based co-management will differ by country, where, for example, an NGO is not allowed by the government to operate.

Change agents may choose to establish alliance with other change agents who have complementary skills, allowing them to implement more complex projects than they could by working alone. Alliances or networking increase the ability of change agents to learn from each other. It also allows the change agents to engage in advocacy to influence public policy.

Development agencies, as change agents, can provide funding and technical guidance for community-based co-management.

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II Pre-implementation

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5 'Beginnings' or Pre-implementation

Coastal Resources Institute, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai.

'Beginnings' can be considered to be the pre-implementation phase of the community-based co-management programme. Beginnings of the co-management programme can be external to the community or internal to the community. Beginnings can have several activities including problem recognition and consensus, taking collective action, seeking information, community meetings and discussion, assessing the need and feasibility of co-management, preliminary plan and strategy, seeking funding and developing linkages (Table 5.1).

5.1. External and Internal Beginnings

Community-based co-management may have a number of different types of beginnings, that is, the way in which a community-based co-management programme is initiated. The beginnings of co-management may be a response to conflict, an environmental crisis, new legislation, a conservation or development initiative, to take advantage of a funding opportunity, for political purposes, or to claim resource rights. The beginning of a co-management programme is often highly site- and context-specific and may involve a variety of different stakeholders. The actual beginning of a programme may originate from several different sources and combination of stakeholders and finally evolve into an action. The beginning phase of co-management may be time-consuming, difficult and costly. It is not possible to present all the possible scenarios of the beginnings of a co-management programme. In real life, all of the activities described below may not be undertaken or they may not be undertaken in the order described. For the sake of simplicity, two types of beginnings will be discussed. The co-management programme may be: (i) initiated external to the community, or (ii) initiated internally in the community. Several examples will be provided to help illustrate the range of possible beginning scenarios.

5.1.1. External beginnings

A community-based co-management programme, initiated externally to the community, is one in which the idea for the programme originates outside of the community. For example, the programme may begin where an external agent (i.e. NGO, academic or research institution) and/or government agency identifies a problem(s) (for example, poverty in fishing communities, overfishing, destructive fishing), plans to address the problem through co-management, further identifies an area or community in the country to focus the programme, then establishes the programme. In another case, the programme may be initiated as part of a larger donor-assisted development programme in the country in which community-based co-management is the intervention approach. Or it may be that the government has declared a protected area and wants to develop a co-management partnership to manage the area (Boxes 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4).

In the case of a programme which begins externally to the community, there may or may not be early consultation and collaboration with the community in designing and preparing for the programme. In many externally initiated programmes, the details of the programme objectives, intervention approach (co-management) and the specific areas of the programme are decided in the design phase away from the community. For example, an NGO might specialize in co-management and have the resources to undertake a co-management programme in a community. The NGO would then conduct a community scoping activity (e.g. a needs assessment) to determine the feasibility of undertaking a co-management programme in the community. Once a programme community or area is identified, it is recommended that community members be consulted and allowed to participate as early in the programme life as possible in order to obtain their input, support and 'buy-in'. Although the project idea may not originate with the community,

the sooner they are aware that their community has been selected as a programme site, the sooner the community members can help shape specific programme objectives and strategies. If the programme objectives and strategies are kept relatively general at this early stage, community members can be given an opportunity to provide input into further programme design and planning and gain a sense of ownership of the project. Programme sustainability has been shown to improve when community members are given the opportunity to participate early in the programme design and planning stages and have an incentive to want to participate (Pollnac et al., 2003).

Once a community is identified, an externally initiated programme may assist community members in problem identification, consensus building, accessing information and initial action planning. In some cases, an externally initiated programme, due to funding or donor demands, may immediately initiate implementation activities such as community organizer integration or education and capacity building (Box 5.5).

5.1.2. Internal beginnings

A community-based co-management programme initiated internal to the community begins from the fishers and other stakeholders in the community (Boxes 5.6 and 5.7). For example, the fishers, bearing different interests, concerns and capacities, come together to join forces and agree on a way to solve specific conflicts and problems and to claim specific rights. In contrast to the external beginning of a programme, this can be considered as a 'bottom-up' beginning for co-management. While ideally all stakeholders would be involved in deciding what to do, in reality a few stakeholders hold most of the authority and the means to set the co-management programme in motion. This type of beginning may be more promising in terms of sustainability of the programme as the fishers themselves have recognized a problem, they have an incentive to take action, and they take the lead to finding a solution. This is not to say that an internal beginning always leads to improved programme sustainability as compared to a programme with an external beginning. Additionally, to distinguish between an externally-initiated and an internally-initiated programme may be difficult because of highly complex interactions and interlocking relationships and interests between an external agent and the community. For example, a programme of the national government may want to expand its operation to a new community which has long recognized their problems but is not able to do anything about it. In this case, the idea to initiate some kind of management already exists in the community and this is put into action by an external institution with a similar idea and interest. The important point, whichever type or combination of beginning, is that the fishers and other stakeholders have an incentive (economic, social, political) to want to

participate and are given the opportunity to take ownership of the co-management process early in the project life.

5.2. Problem Recognition and Consensus

The beginning phase of a community-based co-management programme usually starts when fishers and other stakeholders are concerned about or recognize a resource(s) problem and/or conflict that may threaten their livelihood, income and/or social and community structure. This is especially true where the fishers are highly dependent on a resource(s), availability of the resource(s) is uncertain or limited and the users are highly identified with their fishing area (Runge, 1992). If the resource(s) problem, such as decreasing or no fish catch, repeatedly occurs over a period of time, if it exists within a single community of fishers and if the users are unable or unwilling to move to another fishing area, the fishers are more likely to take action to deal with the problem (Gibbs and Bromley, 1987; Ostrom, 1992). At this point, fishers may individually and collectively begin to discuss the problem informally, either while fishing, at the landing area, or while relaxing after fishing. Different points of view, interests and concerns about the problem may arise in the discussions. Fishers may also discuss the problem at more formal community or government meetings or with respected community members or government officials. After a period of discussion, the fishers may come to a consensus that there is a problem that needs solving and informally (or formally) organize themselves to take action.

5.3. Taking Action

With an informal consensus among the fishers and other stakeholders about the problem, an informal (or formal) agreement is reached that action needs to be taken. At this early stage, the development of the co-management programme is often based more on informal than formal relationships among people. The fishers may initially organize themselves and assign individual tasks to begin developing a plan and strategy for action. At this early stage, an enthusiastic individual(s) may step forward to lead the process. This individual is often visionary, dedicated and enthusiastic, and may have worked for a long time to prepare for co-management. A senior fisher, representative of a community organization, community leader or government official may be asked to assist. The leaders are usually self-selected based on strong personal motivation. These individuals may later become part of the core group which guides the whole co-management programme (see Chapter 6 and Box 3.2). The initial leaders will need to be willing and able to dedicate energy, time and creativity to the co-management programme.

This initial action may involve seeking information and/or assistance on what to do next or may involve putting together a more formal plan and strategy. Information may be sought from people in other communities about whether they have a similar problem and what they have done about it. Or information and/or assistance may be sought from the government (local, provincial/state and/or national) and/or an external agent (NGO, academic or research institution, religious institution) on possible solutions or courses of action to deal with the problem. At this stage, the group of fishers may discuss and identify other stakeholders who should be included in this process. In some cases, the plan of action may be limited to just the fishers and specifically designed to solve a single problem or issue, leaving the government and other stakeholders initially outside of the programme.

It should be recognized that co-management is a political process in which different stakeholders in the process may have different aims ranging from more equity in management to co-opting the rights of others. Power differences among stakeholders must be understood and recognized in order for the process to develop.

5.4. Information

Information is important at this early stage. The fishers are seeking information on who can help them, what assistance different institutions and organizations can provide, what has been done elsewhere, what has worked and what has not worked and where funding support can be obtained. This information may be available from individual people or institutions, or in publications or other forms of media (Box 5.8). This is an especially critical time in the programme as the fishers may not know exactly what they want or need or who can best assist them. They may have to talk to a number of people and institutions before they identify someone who can provide them assistance. It is often easy for the fishers to get discouraged if it becomes difficult to find assistance. The government may not be capable at this time of providing the assistance that the fishers need. NGOs with experience on fisheries and coastal issues may not be operating in the area. The fishers will need to be creative and diligent in their search for assistance. For example, an NGO which deals with health issues may be operating in the community and, while they do not deal with fisheries issues, they may be able to network with other NGOs to identify an NGO capable of assisting the fishers. Or government may have an extension agent who is willing to learn and assist. Or a lecturer at the local college or university may be interested and willing to assist.

5.5. Community Meetings and Discussion

The fishers may be organized enough to utilize the information obtained to prepare a preliminary project plan and strategy. However, in many cases, an external agent and/or government official may enter the community at this point to begin to provide assistance. Outside assistance is often needed as the fishers may lack the capability to act collectively. However, in situations where fishers are motivated by a crisis, for example, they can act collectively, although the effort may not be sustainable. The external agent and/or government official may organize community meetings and one-on-one and small group discussions to introduce themselves, provide information and discuss the local situation (Box 5.9). The meetings and discussions are meant to begin to gather and organize information on the local situation and fishers attitudes and perceptions regarding the resource and management. They are also meant to begin to inform and educate the fishers about the resource and possible solutions to problems, such as co-management. They are also meant to open and maintain communication among the various stakeholders. These meetings and discussions may initially be rather informal and unstructured as

everyone gets to know each other and to establish rapport and to determine if they can and want to work with each other. There may be one or several meetings and discussions depending upon the needs of the community. If not satisfied or confident in the external agent or government official, the fishers may look for other sources of assistance.

5.6. Assessing the Need, Feasibility and Suitability of Co-management

At this stage, the idea of co-management may be introduced and discussed. It is important to assess the need for, feasibility of and suitability of co-management for the community. The decision to engage in the co-management programme is both technical and political, and should be based on an analysis of technical and political needs (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2004).

It is advisable to pursue co-management when:

• The active collaboration of the partners is essential for the management of the fishery and coastal resources;

• Access to the fishery and coastal resources is essential for livelihood, food security and cultural survival.

It is appropriate to pursue co-management when:

• The local stakeholders have historically enjoyed customary/legal rights over the area at stake;

• Local interests are strongly affected by the way in which the fishery and coastal resources are managed;

• The decisions to be taken are complex and highly controversial;

• Previous management approaches have clearly failed to produce the expected results;

• The various stakeholders are ready to collaborate and request to do so;

• There is ample time to negotiate.

It may be inappropriate to pursue co-management when rapid decisions are needed as in a crisis or emergency situation.

A judgment will need to be made whether or not the potential benefits of co-management outweigh the costs. If they do, a more detailed feasibility analysis may follow to determine that the conditions for co-management are in place (Borrini-Feyerabend, 1996).

When a group of individuals has determined that co-management is needed and desirable, they may wonder whether it is feasible in the particular context. In this case, it may be expedient to ask the following questions (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000, pp.17–18):

• Is co-management legally feasible? Who has the mandate to control the resources? Can a co-management approach be accommodated with the existing customary/legal framework? Examine traditional and modern laws, regulations, permits, etc.

• Is co-management politically feasible? What is the history of resource management and use in the area? Examine current political will and stability, the capacity to enforce decisions, the confidence in the participatory process, the presence of phenomena such as corruption and intimidation, etc.

• Is co-management institutionally feasible? Is there a chance of building a co-management institution in the area? Examine inter-institutional relations and their possible conflicts, existing examples of multi-party resource management organizations and rules, the capacity of stakeholders to organize themselves and express their choice of representatives to convey their interests and concerns, etc.

• Is co-management economically feasible? Are there economic opportunities and alternatives to the direct exploitation of natural resources? Examine local opportunities to reconcile the conservation of nature with the satisfaction of economic needs, examine the extent of poverty in the region, the availability of capital for local investment, etc.

• Is co-management socioculturally feasible? Are or were there traditional systems of natural resource management in the context at stake? What are (or were) their main features and strengths? Are those still valid today? Are the traditional natural resource management systems still in use? Regardless of whether the answer is yes or no, why? Who is keeping them alive? What is specifically sustaining or demeaning them? If they are not being used any more, does anyone have a living memory of the systems (for instance, are there elders who practised them and still remember clearly 'how it was done')?

• Examine the current population status, population dynamics and structure, the main sociocultural changes under way.

• Examine social and cultural diversity amongst the institutional actors and the history of group relations among them.

• Examine factors affecting opportunities for social communication, including:

• Language diversity;

• Varying degrees of access to information;

• Different attitudes, for example, with regard to speaking in public or defending personal advantages;

• Traditional and modern media currently used in the particular context.

Feasibility conditions do not need to be absolutely ideal to decide to embark on a co-management process, but thinking about feasibility factors gives a good idea of the obstacles and issues to expect along the way.

Certain questions can be asked in order to determine whether the proper institutional structure and support systems can be set up to make co-management a viable option for the community.

• Is the unit (the issue, the resource, the geographic area) of co-management definable? Does it relate to stakeholder interests? Is the scale manageable?

• Can participants agree on a set of objectives for the co-management regime?

• Can criteria for membership as co-managers and stakeholders be established? At least one member of the co-management regime must be a government representing the public interest.

• Is there a legally mandated basis for the co-management regime, or can a mandate be created?

• Can the co-management regime be financially supported, and does it include financial or in-kind contributions from members?

• Can members agree on a process for consensus-driven decision-making to address administrative matters, such as information sharing, capacity building, public communication, dispute resolution, evaluation, and for revising the process to reduce the risk of unsustainability?

• Will the parties volunteer, recognizing that there is mutual value to be gained from the co-management system? (National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, 1998).

It should be noted that if a full-scale co-management is not relevant or feasible at the time, at a minimum it would be useful to begin to organize fishers so that they could engage in future programmes.

5.7. Preliminary Plan and Strategy

Out of these meetings may come a consensus for the development of a preliminary programme plan and strategy. The initial group of leaders will direct this planning. This preliminary plan and strategy will identify the next steps to be taken in setting up and implementing the community-based co-management programme, the partners and stakeholders, and the partners' initial roles and responsibilities. This preliminary plan and strategy will differ from the co-management plan and strategy to be developed later in the process and which will include more specific management and development activities.

An initial agreement for cooperation between the group of fishers and the community and the external agent or government is prepared. This agreement specifies the services and assistance to be provided and the role and responsibility of the partners. It encourages information sharing, coordination and participation in planning and implementation. The preliminary plan will also assess the human and financial resources currently available and needed to undertake co-management. Are there resources to undertake all activities, including the community entry and integration phase? Thought needs to be given to the human and financial resources needed to undertake co-management.

5.8. Seeking Funding

If necessary, a proposal for funding of the programme may be prepared (Box 5.10). While a co-management programme can proceed without outside funding, such as with resources (people and funds) available in the community, most often some additional funding is needed to carry out the programme (Box 5.11).

The initial group of leaders may request assistance from government or an external agent in preparing the proposal. The human and financial resources needed to prepare and implement the co-management programme are identified. The preliminary plan and strategy will provide information on the objectives and approaches to prepare the proposal and to estimate resource needs. Several potential funding sources will need to be identified and contacted. It may be necessary to contact other programmes or external agents with experience with co-management to provide information to estimate human and financial resource needs. Depending upon how organized the fishers are, they may lead this funding search, but in most cases it will be led by the external agent or government. In most cases, a legal entity, such as a

community organization or NGO registered with government, will be needed in order to submit the proposal and for the donor to provide funding.

5.9. Approvals

Initial approvals for the programme may need to be obtained from different levels of government and local community officials and leaders to move the programme forward and to submit a proposal.

5.10. Linkages

At this point, linkages are established and strengthened between and among fishers, other stakeholders, external agents and government so that a partnership is developed. Building partnerships is important to mobilize resources and energy of various stakeholders to achieve a common vision and goal. These are institutional and personal linkages meant to enhance the co-management programme. The development and strengthening of these linkages, at institutional, political and individual levels, is a continuous process during the life of the co-management programme. These linkages are important because they begin to give each partner a sense of the abilities and credibility of the other partners. Developing trust, credibility and friendship will often take time as the partners may not have worked directly with each other in the past or they may have reason for suspicion.

5.11. Moving to Implementation

This is now an in-between time before implementation. If resources such as money and people are available, initial implementation activities may begin. If resources are not available, implementation will need to wait until proposals are funded or other arrangements are made to obtain the necessary resources. This can be a frustrating time as the partners are ready to go but cannot yet activate their plans and strategies. At a minimum, regular communication must be maintained between the partners. The momentum of early interest and action must be maintained. Meetings can be held to update each other on the status of funding proposals and other issues. Partners may obtain and share new information on the resource, the community, possible solutions, co-management, or other topics of interest and concern.

The external agent or government may begin to assess the human and financial resources available for co-management and their own capabilities and needs to engage as a partner in co-management. The fishers may want to begin organizing themselves (if they are not currently organized) to participate in co-management.

III Implementation

Implementing community-based co-management is always context-specific. For example, one community may have an existing and well-functioning fisher organization while another needs assistance in organizing. Another community may have a specifically defined set of objectives while another needs to develop a plan and strategy. During the 'beginnings' or pre-implementation phase, a preliminary plan and strategy is prepared to guide the implementation phase in the community. The goals and objectives identified in the preliminary implementation plan and strategy will be reflected in the types of implementation activities which will be undertaken and in the timeline for implementation. However, it is important to be flexible and adaptive as needs, issues and opportunities will change.

The implementation activities to be discussed below are present in some form in most community-based co-management programmes. It should be noted that the implementation of community-based co-management is not a linear process but involves a number of activities that may or may not occur sequentially or concurrently. Every community has its own unique situation and context and this should determine the activities in the co-management implementation process for that particular community. The implementation activities presented below should be adapted to the community.

The implementation phase generally begins when resources are available and the partners are ready. Implementation activities may be started with the resources (money, time, personnel) currently available. In other cases, implementation may not begin until adequate funding is obtained.

The general types of implementation activities include: (i) community entry and integration (Chapter 6); (ii) research and participatory research (Chapter 7); (iii) environmental education and capacity development (Chapter 8); (iv) community organizing (Chapter 9); (v) co-management plan and strategy (Chapter 10); (vi) conflict management (Chapter 11); and (vii) co-management plan implementation, including evaluation (Chapter 12). Each of these implementation activities will be discussed in the following chapters.

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6 Community Entry and Integration

J. Parks.

Community entry and integration is normally led by the external agent. Community entry and integration establishes the initial working relationship between the community and the external agent and/or government involved with the programme (the implementation phase may be led by an external agent and/or government; for ease of comprehension, only the term external agent will be used in this publication) (Table 6.1). The external agent may introduce a community organizer or extension worker to the programme (Box 6.1).

Community entry and integration entails a number of activities to initiate the project including:

• Formally introducing the programme to the community;

• Answering questions about the programme;

• Establishing rapport with the community;

• Participating in community life;

• Identifying roles of programme partners;

• Core group formation;

• Organizing and attending meetings, training and awareness-raising sessions;

• Collection of baseline data on the community;

• Stakeholder identification;

• Meeting with local leaders and government officials;

• Obtaining government approvals; and

• Initiating the programme with the community.

As with other activities of the co-management programme, the timeframe for community entry and integration will depend on the level of effort needed and objectives and outcomes set by the community, the programme and the community organizer (CO).

6.1. The Community Organizer

The community organizer (CO) is usually a staff member of the external agent or a government staff person, such as from the fisheries or extension department (Box 6.2). The CO may come from within or outside the community. The CO is a facilitator (a person who enables organization to work more effectively) for the co-management programme. In many cases, the CO will work and/or live in the community for many months or years to plan and implement co-management. The CO will continue to work with the community until the CO and the community feel that external assistance on a daily basis is no longer needed for sustainability of the programme. The CO should facilitate rather than impose.

The external agent and CO will play a central role in facilitating the co-management programme due to their knowledge and experience in community organizing, participatory methods, mobilization, education and information dissemination, and planning. The external agent and CO should have a phase-out strategy from the start of their involvement with the programme as the goal of their effort is to empower the community to manage the co-management programme and their resources themselves. The community should not become dependent upon the external agent to lead the co-management programme. As stated earlier, the role of the external agent should be to facilitate the co-management programme. The external agent and CO may need to continue to visit the community and provide assistance as needed after the phase-out (Boxes 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6).

The CO may be male or female depending upon the context of the community. One or more COs may live in the community. Often the external agent will provide technical support to the CO with other staff members who may have specialized skills. Many COs have a college degree in social work or community development, although those with other degrees make excellent COs. The external agent will need to train the CO on their philosophy of co-management and on methods and tools to be used. Many external agents have developed a specific co-management, community organizing or development process which they follow in their work.

The CO should have the following skills:

• Open-minded;

• Creative;

• Respectful;

• Sensitive to local culture and gender;

• Sense of humour;

• Modest and humble;

• Puts people at ease and does not set himself or herself apart or act superior;

• Facilitate and guide rather than lead the process;

• A clear understanding of the different theories of development;

• Familiarity with the concept and process of community organizing and participation processes;

• Social and community relationship skills such as skills in establishing rapport, conflict management and group maintenance;

• A clear grasp of community-based co-management concept and process;

• The ability to work with teams of professionals involved in the management of marine and coastal resource;

• A clear perspective of when to phase-out and to 'let go';

• Interviewing and documentation skills;

• Ability to facilitate group meetings and discussions;

• Communication skills (DENR et al., 2001c).

Among the many skills and qualities a CO should have, the ability to dialogue – a fundamental aspect of community work – is one of the most crucial yet difficult tasks. Dialogue is an interchange and discussion of ideas based on a process of open and frank questioning and analysis in both directions between the community workers and the people. Community organizers cannot do their task if they do not take the time to listen to the people and constantly look for venues to interact with people. These may be in the form of meetings or house visits. The key element is to be able to dialogue with people in informal and intimate ways. A CO does not decide in advance what the community needs to know but dialogues with them to understand their needs.

The external agent should make logistical and administrative arrangements to support the CO. In many cases, the CO will need to travel to several communities or government offices. Resources will need to be made available for travel. Arrangements for communication through telephone and internet will need to be made for the CO. The external agent will need to provide back-up to the CO in case of sickness or other problems and in case a CO needs to be changed for any reason. In some situations, a CO may not be acceptable to the community and will need to be replaced. The external agent will need to make arrangements to pay the CO's salary and provide benefits.

Before entering the community, the CO should become familiar with the area, including its history, resources, culture, economy, social structure, problems, needs and opportunities. This information may be obtained from secondary data sources such as reports and publications and from key informant interviews with those knowledgeable about the area such as local elected officials, other NGO staff that may have worked in the area and government agency staff.

In conducting community entry, the CO should:

• Know the audience;

• Know the background of the community and its leaders;

• Initiate informal discussion with local government officials;

• Become acquainted with leaders and key informants;

• Know the potential topics they might want to discuss;

• Prepare appropriate techniques (for example, interviews and visualization techniques);

• Prepare secondary materials as background information.

6.2. Integration

In order to be effective, the CO will need to integrate himself or herself in community life in order to have knowledge about community members; their culture, livelihoods, institutions, social structure and environment; and their needs, behaviour and problems. This is a critical time for the CO as he or she must be accepted by the community. There must be credibility, trust and respect between the CO, the community members and government. This will involve long days and nights of listening, observing, talking and involvement in community activities. It will involve explaining the co-management programme and adapting to local conditions. The CO must become accustomed to local culture and traditions. This can take several months.

In order to gain this mutual trust and respect, the CO should observe, participate and hold informal conversations with a wide range of community members (Box 6.7). The CO should become a part of the community and participate in local economic and social activities. This may involve going to the fish landing site and talking to fishers, asking fishers to go fishing, talking to fish buyers and sellers in the market, attending local meetings, meeting women as they wash cloths, singing karaoke. It involves being available and observant.

6.2.1. Courtesy call

The CO should make courtesy calls to elected and traditional leaders. Elected leaders include those at provincial/state, municipal and village government levels, for example, a provincial/state governor, a municipal mayor or a village council person. Traditional leaders include village chiefs, village elders, religious leaders and senior fishers. The purpose of the courtesy call is for the CO to:

• Introduce himself or herself;

• Introduce the programme and its objectives;

• Introduce the concept of co-management;

• Introduce the approach to be taken to community participation and activities;

• Determine the role of elected and traditional leaders and government;

• Open communication and dialogue;

• Determine the level of support;

• Encourage participation and cooperation; and

• Determine the needs of the leaders (government and traditional).

This should not be a one time visit but the start of a long-term relationship. Depending upon their interest, the leaders should be actively consulted and brought into the co-management programme. There may be a need for frequent visits to inform and discuss programme activities and needs.

It is important to note if the leaders are male-dominated; it is the role of the CO to consciously seek out and consult women members of the community, even if they do not play formal leadership roles.

At this early stage, the CO may also make courtesy calls on government offices and staff for the same reasons as the leaders. This may include, for example, provincial/state and municipal fisheries office, environment and natural resource office, economic development office, agriculture office and local government office.

The significant role of government and traditional leaders in co-management should be recognized. If any leaders show lack of or limited support, consider having someone from the community or someone who is known or respected by the leader and is supportive of the project visit with the leader and introduce co-management and the programme. Consider consulting with other leaders or government officials who could provide alternative channels to gain cooperation of the non-supportive leaders.

6.2.2. Community meetings

In a similar fashion as the courtesy calls on government and traditional leaders, the CO needs to inform the community about the programme. Community meetings are one method of doing this (Box 6.8). The community meetings should have the same general purposes as the courtesy calls, that is:

• Introduce himself or herself;

• Introduce the programme and its objectives;

• Introduce the concept of co-management;

• Introduce the approach to be taken to community participation and activities;

• Determine the role of community members;

• Open communication and dialogue;

• Determine the level of support;

• Encourage participation and cooperation; and

• Determine the needs of the community members in terms of training and awareness raising.

These community meetings can be part of previously organized meetings, such as government, social or religious gatherings. They can be meetings organized by the CO specifically for the purpose of informing community members about the programme. Or these meetings can be informal where the CO meets with groups of people in daily settings such as the market or fish landing site. The CO should hold as many meetings as needed to ensure that community members are informed and aware of the programme, are familiar with the CO and know how to contact the CO.

The meeting agenda should include an introduction of people associated with the programme (CO, government and community leaders, external agent), a presentation about the programme and open discussion about the programme and any inputs and concerns from the meeting participants.

The CO should have a formal presentation prepared which covers the above topics about the programme. A formal presentation will ensure that the same information about the programme is presented at each meeting.

Published materials about the programme (including purpose, objective, partners, role of community, co-management) should be available. The presentation and published materials should be easily understood and in the local language.

As an alternative method, and as will be discussed below, the CO may need to conduct a household census. In doing so, the CO will have the opportunity to meet with community members at each house and provide an explanation of the programme.

6.2.3. Key informants

The CO should identify key informants in the community that can provide reliable information on a variety of topics and issues (Box 6.9). There may be one or more key informants for each topic and issue. Key informants are purposely selected community members who are able to provide information on a particular topic based on their knowledge, skills or experience with that subject. It is felt that community members can provide accurate, relevant and detailed information about their community.

6.2.4. Preliminary community profile

At this early stage, the CO may want to develop a preliminary community profile including information on community demographic characteristics (population, age, sex, education, occupation), history, conflicts, and problems and needs. This will allow the CO and others, such as the core group, to have a better understanding of the community and how to direct activities. Some of this information may have been collected in the 'beginnings' or pre-

implementation phase. A more detailed community profile will be conducted under the research activity (see Chapter 7, Section 7.4).

Community demographic characteristics are available from census information. Current census information should be available at provincial/state and municipal government offices. In most cases, the village council secretary also holds the village census and other information. A census is usually conducted every 10 years. Some municipalities collect certain demographic information (such as population, birth and death rates) on an annual basis. In the beginnings phase of the programme, a preliminary problems and needs identification may have been conducted. If so, this will provide the CO with valuable information to direct activities.

If a research or development project has been conducted in the community, information on community demographics and problems and needs may be available in reports or publications of the project; for example, an academic thesis from a local university or work done by an NGO. The CO should ask government staff and local people if they are familiar with any recent studies and seek them out to supplement census data.

If information on community demographics and problems and needs is not available, is out-of-date or is questionable, the CO may want to conduct a household census. This is more easily done if the community is small. A short, one-page, household census can be conducted relatively quickly and inexpensively. The census is conducted for every household in the community. (Alternatively, a census could be conducted of only fishing households by asking a first question on whether fishing is an occupation of the household and surveying only those households that answer yes to this question.) It would allow the CO to have a current community profile, target specific information on households (for example, location of all fishing households), allow the CO to visit and introduce himself or herself at all households, and gain an understanding of problems and needs. The census form should be short and may include questions on:

• Household size;

• Age of each household member;

• Sex of each household member;

• Education of each household member;

• Religion of household;

• Ethnicity and origins of household (migrants usually have different social networks and dynamics in the community);

• Primary and secondary occupation of household;

• Problems and needs;

• Member of a community organization;

• Which organization;

• If fishing household, type of fishing gear used.

The census questionnaire should be prepared to be conducted in 10–15 minutes. If the community is small enough, the CO should be able to conduct the census alone. This will allow the CO to walk the whole community, observe and meet people. The census data can be analysed and reported in tables.

The CO should prepare a short history of the community. The history can include when the community was formed, population and other demographic trends over time, political history, major conflicts and resource use patterns. This information can be obtained from secondary sources, community leaders and the core group members. This report should be short as more detailed information on the community will be prepared as part of the research activities of the implementation phase.

A preliminary community profile report is prepared and shared with leaders and the community as an initial output. The report describes the community in general terms and can serve to direct initial co-management planning and activities.

6.2.5. Area boundaries and management unit

A preliminary identification of resource management boundaries should occur. These boundaries will serve later to establish the resource management unit during the co-management plan activity. Thus, the emphasis here is on mapping boundaries to serve as information for later planning. The boundaries should make sense from a biological or ecological standpoint (they would cover the fishing area of local fishers or the essential elements of the coastal ecosystem), from a social standpoint (they would cover political jurisdictional boundaries, as well as traditional tenure areas) and from an economic standpoint (they would ensure that benefits are enjoyed by those who bear the costs).

An effective management unit would comprise a series of nested management units composed of different scales. The complexity of natural and social systems requires that management be addressed simultaneously at different scales. Ecosystems and social systems tend to be organized hierarchically. Each level in the hierarchy is independent, to some degree, on the levels above and below, but also dependent on these levels. Co-management institutions involve horizontal (across space, i.e. networks of communities involved in fisheries management) and vertical linkages (across levels of institutions or organizations, i.e. multistakeholder bodies or networks of government agencies).

The management unit should not be so large as to be unmanageable, nor so small as to be ineffective. It should be large enough to accommodate an ecosystem or habitat, and small enough to accommodate a management unit in charge. The management unit may be started from a small and clearly defined geographic area or ecosystem, or from a recognized social unit (i.e. local government) and its management area.

Local community members have a great deal of knowledge about characteristics of boundaries and features and should play active roles in this preliminary and later boundary identification. Resource mapping is a useful participatory technique to identify boundaries (Box 6.10).

There can be several types of boundaries: political, ecological, fishing tenure, fishing gear area, planning and management. These should be identified. The boundaries may be different but overlap.

Political boundaries represent the local government's authority over land and waters. Coastal terminal points on land must be determined and validated before delineating political boundaries. Agreement between adjacent local governments is necessary to finalize the coastal terminal points. National government authority defines the local government's authority over waters.

Ecological boundaries represent the aquatic ecosystems in the area. If no resource and ecological assessment information is available, it may be possible to identify the ecological boundaries in a preliminary way through resource mapping with local fishers and other resource users. Traditional fishing tenure areas and fishing gear use areas can also be identified through resource mapping with fishers.

Planning and management boundaries are usually based on specific issues or problems that are addressed later in the planning process. A planning boundary should be sufficiently inclusive to ensure that important impact-generating uses and activities are included, but not so large as to dilute the programme. A management boundary denotes the area within which specific regulatory, developmental or other management activities are designed to occur in order to reduce adverse impacts on coastal resources, reduce risks of hazards or increase opportunities for optimal resource use. Planning and management boundaries should be developed and validated with community participation and input during the plan preparation (DENR et al., 2001b).

Boundaries need to be identified on a map. A base map is prepared which shows general political and geographic/physical features to serve as reference points. The base map can contain new information and serve to map management strategies. If available, a topographic map and a nautical chart can provide useful information. A global positioning system (GPS) electronic device can assist in identifying boundaries and locating important features.

Where possible, base maps and other spatial data should be put in geographic information systems (GIS) to serve as an important starting point for planning, in the same manner as land and sea use maps are developed (DENR et al., 2001b).

6.2.6. Problems, needs and opportunities identification

If a household census is not conducted or if no current information on community problems, needs and opportunities (PNO) is available, the CO will need to begin to identify community PNO. This PNO identification drives the co-management programme as it provides focus for developing the programme action plan, strategy and activities. PNO identification allows the community, working with the CO, to define, analyse and rank community problems, needs and opportunities. This is done according to the importance, the urgency of finding solutions, the number of people affected, and the probability of resolution or taking advantage of the opportunity through community action. A PNO identification may also identify new or different problems and needs which were not anticipated or earlier discussed.

The CO can assist in identifying problems, needs and opportunities through community meetings and group discussions. The idea is to identify, group and rank problems, needs and opportunities in order of priority. There are several methods which can be used for PNO identification (Boxes 6.11, 6.12, 6.13 and 6.14). These methods should encourage people to confront their own problems and needs.

When identifying community problems, needs and opportunities, listen to the community. The community knows its problems, needs and opportunities. Formulate the PNO in a clear and specific manner. As a CO and facilitator, consider what your capabilities are and think about which problems should be solved first. Be honest and realistic about what can be done. The CO should be guided not by what is important to them but by what is important to the community and what can be handled now (Rivera-Guieb and Marschke, 2002).

The output of the PNO identification should be a report made available to all stakeholders. The report should be reviewed and verified with the stakeholders. The report may be revisited before the co-management plan and strategy is prepared since time may pass between the activities. The PNO identification activity should be conducted on a regular basis to evaluate changing problems and needs in the community.

6.2.7. Identify potential leaders

The CO should identify candidates in the community who could become leaders in the co-management programme and help in their training and

preparation. Leaders may already have stepped forward in the 'beginnings' stage, and others may come forward later. The CO may want to identify other candidates to develop diversity in leadership and to serve specific activities. Fishers tend to be independent people but co-management requires leaders to lead the process and the organizations which are involved in co-management. Leaders are needed to motivate, inspire, manage and energize the organization and process (Box 6.15). Leaders may have some natural ability to lead, but leadership can also be learned through experience (Box 6.16).

A good leader:

• Is willing to share power with the group;

• Listens;

• Communicates;

• Collaborates;

• Expresses the values of the organization;

• Pulls together strengths and talents of the group;

• Has a caring and positive attitude towards people;

• Values consensus;

• Is open-minded, flexible and willing to compromise;

• Leads by example; and

• Considers the group over self.

A leader is a steward, or caretaker of an organization, one who has been entrusted to work for the benefit of all (Almerigi, 2000).

6.2.8. Assessing existing organizations

As will be discussed further, a community organization(s) is one of the foundations of co-management. Existing organizations in the community are identified and assessed to determine their potential to participate in the co-management programme.

Organizations are groups of individuals bound by a common purpose to achieve objectives (North, 1990). Organizations can be formal (i.e. those registered with government) and informal (i.e. those that are traditional). Organizations may be called cooperatives, associations, councils or nongovernmental organizations, and may exist for a number of purposes including resource management, fishing, religious, youth, women, sport, marketing, etc. An organization may have a formal management body and rules or may be an informal grouping of individuals for a specific purpose. In co-management, community organizations and their representatives participate in decision-making and managing and protecting the fisheries and aquatic resources. Before deciding to form a new organization, the CO should identify and assess the existing organizations in the community. Organizations may exist in the community that are already capable of engaging in co-management or just need to be strengthened. In some cases there may be existing organizations providing services or operating projects in the community. If these services can be useful to the project, the CO should consider the possibility of executing a memorandum of agreement with the organizations so as to avoid duplication of services and interventions.

Secondary data and the community census can provide information on organizations in the community. The CO may also want to interview community leaders and key informants to identify community organizations. Formal organizations may be easier to identify than informal organizations. It will be important to talk to a wide range of individuals in the community to identify all organizations.

For each organization the following information should be obtained:

• Name;

• Address/location;

• Purpose;

• Years in existence;

• Formal/informal;

• Contact person;

• Names of management members (president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, board members);

• Number of members (male/female);

• Annual reports;

• Strategic plan/rules/regulations;

• Meeting schedule.

Several factors to be considered in assessing existing organizations include:

• Does the organization represent the different sectors in the community (e.g. youth, fishers, women, etc.)?

• Was the organization formed to address issues related to co-management or resource management?

• Does the organization have a mechanism to deal with dynamics/issues within the group (e.g. interpersonal conflicts, delineation of roles and functions, etc.)?

• Does the organization have a legal personality and/or credibility in the bigger community?

• Is the leadership structure and pattern democratic enough to promote maximum participation from members?

For each organization, a profile with the above information is prepared which will assist in assessing the organization's capability to engage in co-management.

6.2.9. Formation of core groups

A core group is a small group of individuals from the community (perhaps four or five) who will initially work with the CO to guide the co-management programme. The core group should only operate until viable and functional community organization(s) and a co-management body are in place (see Chapter 10). The members of the core group should represent different sectors of the community. The core group is crucial as it gives initial real responsibility and power to the community members for management. The core group will be:

• A highly cohesive and committed group;

• The basic building block of the organization(s);

• A training ground for leadership;

• A forum for practising people's participation; and

• Initial co-management management team (Almerigi, 2000).

Depending upon the size of the community and the context, there may be several core groups established to address specific co-management activities or issues.

The core group can serve to:

• Facilitate the circulation of information among community members;

• Develop dialogue and provoke social discussion about community and resource management issues;

• Facilitate community organizing;

• Identify problems, issues and opportunities;

• Assist in programme decision-making;

• Identify stakeholders and stakeholder groups;

• Assist in the gathering of information.

The core group members may come forward by themselves and volunteer to be involved based on personal motivation, such as the initial leaders identified earlier, or they may be selected by the CO and/or community leaders. Depending upon the situation, the CO may be a member of the core group.

The following criteria can assist in choosing the core group members:

• Be credible to community members (either certain community groups or the majority of the community);

• Be accessible to community members;

• Represent a diversity of community interests and groups;

• Be well-respected;

• Be conscientious and resourceful in their work;

• Have good communication skills;

• Be open-minded and desirous of change (Almerigi, 2000).

Other criteria may be added for a specific context and community. Some key qualities of a good core group are:

• Being active, efficient, fair, multi-disciplinary and transparent in decision-making;

• Acting on the basis of consensus and collaboration;

• Being determined to launch but not to lead or dominate the co-management process (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000).

It can be expected that there will be differing levels of knowledge and experience among the core group members about co-management and the various activities associated with it. The CO will need to provide information and training to the core group on specific topics and issues, such as the co-management programme and various activities, as needed to assist them in their work. The core group may need to meet regularly during the initial phases of implementation to make decisions and guide the programme.

If core group members are hesitant to join in the co-management programme, consider having informal discussions with community members to find out probable causes why they are unwilling to participate. Consider any past experiences with co-management or development projects in the community and success or failure.

6.2.10. Identifying stakeholders

There are many potential stakeholders in community-based co-management. Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organizations of men and women, old and young, who are in one way or another interested, involved or affected (positively or negatively) by a particular project (Box 6.17). They may be motivated to take action based on their interest or values. Stakeholders may include groups affected by the management decisions, groups concerned about the management decisions, groups dependent upon the resources to be managed, groups with claims over the area or resources, groups with activities that impact on the area or resources and groups with, for example, special seasonal or geographic interests. Stakeholders are important because they can support or not support co-management, which can lead to its success or failure. Stakeholders of coastal resources include fishers, fisher households and fishing communities, but also include seasonal fishers, boat owners, fish traders, government, mangrove cutters, etc. Stakeholder groups can be divided into smaller and smaller sub-groups depending upon the particular purpose of stakeholder analysis. The identification of key stakeholders should be inclusive and detailed. More groups may mean more problems and discussion, but excluding certain groups could lead to problems in the long run. Ultimately, every individual is a stakeholder, but that level of detail is rarely required (IIRR, 1998). A key question to be answered in the co-management programme is:

who are the stakeholders that are entitled to take part in discussions and in management?

Stakeholder analysis is conducted to identify potential partners for co-management (Box 6.18), to explore possible approaches in relating to a particular

person or group who can be supportive or potentially hostile to co-management and to provide insights into the dynamics and relationships of individuals and groups with various interests in a particular resource or project. The stakeholder analysis is usually done by key informants from primary stakeholders. In some cases stakeholders may be easily identified through existing organized groups, while in others they may not be organized to currently engage in co-management (for example, a group of unorganized fishers using the same fishing gear type or fishing in the same area). The identification of not only groups with special interests and concerns but also those possessing specific capacities and knowledge for management can improve the list of key stakeholders.

Once key stakeholder groups are identified, it is important to find out their interests and concerns, whether they are organized and capable of participating in management decision-making, and whether they are willing to participate. Those groups that are not organized or prepared to participate will require assistance to do so.

If a variety of stakeholders is identified in the stakeholder analysis, which will probably happen, the question arises as to who should be invited to participate in the co-management programme (Box 6.19). This can create a dilemma. While it is important to have a well-represented co-management programme, it is important to determine if all stakeholder sub-groups are entitled to be involved in the programme. Too many stakeholders can create administrative and resource allocation problems. It is important that the final stakeholders involved in co-management be well-balanced; not too many so as to complicate and slow down the programme and not too few so as to leave out some key stakeholders. As such, the issue of entitlement becomes a central question: 'Who is entitled to participate in co-management?' This question needs to be addressed initially by the core group, and later by the co-management body (Box 6.20). It is difficult and is often only accomplished

through participation from and negotiation with groups and individuals to ensure equitable representation in the co-management programme. All who believe themselves stakeholders should be allowed to argue their case for entitlement. The stakeholders with recognized entitlements may be subdivided between 'primary' and 'secondary', and accorded with different roles, rights and responsibilities in co-management (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000). For example, full-time fishers may be recognized as primary stakeholders and seasonal fishers may be recognized as secondary stakeholders.

A problem to note on entitlements is that these are often based on legal and state-mandated rules and documents. In some cases, there are community members, the indigenous peoples among them, who cannot argue their rights to the resources within the legal framework. They would have their own traditional system of rights and rules. It is important for the CO and the core group to recognize the varying bases for claiming rights or entitlements to resources. Establishing equitable representation among stakeholders is necessary in a co-management process.

6.2.11. Workplan

A workplan outlines a set of planning activities to be undertaken during the preparation phases of implementation (for example, research activities), the sequence of activities, and individual responsibility for each activity. While the workplan may be revised later, it should set forth as precisely as possible what planning activities will be undertaken and by whom. The workplan should also indicate budgets and schedules for each activity (DENR et al., 2001b) (Boxes 6.21 and 6.22).

7 Research and Participatory Research

J. Parks.

The next major activity in the co-management process is research.

The role of research in co-management is to help establish baselines, inform the management process, and nourish community education and involvement. A common mistake is to focus on research to the exclusion of education and action. By involving community members in these activities, the research process itself becomes one of education and action. In this way, such participatory research lays the foundation of awareness and commitment from which other activities grow.

(White et al., 1994)

Research constitutes the information gathering activities of the co-management programme (Table 7.1). A great deal of information is gathered about coastal resources, resource use activities and people. During this activity, both secondary and primary data are collected and analysed and a community profile is prepared. The community profile will serve as the basis for planning and management activities and as a baseline for future monitoring and evaluation. The community profile incorporates the community's problems, needs and opportunities assessment. The decision on the scope and scale of the community profile and research is made by the core group, based on information needs for decision-making and on available resources and time.

The community profile includes five components:

• Resource and ecological assessment;

• Socio-economic assessment;

• Legal and institutional assessment;

• Problems, needs and opportunities assessment;

• Management issues and opportunities.

While some of the information used in the community profile comes from secondary sources, other information will come from scientific studies by experts and from participatory research with resource users and other community members (Box 7.1). Scientific information is very useful and important for the community profile, but the type of information collected by scientists often differs from that obtained from resource users, and the tools and

methods of collecting the information are also different (Walters et al., 1998). A significant amount of information can and should come from the community. The 'indigenous or local knowledge' of resource users and other community members (including women and elders) is critical information for planning and management. As will be discussed, there are a number of tools and methods available that involve the extensive participation of local community members in gathering and analysing information and for obtaining indigenous or local knowledge. The combination of scientific and local knowledge can complement each other and greatly enhance the co-management planning and management programme. The collection of information may take several weeks to several months depending upon the scope and scale of information needs. All the information collected should be kept in a small reference library so that it is available to all participants in the co-management programme.

Some of the data to be used in the community profile should have been collected during the preliminary community profile conducted in the community entry and integration phase (see Chapter 6, Section 6.2.4).

7.1. Participatory Research

The conventional approach to research has been characterized by control by outside experts, scientists and development specialists who have set project agendas and carried out research without any or only minor input from local community members (Chambers, 1994). Not only have local people not played a part in the planning and implementation of such projects, but their knowledge of local ecology and the structure of their social, economic and political systems have also been ignored. The process is relatively static, one in which information is gathered from a community and then processed and analysed by experts with little or no feedback to the community. Consequently, many projects have failed due to inappropriate project goals, community apathy and a lack of understanding of local social and ecological systems (Landon and Langill, 1998).

In recent years, new approaches to research have been developed which involve community members in gathering information in a participatory manner (Box 7.2). Participatory research (PR) represents a family of methodological approaches increasingly accepted and utilized to involve local people in research projects taking place in their own communities. PR is characterized by a cyclical, ongoing process of research, reflection and action, which seeks to include local people in designing the research, gathering information, analysing data and taking action. A key objective of PR is to empower community members by utilizing local knowledge and practices and by giving local people the opportunity to learn skills about and share in the research process. It is meant to move away from dependence on scientific information provided by outside professionals to local knowledge and skills. It is also intended to contribute directly to positive changes in the specific circumstances of the participants, as well as increase the chances that the co-management programme will succeed through local involvement (Landon and Langill, 1998).

There are a variety of ways that people can 'participate', depending upon the particular context of the research, the capacities of those involved and the willingness to let community people participate. Participation can range from consultation or information sharing (where local people are kept informed about research activities but do not influence the research process) to self-mobilization (where the researcher acts only in a guidance capacity and local people take the initiative in project design and implementation).

It is important to note that the use of participatory research does not mean that conventional scientific research conducted by outside experts should not

be conducted. There are a number of circumstances where this will be the most appropriate method of gathering information. There are overlaps and complementarities between the two approaches to research (Box 7.3). For example, participatory research may identify an issue, which is then studied in more depth through conventional research.

Conventional research is most appropriate:

1. When data needed are mostly quantitative;

2. When follow-up action, in terms of programme and project training, is uncertain;

3. When issues addressed are not sensitive;

4. When the purpose of the study does not include setting the stage for staff or community involvement in a programme;

5. When time and resources are not serious considerations.

Participatory research is most appropriate:

1. To establish rapport and a commitment to use study results;

2. When staff or community interest and involvement is central to achieving programme goals;

3. When information is sensitive;

4. When major issues are unknown or relatively undefined;

5. When supporting local capacity is important (Narayan, 1996).

Among the many approaches which make up participatory research, rapid rural appraisal (RRA) and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) offer the best alternatives to the conventional approach to research. Although there are a large number of descriptions, the most useful are the following.

Rapid rural appraisal (RRA) emphasizes the importance of learning rapidly and directly from people. RRA involves tapping local knowledge and gaining information and insight from local people using a range of interactive tools and methods (Jackson and Ingles, 1995). RRA is often used to inform those from outside the community (Box 7.4).

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) involves field workers learning with local people with the aim of facilitating local capacity to analyse, plan, resolve conflicts, take action and monitor and evaluate according to a local agenda (Jackson and Ingles, 1995; Maine et al., 1996) (Box 7.5).

RRA is regarded as a set of guidelines and tools which can be used in many different ways and many different circumstances and without necessarily attempting to change political and social structures. PRA is used to specifically

refer to a use of RRA approaches and tools to encourage participation in decision-making and planning by people who are usually excluded.

Both approaches are carried out by multidisciplinary teams and differ from conventional information-gathering approaches in that field workers work with and learn directly from local people. The methods involve a minimum of outsider interference or involvement.

Because of the apparent simplicity of the methods, many feel that they can be learned from a book or in the classroom. However, the subtleties of understanding and using the methods can be learned only by experience. RRA is a useful technique for data gathering and problem identification, whereas PRA is more appropriate to programme design and planning. The distinction is not merely one of proper sequencing. If not used correctly, PRA can generate false expectations of what the programme will provide or what local people can achieve. This can cause problems in the relationship between the community members and the programme staff which can threaten success.

While the speed with which data can be collected using these methods is an advantage, it also introduces the risk of accepting superficial descriptions of situations and adopting superficial solutions to issues. RRA and PRA are often seen as a replacement for other forms of investigation and study even in situations where more formal or analytical research is called for. These methods can be biased towards local people who have time and motivation to talk to field workers and towards people who appear to have knowledge. The potential effectiveness of the RRA and PRA methods can be reduced by either using them in a too highly formalized fashion, or applying them too rigidly and repetitiously. Good practitioners will use a variety of methods for crosschecking information and the applicability of proposed solutions (Box 7.6). The depth of understanding of issues should be undertaken over time and with other methods (Box 7.7).

It should be noted that most community members have limited experience with participation and participatory research methods and time will need to be allocated to empower community members to actively participate in PRA activities. In addition, PRA should not be thought of as merely about tools that would lead to some initial form of community analysis about their problems and issues. PRA, more than anything else, is about the shared experience of the researchers and communities in a cycle of reflection and action. It is not just doing research with local people; it is part of a much broader goal of people empowerment (Brzeski et al., 2001).

Good RRA and PRA are characterized by behaviour and attitudes that build rapport with local people, avoiding putting people in uncomfortable situations, learning from people not lecturing to them, creativity, checking and rechecking the validity of the information obtained, listening and probing, being patient, engaging in conversations that have two-way exchange of information, being trustworthy, and being open and friendly (Jackson and Ingles, 1995).

7.2. Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledge (IK) is broadly the knowledge used by local people to make a living in a particular environment. Terms used also include traditional environmental or ecological knowledge, rural knowledge, local knowledge and fisher's knowledge. IK can be defined more specifically as: 'A body of knowledge built up by a group of people through generations of living in close contact with nature' (Johnson, 1992). Generally speaking, such knowledge evolves in the local environment, so that it is specifically adapted to the requirements of local people and conditions. It is also creative and experimental, constantly incorporating outside influences and inside innovations to meet new conditions. It is usually a mistake to think of IK as 'old-fashioned', 'backwards' or 'static'.

IK is considered to be both technical knowledge of the environment, as well as cultural knowledge including all of the social, political, economic and spiritual aspects of a local way of life. IK includes classification systems of fish, animals, terrestrial and aquatic plants, soil, water, air, weather; empirical knowledge about flora, fauna and inanimate resources and their practical uses; resource management knowledge and the tools, techniques, practices and rules related to fishing, gathering of wild food, agriculture and agroforestry; and the world view or way the local group perceives its relationship to the natural world. Such knowledge can contribute to resource management, development of alternative economic strategies, conservation, environmental assessment and biological and ecological research (Box 7.8).

IK can provide valuable input about the local environment and how to effectively manage its natural resources. Also, by incorporating IK into projects it can contribute to local empowerment, increasing self-sufficiency and strengthening self-determination. Its use by outsiders to the community can

increase cultural pride and thus motivation to solve local problems with local ingenuity and resources (Boxes 7.9, 7.10 and 7.11).

As with scientific knowledge, however, IK has its limitations, and these must be recognized. IK is sometimes accepted uncritically because of naïve notions that whatever indigenous people do is naturally in harmony with the environment. There is historical and contemporary evidence that indigenous

peoples have also committed environmental mistakes through over-fishing, over-grazing and over-hunting.

A critical assumption of IK approaches, for example, is that local people have a good understanding of the natural resource base because they have lived in the same, or similar, environment for many generations, and have accumulated and passed on knowledge of the natural resources and

conditions. In some cases, local people may be recent migrants from other areas and may not have accumulated much indigenous knowledge about their new environment. It is important to evaluate the relevance of different kinds of indigenous knowledge to local conditions. Most observers, in fact, suggest that a combination of both IK and science be used.

In order to utilize IK, it must first be documented, and researchers must be aware of the ethical and methodological issues associated with doing research in local communities. The methods of participatory rural appraisal, for example, are now accepted as a means of effectively involving local people in the research process. Researchers must also be sensitive to the issue of intellectual property rights over knowledge. Local people have become concerned that knowledge is being 'stolen' and used without their awareness and without a share in any economic benefits that may result from the development of related commercial products. This knowledge must, therefore, be protected (Langill and Landon, 1998). The ethics of IK also require that those with and who provide the knowledge be asked first whether they will share that knowledge and be acknowledged for doing so.

Older people have different types of knowledge than the young. Women and men, net fishers and spear fishers, educated and uneducated people all have different types of knowledge. Common knowledge is held by all people in a community (e.g. how to cook rice). Shared knowledge is held by many but not all community members (e.g. seasonal fishing activities). Specialized knowledge is held by a few people who might have served an apprenticeship (e.g. location of fish aggregations). The types of knowledge held by people is related to their: age; sex; education; labour division in the family, enterprise or community; occupation; environment; socio-economic status; experience and history.

7.3. Gender

Participatory research requires full community participation, including women, men, youth and elderly. Gender differences are often easily ignored given that most fishers who go to sea are men and development projects tend to be male-dominated. Equitable impact of development is enhanced by putting views, areas of knowledge and strategies of women into the process. Understanding these issues can have important implications for project planning and to reduce conflict (Box 7.12).

Women play a valuable role in the many activities in the community and can provide much useful information on such issues as time use, access to resources, food distribution, decision-making and control of income. In fisheries, for example, women often are involved in gleaning and other shore-based harvesting activities. Women also are commonly fish traders. Efforts should be made to encourage women to participate in PR activities. In some cultures, it may be socially uncomfortable for women to participate. In these cases, accommodations should be made, such as having separate exercises for men and women, or using a woman facilitator.

Understanding the roles women and men play in the household and in the community as they relate with resource use and management is the first step in analysing gender. However, it is not enough to end here because a deeper analysis on gender relations that includes an understanding of the dynamics of men–women relationships and patterns of decision-making is needed.

7.4. Community Profile

The community profile will serve as the basis for planning activities, provides a context for management and serves as the baseline for monitoring and evaluation. It provides the community with information about itself, often information which the community may not even know or be aware of itself, such as similarities and differences and views and attitudes. The community profile should be sufficiently detailed to provide the reader with a clear understanding of the environmental and social conditions at the site, why management is needed and how management might improve coastal conditions (DENR et al., 2001c). The profile should help to answer key questions:

• What are current resource conditions, patterns of resource use, and resource use problems and how are they changing over time?

• What problems or obstacles for coastal management are revealed?

• What are patterns of power as they relate with resource use and exploitation? And gender differences?

From a CO perspective, it is also important for the community profile to contain community responses to problems and issues because this gives us an idea of what issues resulted in some collective action, and in what ways the community members cooperated with one another.

A community profile should contain detailed data on aquatic habitat distribution, resource conditions, demographic and socio-economic conditions, existing legal and institutional arrangements for resource management, and identification of problems, needs and opportunities. Detailed maps are included to better illustrate the habitats, resources and socio-economic activities.

As mentioned above, the community profile includes five components:

• Resource and ecological assessment (REA);

• Socio-economic assessment (SEA);

• Legal and institutional assessment (LIA);

• Problems, needs and opportunity assessment (PNOA);

• Management issues and opportunities.

Each component of the community profile will involve use of different methods, but all combine participatory research and scientific assessment.

The preparation of the community profile is a multi-step process for gathering information:

1. Preparation;

2. Secondary data collection;

3. Fieldwork/assessment/research;

4. Database and profile preparation;

5. Prioritizing results and analysing causes;

6. Validation.

7.4.1. Preparation

Preparation is when the scope of the community profile is established. This involves:

• Team organization;

• Defining the goals and objectives;

• Identifying the stakeholders;

• Determining the parameters to be included.

The community profile addresses a broad range of issues across different disciplines and technical fields, including social sciences, natural sciences and political sciences. Ideally the team conducting the community profile, working with community members, will reflect this range by including social scientists, natural scientists and political scientists. The most important consideration for the team is a balance of expertise. It may be feasible for a team, at a minimum, to be composed of two technical experts (for example, a marine biologist and an economist) complemented by local researchers. Local researchers, coming from the community or an NGO, bring in local knowledge and their skill base may be expanded by participation in the community profile activities. An ideal community profile team may be composed of a coastal habitat expert, fisheries biologist, economist, sociologist or anthropologist, and political scientist or public policy expert. The team leader will be critical to guide and organize (logistics, administrative, community relations) the community profile. The team leader may be a technical expert or local researcher or may have no technical assignment and only handle leadership activities. Team members may be divided into sub-groups based on component, for example REA, SEA or LIA. Team members may be rotated to conduct field work.

In addition to their disciplinary and technical skills, team members should also have the following characteristics:

• Open-minded attitude and willingness to learn;

• Gender balance;

• Ethnic balance;

• Local language skills;

• Organizational background.

A challenging aspect in combining expertise is trying to make individuals work together. For example, an initial activity is team building so that the sociologist will have a chance to know the biologist better, and vice versa. Social scientists can learn how to dive. In the field, even if the division of tasks is quite clear-cut, there should be regular sharing sessions on field experience and findings.

The goal of the community profile will guide how to set up the activities and how complex it will be. In most cases, the goal will be to increase knowledge of the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional conditions of the community for planning and management. The goal may also include monitoring and evaluation in the future so there will be a need to establish a good baseline for assessing change over time. Specific objectives are defined to identify more specifically the focus and activities of the research.

The process of conducting the community profile will need to be defined including determination of time, people, funding and resources needed for each component. A table can be drafted which identifies each component and activity, timeline, resource needs and team members.

The team will need to identify the community members and stakeholder groups to determine which ones should be the focus of the activities. Depending upon the goals of the community profile, the study may only involve those stakeholders associated with particular activities. When it is not possible to study all stakeholders, it may be necessary to set priorities for which stakeholders to study. This can be done by noting three main factors:

• Their proximity to the resources;

• The impact that their activities may be having on the resources;

• Their relative levels of dependence on resource-related activities.

New stakeholders may be identified as the team learns more about the area.

Stakeholders who will be the focus of the community profile activities should be consulted early to help ensure concerns and priorities are addressed, ensure cooperation, increase stakeholders' sense of ownership of the study, involve them in the study and increase support for the output. Consultations can be conducted through one-on-one meetings, small discussion groups and community meetings.

The level of participation of stakeholders may change during the research. The team will need to decide on the right level of participation, level of interest, which research activities stakeholders can be involved in, the resources (number of people needed, training, funds) required and the political context for participation.

A rule of thumb for most researchers is to encourage as much participation as possible from all stakeholders. However, the determining factors would be which stakeholders are appropriate to include in relation to the research objectives and the willingness of stakeholders to participate. Participation is not something only the researchers decide on (this immediately violates the essence of PR). The researcher strives to have community members (i.e. stakeholders) as equal partners in research and would always seek the broadest and deepest participation possible from all stakeholders.

The team needs to decide which parameters and sub-parameters to research for each component. The parameters determine the substance of the research and form the basis for deciding which methods will be used in the field. There is no definitive list of parameters for the REA, SEA and LIA. The sections discussing each of these components below will provide a listing of the most commonly identified parameters. Rarely is it possible to assess all the parameters. Therefore the team will need to prioritize based on goals and objectives, needs of the end-users, and resources and time available.

7.4.2. Secondary data

All relevant secondary data on the parameters and sub-parameters are identified. Secondary data are those that have already been collected, analysed and published in various forms, including:

• Official and unofficial documents;

• Statistical reports;

• Reports of previous assessments and surveys;

• Research reports, including academic papers, e.g. thesis;

• Documentation of previous or ongoing projects, including monitoring and evaluation reports;

• Maps;

• Aerial photographs and satellite images;

• Historical documents and accounts;

• Websites on the internet.

These data will be used to:

• Identify gaps in existing knowledge in preparation for the field data collection;

• Ensure the field data collection does not collect information that has already been collected;

• Provide a basis for cross-checking information collected during the field data collection;

• Provide supporting documentation for the field data collection;

• Refine the lists of objectives, stakeholder groups, study sites and parameters.

Some secondary data should have been collected during the 'beginnings' stage. The team will want to review this and decide if additional secondary data are needed and are available.

In the process of collecting secondary data, the team may make contact with individuals who have worked in the community or area in the past. In addition to the materials provided, these contacts can often provide valuable information and insights from personal experience.

The search for secondary data should go beyond the usual government offices. Unofficial materials or 'grey publications' exist from student theses and NGO project activities. There is no detailed methodology for gathering secondary data. It is mostly a matter of writing letters, making telephone calls, visiting offices and libraries, interviewing officials, teachers, scientists and researchers. When a document is located, check the references section and try to locate relevant references. Always credit the source of the material in the community profile.

The secondary data should be compiled so that it can be easily used during the research. A filing system should be developed to code, record and store the secondary data. The team should read through the secondary data to identify information related to the parameters and to determine the quality of the data.

7.4.3. Reconnaissance survey

A reconnaissance survey, which is a brief observational survey of the study area, can provide the team with valuable information to help plan the field data collection. This activity allows the team members to familiarize themselves with important field features, such as terrain, natural resources and human settlement, and to know firsthand the feasibility of conducting the research. It can also help identify logistical requirements based on local conditions and make arrangements for the field data collection. Where the team is familiar with the area, a brief trip may be needed. If the team is unfamiliar with the area, the reconnaissance may involve collecting some basic preliminary data through a rapid survey of stakeholders and resources. Key informants may be interviewed and biophysical characteristics mapped.

7.4.4. Planning of the field data collection

The team should plan the field data collection in detail to ensure that they will enter the study area prepared to collect the data effectively and efficiently. Planning the field data collection involves several steps:

• Identifying the methods for each component and the parameters;

• Preparing materials and tools for the methods;

• Pre-testing instruments, equipment, interview guides and questionnaires;

• Deciding how to keep track of information;

• Develop a database that allows for analysis and information retrieval;

• Developing a coding system for data;

• Defining plans for analysis;

• Deciding on sampling units;

• Deciding who to interview and survey;

• Establishing the field teams;

• Defining the schedule for field data collection;

• Training team members;

• Providing a briefing on local culture;

• Arranging logistics.

The entire team needs to be involved in planning. This develops team spirit and ensures everyone understands everything involved in the field data collection. Regular team workshops should be held throughout the field data collection to exchange information and identify problems and needs.

7.4.5. Resource and ecological assessment

Resource and ecological assessments (REAs) are detailed studies which may include biological and physicochemical parameters. The information obtained can be used to determine the status of the ecosystem. The reports or profiles generated are technical and quantitative in nature. REAs are usually conducted by highly skilled technical persons mostly coming from academe. Methodologies are generally based on English et al. (1994).

REAs can also be conducted with community participation with very minimal technical input. When outside experts conduct the REA they can benefit from participation by local community members and can provide them with training in methods which can be used for monitoring studies. Time should be taken to explain the characteristics, terminologies, uses and analysis of the methods to the local people. Usually resource maps, transects and trend diagrams are generated as a result of consensus among community participants (Walters et al., 1998) (Box 7.13). This approach increases community participation and can be conducted at a minimal cost. Maps and data produced in a participatory way can be validated by more scientific assessments conducted by experts. In addition, time should be taken to listen to the local people discuss the coastal area and their use of the resources (Boxes 7.14 and 7.15).

An example of community participation in a REA is a commercial fish landing survey. This is a tool to assess commercially important fishery resources at the local level. Selecting appropriate fish landing sites and designing the questionnaire or survey form is the first step and will depend on the purpose of the survey and the type of information needed. Surveyors can

go to the landing sites and record types, number and size of fish being landed, as well as number of boats, fishers and types of gear being used. Additionally, using interviews, information on changes in fish catch over time can be gathered by asking fishers what they are catching now, what they caught 5 years ago and 10 years ago. The community participants and the experts analyse the data together.

The REA content can include information on the following parameters:

• Physical setting (geophysical overview including: land; soil; slope; sea floor; coastal habitat classifications; overview of coastal forests, rivers and watershed);

• Ambient environment (salinity, turbidity, light penetration);

• Climate (seasons, rainfall, winds, temperature, cloud cover);

• Oceanography (bathymetry, current/circulation patterns, tidal flow, waves, water quality, eddies, runoff patterns, substrate);

• Important habitats (coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, wetlands, beaches, soft-bottom, estuaries, lagoons and bays);

• Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms, elasmobranchs, porifera, aquatic plants, marine mammals, seabirds and other aquatic life;

• Resource use (terrestrial and marine uses);

• Technical attributes of the fishery (type (artisanal, small-scale, commercial, industrial), gear/fishing technology, species harvested, level of exploitation);

• History of resource use (number of resource users, gear, catch, habitat).

Mapping is one of the most important REA activities. Mapping can be more accurately accomplished or verified with global positioning system technology (Walters et al., 1998). Several types of maps can be produced:

• A sketch map is a freehand drawing that can reveal much about both coastal features and the people who prepare them. These maps start on a blank piece of paper and stakeholders identify major features and distinct features.

• A thematic map displays selected information relating to a specific theme, such as land use, coastal habitats, slope, elevation and soil. These may be qualitative (e.g. land use) or quantitative (e.g. population density). The requisite thematic maps are: land use; coastal habitats; resources; uses, livelihood and opportunities; problems and issues; and transect/cross-section.

• A base map shows selected features such as coastline, roads and villages and serves to orient the stakeholder and assist in accurately identifying features.

• A land use map refers to actual land cover or any form of man's use of land. Land use should also be viewed from an historical perspective.

• A spot map describes the area in terms of important features such as roads, rivers and cultural landmarks.

• A coastal habitat map shows the location of important habitats.

• A resource map is a summary of the spatial distribution and condition of resources in the area, and includes resources that provide food and other materials of value to the community. Use, livelihood and opportunities include sites (e.g. fishing gear areas, gleaning sites, mining areas, mangrove cutting) where activities are accomplished or where opportunities or functions provide potential benefits to communities. Problems, issues and conflicts are mapped for later use in management.

A transect is a general reference line cutting across a representative portion of the study area. In effect, the transect line is the side view or cross-section of the site.

Before undertaking a REA, it is important to recognize that there is considerable natural variation within marine ecosystems, both spatially and temporally. Knowledge of the biology of the animals and plants being surveyed will help the researcher understand the differences observed in an ecosystem at different sampling scales. In order to accurately describe the communities in an ecosystem, survey programmes should be designed to minimize differences caused by the sampling itself. It is necessary to conduct regular monitoring to detect changes and suggest causes of change in a resource over time (English et al., 1994). In undertaking the REA it is important that there is a common understanding of local names and terms among the scientists and local people. This is where folk taxonomy, undertaken as part of the SEA, becomes important. It may be useful to refer to photographs, pictures and actual samples or specimens to find out what local names correspond to scientific names. Fishers can be asked to identify habitats, resources, uses, issues and other features on maps.

A variety of detailed technical surveys are conducted in a REA. A few examples of these technical surveys include:

• Manta tows: manta tows involve visual assessment of large areas of underwater habitats by towing an observer behind a small boat. This technique is useful in assessing large-scale changes in resource conditions, determining the effects of disturbances on the underwater community, or in selecting sites that are representative of quality habitat for marine reserve status.

• Line intercept transects: line intercept transects are used to assess and describe the benthic community in coral reef habitats. Divers swim along transect lines placed along the bottom and record the percentage cover of life forms (rather than species) of major groups of corals, sponges, algae and other organisms. This is a reliable and efficient method of obtaining per cent cover data and spatial patterns in abundance of important groups of organisms.

• Transect line plot: the transect line plot is used in mangroves to determine the relative frequency, density and species diversity of mangroves. For each site, transect lines are drawn from the seaward margin of the forest at right angles to the edges of the mangrove forest. Plots are established at 10-metre intervals along a transect through the mangrove forest in each of the main forest types or zones. The method provides quantitative descriptions of the species composition, community structure and plant biomass of mangrove forests.

• Visual fish counts: visual census of fish abundance is an efficient and quantitative tool to evaluate fish abundance and diversity. A diver swims along transects laid on the bottom and counts fish observed within specified distances from the line. The type of fish counted can include all mobile species, target species for fisheries or indicator species.

• Record books: record books can be used by fishers to gather data on catch by gear type and fishing area. At a minimum, total catch per gear per fishing trip should be recorded.

7.4.6. Socio-economic assessment

A socio-economic assessment (SEA) is a way to learn about the social, cultural, economic and political conditions of individuals, households, groups, communities and organizations. There is no fixed list of topics that are examined in a SEA, however, the most commonly identified topics are: resource use patterns, stakeholder characteristics, gender issues, stakeholder perceptions, organization and resource governance, traditional knowledge, community services and facilities, market attributes for extractive use, market attributes for non-extractive use, and non-market and non-use values. SEAs vary in the extent that they cover these topics, and this will depend on the purpose of the assessment. Some SEAs may be a full evaluation of all these topics; others may focus on stakeholder perceptions or resource use patterns. Methodologies can be found in Bunce et al. (2000).

SEAs can be participatory (a broad range of people are involved in data collection, analysis and use) or extractive (outsiders conduct the assessment and take the information with them). They can also be product-oriented (report produced for a specific stakeholder group) or process-oriented (the process of collecting information is as important as the information).

SEAs involve planning and preparation before the assessment team (composed of experts, community members and programme staff) interacts with stakeholder groups through interviews and observation to collect field data. The assessment concludes with the team analysing and presenting the data. However, there is no best step-by-step way to conduct a SEA, and the order of the steps will vary widely depending upon local conditions and the requirements of the people. Sometimes, the assessment steps may follow a clear order, but in other cases they may need to be repeated and the order changed to adapt to new learning and changing circumstances. Each SEA should be adapted and the process modified to the situation faced by the team and based on experience, common sense and knowledge of the area.

There is a wide range of socio-economic parameters which can be included in a SEA. These include:

• Resource use patterns: the ways in which people use or affect coastal and aquatic resources such as resource-related use activities, stakeholders, techniques for resource-related activities, use rights, location of resource-related activities and stakeholders, and timing and seasonality of activities.

• Stakeholder characteristics: demographic characteristics of stakeholders including inhabitants and households, residency status, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, gender, education, family size, years of fishing experience, social status, household economic status, nutrition/health status, stakeholder livelihoods, household assets, community livelihoods, income sources, land tenurial status and culture.

• Economic and political power relations: each community has different levels of social and economic relations due to the economic and political power structures which exist both in and outside the community (Box 7.16).

• Productive assets characteristics: the ownership of fishing boats and gear, engine, level of investment, share system, sharing of catch.

• Gender issues: gender issues refer to the different roles, rights and responsibilities of men and women that are determined by social and cultural norms, and by biology. Gender issues include involvement in income-generation, control over the benefits of work, role in household work, time use, asset ownership, access to resources, rights in the household, rights in the community, and security and vulnerability of women.

• Stakeholder perceptions: stakeholder perceptions are how stakeholders think about resource conditions, threats to the resource, resource management, community and resource use conflicts, collective action, community issues, relations among people in the community, culture and beliefs.

• Indigenous knowledge: the knowledge held by people that is not scientifically based but comes from stakeholder observations, experiences, beliefs or perceptions of cause and effect and include folk taxonomy of resources, local knowledge of resources, and variations in knowledge.

• Community services and facilities: community services are services provided by individuals or organizations to support livelihoods of the community as a whole. Community facilities are the infrastructure that supports and facilitates the provision of those services, such as medical services, educational and religious facilities, public utilities, communication facilities, markets, transportation and other facilities such as hotels, restaurants and commercial businesses.

• Market attributes for extractive uses of resources: the characteristics of buying and selling coastal and marine resources that have been removed from the sea. Extractive uses refer to activities that take a resource without replacing it. Parameters include supply of the product, demand for the product, market prices, market structure, market orientation, market function, market rules, and market infrastructure and operation.

• Market attributes for non-extractive uses of resources: activities in which the resource is used, but nothing is taken or consumed as a result of the activity such as tourism and aquaculture. Parameters include demand for tourism activities, vulnerability of tourism market, characteristics of tourism stakeholders, supply of aquaculture, characteristics of aquaculture stakeholders, and aquaculture market structure.

• Non-market and non-use values: non-market value is the value of resource-related activities that are not traded in the market. Non-use values are the values that are not associated with any uses and include option value, bequest value and existence value.

A wide variety of field data collection and visualization methods is used for SEA (Box 7.17). Some of the methods are participatory and others are not. Some provide qualitative data and others quantitative data. The field data collection, emphasizing verbal modes of communication, involves a probing role for the researcher, a reactive respondent, the extraction of information, and sequential information flow. Field data collection methods include:

• Observation;

• Semi-structured interviews;

• Focus groups;

• Surveys;

• Oral histories.

Many of these methods may occur simultaneously or sequentially. Visualization and diagrams are pictorial or symbolic representations of information, and are a central element of participatory research. They allow non-literate and literate people to participate in the process as equals, facilitate the exploration of complex relationships, and generate collective knowledge. The visual mode of communication involves a facilitation role for the researcher, a creative and analytical role for the local stakeholder, the generation of local analysis and the cumulative flow of information. Techniques for visualizing and diagramming relationships in data include:

• Maps;

• Transects;

• Timelines;

• Seasonal calendars;

• Daily activity;

• Historical transects;

• Decision trees;

• Trend line;

• Process diagrams;

• Venn diagrams;

• Flow charts;

• Ranking;

• Classification.

These techniques are used to gather and present large amounts of complex information in a clear and concise, graphic and easily understood format. They also encourage interaction between the team and the informants; however, they rarely produce data that can be statistically analysed.

7.4.7. Legal and institutional assessment

The legal and institutional assessment (LIA) seeks to identify and analyse the organizations and governance structure for resource management in the community (Box 7.18). The LIA identifies the various resource users, stakeholders and organizations involved in resource management, analyses their roles in management, and evaluates the existing level of involvement of stakeholders in managing resources. The LIA identifies and examines the existing legislation, policies, regulations and programmes for resource management (fisheries, coastal management, marine protected areas, coastal ecosystems) at different levels of government (village, municipal, district, province, regional, national, international) and community (customary, traditional). The LIA identifies existing property right and tenure arrangements (formal and informal) in order to determine rights to access and use the resource, whether these rights are transferable, and the identification of the rules that must be followed. The LIA also identifies the existing political and economic power structures in the community to determine existing structures and what likely effects proposed changes in participation and governance will have. The LIA is crucial to the development of the management plan.

Organizations are groups of individuals bound by common purpose to achieve objectives. These include formal and informal decision-making and representative bodies, cooperatives and associations. Of concern are the organizations that formulate, supervise, monitor and enforce the various rights, rules and regulations governing coastal and aquatic resources. Institutions and agencies are those government bodies with responsibility for managing fish and coastal resources. These include Ministries or Departments of Environment and fisheries agencies.

Resource governance is the way in which resource users are managed by sets of rights, rules, social norms and shared strategies and includes enforcement mechanisms, such as policing measures and punishments. Resource governance can include:

• Formal and informal forms of resource ownership;

• Use rights and the laws that support these rights;

• The rules, rights and regulations that dictate how resources can and cannot be used.

Resource governance can be defined by formal organizations and law, by traditional or customary bodies, and/or by accepted practice.

Both community and external to the community institutional and organizational arrangements are identified and examined since, for example, national or international laws and policies can affect community level

management plans. National administrative and economic development laws and policies are also examined since they may impact upon resource management and community development efforts.

There is a wide range of parameters which can be included in a LIA. These include:

• Political context: the political structure of the nation; the extent to and way in which stakeholders are represented; democratic processes and levels of representation.

• External to the community institutional and organizational arrangements (international, national, regional, provincial, municipal, village): government administrative agencies (mandate, functions, structure, resources); policies, legislation, regulations and programmes for resource management and environment, government administration, agriculture, and economic and community development; resource management strategies and programmes; non-governmental organizations (mandate, functions, structure, funding); surveillance, monitoring and enforcement; nested relationships between organizations and spheres of influence (complementarities, conflicts, overlaps, gaps which support or hinder effective management).

• Community institutional and organizational arrangements: identification of stakeholders; community organizations (mandate, functions, membership, structure, period of existence, resources, funding); boundaries (political, physical/natural, gear, customary, fishing area); property and tenure rights; rules and regulations (formal/informal, operational, collective choice, constitutional); decision-making and conflict management mechanisms; surveillance, monitoring and enforcement; compliance levels; nested relationships between organizations and rights (complementarities, conflicts, overlaps, gaps which support or hinder effective management).

• Incentives for collective action and cooperation among resource users.

• Extent of stakeholder participation.

• Extent of community-based management and co-management arrangements.

• Macroeconomic/political/sociocultural exogenous factors (natural calamities, political stability, peace and order, technological innovation, inflation, economic development, international agreements).

The level of detail of a LIA can range from a simple description of the existing coastal resource management system to a very detailed legal, economic and political analysis of the management system in terms of its impact on equity, efficiency and sustainability. Secondary data on organizations and resource governance can be obtained from official publications, including court records, official statutes and government reports.

In general the main methods of collecting primary data are semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key informants, such as government officials, organization officers, and other knowledgeable individuals involved in the organizations and governance. Some useful visualization techniques include:

• Timelines – to understand the history of organizations;

• Organizational charts – to represent aspects of the structure of the political hierarchy and the structure of organizations, as well as links between organizations and agencies;

• Maps – to illustrate areas covered by specific use rights;

• Venn diagrams – to illustrate organizational relationships.

Observations, surveys and oral histories can also be useful, particularly for assessing levels of stakeholder participation, surveillance, enforcement and compliance.

7.4.8. Problems, needs and opportunities assessment

The CO should have conducted a preliminary problems and needs identification early in the community entry and integration phase. A second problems, needs and opportunities assessment (PNOA) is conducted to update the information obtained earlier. The emphasis here is on identifying root causes of problems and agreeing upon them before solutions are identified and actions are taken. Since funds and resources to address problems will probably be limited, it is important to focus efforts.

As discussed earlier, workshops, meetings and discussions are held to help community members to identify and prioritize problems, needs and opportunities. A variety of methods can be used, including focus group discussions, problem trees and solution trees, problem analysis and ranking, brainstorming, and preference ranking (Box 7.19).

Following data collection under the REA, SEA, LIA and PNOA, data analysis is conducted.

7.4.9. Field analysis

It is important to conduct data analysis in the field as data are collected. The advantages of this include:

• The focus of the assessment can be adjusted in response to learning acquired in the field, making it an adaptive process;

• The team's understanding of local conditions can be better used as not all their impressions and observations will have been recorded in a form that is easily reported;

• Stakeholders can participate in analysis, increasing their sense of ownership;

• Mistaken assumptions that may have influenced the design of the assessment can be corrected;

• The process of final analysis and reporting can be speeded up and facilitated so that the findings of the assessment can be quickly incorporated into the plans.

All team members (experts, community members, programme staff) should be involved and a workshop format is recommended to facilitate interaction among team members. Regular workshops should be held both for a specific component team and for all team members. The field analysis should identify key learnings about a parameter, cross-cutting issue, a particular problem or a specific question. Key learnings refer to issues identified or lessons learnt by the team that are essential to the objectives of the assessment or are needed to understand the context of the stakeholders and resource. Key learnings will be identified by team members informally discussing what they have learned. By comparing similar patterns and trends, new insights relevant to the goals and objectives can be identified.

Primary steps in the field analysis workshops include:

• Reviewing notes and questionnaires;

• Analysing quantitative data;

• Analysing qualitative data;

• Assessing the status of data collection and data and revising future data collection plans (Bunce et al., 2000).

7.4.10. Final data analysis

Much of the data analysis, particularly of qualitative information, should have been completed during the field analysis workshops (Box 7.20). Therefore, the final analysis involves:

• Refining key learnings;

• Collecting and ordering data to illustrate key learnings;

• Presenting the key learnings in an accessible form to end-users;

• Validating the key learnings with stakeholders;

• Incorporating the key learnings in a useful report.

There are several critical steps involved in conducting final field data analysis:

• Compile all the information throughout the research.

• Prepare the quantitative data using statistical methods (simple calculations such as sums and percentages) and present in a graphic form.

• Assemble all team members for a final workshop to review, analyse and report the findings.

• Outline the final report and the type of report that is required depending upon target audience (for example, an executive summary for government leaders, a detailed description for scientists and agencies).

• Finalize key learnings by the team and match with assessment objectives to determine how they contribute. The team should synthesize results, share conclusions and discuss insights and recommendations.

• The information that has generated key learnings should be clearly identified by the team. The team should identify the various parameters examined and review how the information they collected contributes to the key learning.

7.4.11. Validation

Once key learnings, parameters and illustrations have been decided, it is time to validate these findings by presenting them to the stakeholders for comment. The findings should be in a clear and concise form, wherever possible using the visualization diagrams that the stakeholders have developed during the research. Long, verbal explanations or complicated tables of data generated during the research may be difficult for some people to understand.

Validation can take place in various forms:

• Small discussion groups with key stakeholders;

• Presentations to specific groups of stakeholders or interest groups;

• Presentations to groups of selected representatives of different stakeholder groups;

• Community meetings involving a wider range of stakeholders.

Discussions at these validation meetings should be recorded and the results incorporated into the final output. Although achieving a consensus is ideal, the more important thing is for the community members to be more aware of their problems and opportunities as they relate to the management of their resources. Consensus may not be desirable or achievable at the whole community level. It may be possible to gain consensus among community subgroups. It will be important to document these differences. When stakeholders disagree with some of the results, the team must use its judgement to decide whether or not to change their results. Alternatively, it may be necessary to collect additional field data to clarify these discrepancies.

7.4.12. Final report

After the validation workshop, and if any additional information is collected as needed, the team should prepare the final community profile report (Box 7.21). The report should be circulated to the end-users and also presented again to different audiences as needed to provide information. The final community profile may be prepared in several different forms for different audiences, such as a policy brief for government officials and an illustrated form for illiterate community members.

8 Environmental Education, Capacity Development and Social Communication

R. Pomeroy.

Environmental education, capacity development and social communication (ECB) are integral parts of community organizing. The environmental education, capacity development and social communication activities can come before or at the same time as the other community organizing activities. However, due to their importance, they will be discussed separately from the other community organizing activities.

8.1. Environmental Education, Capacity Development and Social Communication

The issues of community-based co-management are generally complex and there is a need to promote environmental awareness in the community and to develop people's capacity to actively participate in the co-management programme. This includes the capacity of community members, as well as government officials and staff. (Throughout this section it should be kept in mind that the education and training of government officials and staff is as, if not more, important than that of community members.) The purpose of environmental education, capacity development and social communication is to empower people with knowledge and skills in order that they can actively participate in the community-based co-management programme, begin to take greater control over resource and economic and social problems and needs, negotiate a fair agreement, and increase their awareness and understanding of fisheries resources and their management. Through ECB, community members and government officials and staff are able to better understand the need for co-management, the approaches to co-management, and their individual and collective roles in co-management (Table 8.1). In some cases, the community and government may need to be convinced of the need to protect and manage their own resources and for co-management. While ECB is a continuing activity throughout the co-management programme, it should be noted that it is important to start the ECB activities as soon as possible in order to empower people with knowledge and skills so that they can actively participate in the co-management programme.

Activities aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge, skills and institutional capacity, such as environmental education, capacity development and social communication, are sometimes taken together under the term 'social preparation'. Social preparation has several functions in co-management:

• Reducing social conflict and resource impacts;

• Creating positive change in values and behaviour towards the environment;

• Gaining support for co-management;

• Increasing knowledge and skills of fishers and other stakeholders;

• Fostering participation in community-based co-management;

• Enabling community members to assert their rights to use and manage its resources.

The ultimate goal of social preparation is to achieve behaviour and attitude changes so that resource use and management and the co-management programme can be sustainable. Social preparation is focused on building a constituency for co-management through a critical mass of people in the community who are environmentally literate, imbued with environmental ethics, shared responsibilities, and shared actions towards the sustainable management of aquatic resources (DENR et al., 2001b).

It should be noted that social preparation activities alone will not cause people to change unsustainable practices and behaviour. There need to be several actions operating concurrently, such as changed community values, availability of alternative behaviours, and possible sanctions for unsustainable activities.

8.2. ECB Activities

Environmental education, capacity development and social communication are individually distinct but complementary activities.

Environmental education introduces environmental concepts and principles related to coastal and aquatic resource issues, and empowers the community with information and knowledge in order to take the appropriate action to address the issues. The success of aquatic resource management depends on the level of the community's awareness and knowledge of their coastal and aquatic environment. Environmental education activities are directed towards the development and enhancement of resource management capabilities of individuals and organizations through formal and non-formal education and skills development training (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000). Environmental education can build consensus, clarify perspectives and interests about issues, generate a receptive context for change, get people to help carry out activities, help monitor change and create a long-term commitment in the community.

Capacity development provides skills and institutional capacity for fishers, resource user organizations, local-level government officials and staff, and other stakeholders to take an active role in co-management. Capacity building often implies that activities are carefully planned and executed, and that they follow a clear plan. In reality, capacity building often involves more experimentation and learning. For this reason, the term capacity development, which implies an organic process of growth and development, is more appropriate than capacity building (Horton, 2002). Capacity development can be defined as

the process by which individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and societies increase their abilities to: (1) perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve desired objectives over time; and (2) understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and in a sustainable manner.

(UNDP, 1998)

This definition highlights two important points: (i) that capacity development is largely an internal process of growth and development, and (ii) that capacity development efforts should be results-oriented.

Local capacity is built in order to:

• Make local resource users, groups and organizations, fishing communities and the local government unit charged with fisheries management more capable of performing this task;

• Make local resource users, their organization leaders, local government officials and staff, and other stakeholders able to undertake their roles and responsibilities in co-management;

• Improve the quality of fisheries management taking place at the community level.

Social communication generates an on-going flow of information and dialogue between the CO and the community members, and among the community members themselves in order to have informed decision-making and to face change. Social communication initiatives can promote social discussions about problems, opportunities and alternative courses of action, including co-management, for the community. Social communication initiatives are very different from education initiatives. They do not merely aim at 'passing on a message about an issue' but at promoting its critical understanding and appropriation in society (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000).

ECB activities should involve as many of the sectors of the community, including government, as possible in order to build up a critical mass of local people with a common understanding of co-management and aquatic resource management. Efforts should be focused on cultivating potential local resource persons who could effectively conduct ECB activities on their own (e.g. local teachers to their students and other teachers) and in the process disseminate information to even more members of the community, leading to the greatest positive impact in the shortest period of time (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000). It is important to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of ECB activities, including changes in the community's attitude to the need for co-management.

8.3. Environmental Education

Environmental education is a critical ingredient in the transformation of community members into active partners in co-management. Environmental education empowers people and improves their environmental awareness through knowledge (Boxes 8.1 and 8.2). The effectiveness of environmental education activities is manifested through:

• Concrete action taken by local co-management advocates towards various resource management issues and dissemination of information to a greater number of community members;

• Direct participation of local communities in concrete co-management

initiatives such as planning, implementation and monitoring (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000).

8.3.1. The environmental education plan

An environmental education programme should be based on a plan that ensures that environmental education activities have a connection to the community and its goals for sustainability, emphasize the link between local resource-use activities and the quality of the environment, and ensure that it is relevant to people's lives. Too often, environmental education is not targeted at groups in the community who are most important in resource use and management and in participation. The plan should consider the issues and needs of the whole community (Boxes 8.3 and 8.4). Environmental education activities should be developed collaboratively among the community, external agent and government. The educational needs from the community's perspective may be different from the perspective of the external agent.

Training needs analysis should be conducted through questionnaires or by interviewing community members to determine the appropriate topics, inputs and methods for the training. Decisions about the selection of topics, planning and implementation of training activities should be made with all partners. The environmental education programme should be based on accurate local information. The Resource and Environmental Assessment, Socio-economic Assessment, Legal and Institutional Assessment and Problems, Needs and Opportunities Assessment all provide this type of information for the formulation of an environmental education plan (see Chapter 7).

For the environmental education programme (or capacity building and social communication), it is important to develop criteria for success, as well as mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of environmental education programmes, including changes in the community's attitude to the need for resource conservation and co-management. Often resistance or outright opposition to participation is a useful indicator that the co-management arrangements being developed are not going to meet the perceived needs of the people in their present form. Instead of being taken as failure, this can be a cause for the effort to find out the reasons for the resistance to participation. This should then lead to a review of the

environmental education activities and possibly also a re-examination and redesign of programme objectives (Claridge, 1998).

Conversely, it is always a good idea to seek clarification of why communities, or groups within communities, are willing to participate. Their motives may not, for example, always be consistent with the sustainable resource management objective of the programme. Even in the usual situation of motivation through a desire for sustainable development, understanding the motivation of participants can provide a guide to ways in which involvement can be increased. Again, the environmental education programme activities are closely linked to community attitudes and any perceived problems with

motivation should feed back into the contents and methodology of the environmental education programme (Claridge, 1998).

8.3.2. Entry level approaches

Environmental education activities start in the community entry and integration phase of the co-management programme. The target groups at this early stage include potential leaders, key informants and government staff in the community who are showing an active interest in the process and who could disseminate information to others. The activities are non-formal and may include one-on-one and small group discussions about environmental issues in the community (Boxes 8.5, 8.6 and 8.7). The environmental education

activities involve deepening awareness of the target groups about environmental issues and possible solutions (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000).

In addition to community members, government staff at local levels will possibly need environmental education (as well as capacity building and social communication). This can sometimes cause difficulties as government staff may not be willing to admit their lack of knowledge or to put effort into learning about community groups they may feel to be ignorant or uneducated. It may be necessary, in some cases, to have separate training for government staff or to use alternatives to conventional 'classroom'-type training. An alternative may be an exchange visit to an area with successful co-management or on-the-job training. It may be useful to involve community members in training activities in order to show their knowledge, especially if field-type training is used (Claridge, 1998).

8.3.3. Training

The primary method of environmental education is training. Training may involve formal (training sessions, workshops, lectures) and non-formal (small groups, exchange visits, peer-to-peer discussion, plays, one-on-one contact) educational methods. Training needs to be a continuous process throughout the programme.

A variety of environmental education training modules can be prepared (Box 8.8). Juinio-Menez et al. (2000) have identified seven training modules:

1. Marine Environmental Situationer. This module provides an overview of the current situation of the marine environment and its related resources. Environmental, socio-economic and sociopolitical factors are discussed to provide the participants with a holistic view of the issues and to enable them to realize the complexity of marine environment management. The common causes of environmental problems are also briefly discussed. The preparation of a local situationer is intended to heighten the awareness of the participants

on local marine environmental issues and motivate them to initiate environmental management actions in their locality.

2. Basic Marine Ecology. This module introduces several basic ecological concepts and processes. Understanding these concepts is a requisite for identifying and discussing the different ecosystems found in the country. The features and characteristics of the marine environment are likewise discussed to enhance the participant's appreciation of the complexity of this environment. Connectivities of the different coastal ecosystems are presented to contextualize the need for the integrated management of those ecosystems. Integration of local knowledge and perceptions regarding the natural resources are emphasized.

3. Marine Biodiversity. This module discusses the diversity of the marine environment. The components of biological diversity are discussed to give the participants an understanding of the importance of biodiversity. The exceptional diversity of individual coastal ecosystems is discussed to encourage the participants to initiate coastal resource management in their own areas.

4. Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. This module discusses the concept of carrying capacity and emphasizes that the earth's resources are finite and that Mother Nature has set natural limits to maintain ecological balance. Some causes of environmental problems are mentioned so that the participants may relate their personal activities to the observed environmental problems. The module explores the different possibilities by which the participants can determine how they can contribute to the sustainable management of their coastal zone.

5. Resource Management Options. This module provides an overview of the different options available for marine resources and ecosystems management. Fishery regulation, environmental intervention and community-based approaches are discussed to facilitate the identification by the participants of the different environmental issues facing them and of the possible courses of action that they can take. By the end of the session the participants should already have an idea about which local environmental issues they will prioritize and what management options to implement.

6. Marine Protected Areas. This module introduces the concept of the marine protected area (MPA) as a resource management option. The significance of MPA is discussed for the participants to fully understand its important role in coastal resources management. Sanctuaries and reserves, the two major components of an MPA, are also discussed. The biophysical, socio-economic and practical considerations that need to be considered during the planning and implementation of MPAs are likewise discussed. Different case studies are presented to give the participants an idea on the process of establishing and managing MPAs. Lessons are drawn from the experiences of different institutions engaged in MPAs. At the end of the module, the participants are expected to formulate a conceptual MPA framework and outline the attendant management plans.

7. Coastal Development Planning. This module introduces coastal development planning as a resource management tool. It highlights the importance of multi-sectoral participation in the formulation of an integrated plan. Being multi-sectoral, it addresses the environmental, socio-economic and sociopolitical issues existing in the area to ensure that sustainable and equitable development of the coastal zone is achieved.

Additional topics can include:

• Sustainable exploitation;

• Habitat improvement and enhancement;

• Ecological relations between land and sea;

• Relationship between people and natural resources (value and attitude development towards responsible stewardship);

• Environmental legislation;

• Enforcement and compliance;

• Conflict management;

• Gender roles in resource use and management.

8.3.4. Trainers' training

Environmental education efforts should be focused on cultivating potential local resource persons who could effectively conduct ECB activities on their own and in the process disseminate information to even more members of the community. This 'trainers' training' can target community leaders and teachers.

Environmental education training for community leaders targets selected local leaders who have the capability and respect in the community to become effective local resource persons on co-management and resource management. This is done to ensure the continuity and expansion of co-management in the area beyond the programme's duration. The training is designed to equip the participants with the basics of popular education methods and to generate individual and collective action towards the implementation of environmental education activities in the community (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000).

Teachers' training workshop is a specialized training on the marine environment and on co-management for local science educators within a community. This training focuses on information rather than on the methods for conducting an environmental education training. The teachers can become catalysts in raising the environmental consciousness not only of the students but also of other teachers in the area. Major components of the training can include the state of the marine environment in the nation and locally, principles of marine ecology, fisheries resource management, integrated coastal management, and co-management. This training can enhance the knowledge and understanding of local educators regarding the marine environment and its conservation. It can also facilitate networking among fisher organizations and local educators. Laboratory exposure and field trips can enhance the lectures (Juinio-Menez et al., 2000).

Monitoring the impact of the training is crucial to sustaining the momentum created by the workshops. A questionnaire can be administered in the community to evaluate the impact of the training workshops on the community.

8.3.5. Guidelines for training

Some guidelines for training sessions and workshops in communities include:

• Schedule the training at a time and place convenient to the participants.

• Facilitators should be assigned to run the training.

• Documenters should be assigned to record the training and important results and recommendations.

• Local and outside resource persons can be assigned to discuss/facilitate some topics during the training.

• Information should be presented in an accessible and easily understood format to broad audiences to raise awareness about the aquatic environment.

• Start from what people already know; dig for indigenous knowledge and add scientific knowledge when this can complement existing knowledge in a useful way.

• Facilitate sharing of indigenous knowledge between older and younger generations or between original community residents and more recent migrants.

• To explain new ideas and concepts, look for similar situations or concepts outside fisheries but within the everyday life experience of the community.

• Choose for each subject or topic the most appropriate method or form of training and the most suitable trainer.

• Technical terms should be explained and expounded on by using simple words.

• Use both formal (training sessions, workshops, lectures) and non-formal (small groups, exchange visits, peer-to-peer discussion, plays, one-on-one contact) educational methods.

• Non-formal methods are found to be best as they permit participation and interaction and encourage personal contact between the experts and the community, between peers (such as fisher-to-fisher), and among the stakeholders themselves (Box 8.9).

• Evocative processes can be effective in encouraging active participation from the participants.

• The sharing of indigenous knowledge can play a key role in effective non-formal education programmes.

• Be creative. Games, acting and role playing can all be used in training and are fun (and, therefore, are remembered).

• Games can be used to explain resource management issues.

• Lectures alone should not be used. This is the form academically trained people are most familiar with and they will often automatically apply this method themselves. Be creative and try to think of other, more participatory ways to transfer knowledge or discuss a topic (Box 8.10).

• Use as many visuals as possible. Photos and videos add to learning.

• Realize that skill building requires practical exercise and repetition for a person to become skilful.

• Drawings, posters and slides can be very effective in meetings, training sessions and workshops for mostly illiterate people. Be aware that villagers can interpret pictures in a different way than was intended by the person who made the drawing. Posters that are going to be used repeatedly should be pre-tested for a small group of people from the target group before being reproduced and used on a larger scale.

• Whenever possible, all examples should depict local settings and situations to make the topic easier to appreciate.

• In general, we remember more of something when we have been more involved, or when more of our senses have been involved.

• We remember:

• 10% of what we read;

• 20% of what we hear;

• 30% of what we see;

• 50% of what we hear and see;

• 70% of what we say;

• 90% of what we say and do.

• Small group meetings where there is a high level of participation by the participants can be supplemented by an occasional more formal presentation.

• Ensure that all materials needed for the training are available in advance.

8.3.6. Other methods for environmental education

In addition to training, a variety of other methods can be used for education (as well as capacity building and communication) (Green, 1997; Juinio-Menez et al., 2000):

• Participatory Research. As discussed previously, an effective means of environmental education is to involve community members in activities of the REA, SEA and LIA to develop skills, utilize indigenous knowledge, and understand functions and values.

• Videos. Both outsourced and locally produced videos can be used. Outsourced videos on a variety of topics can be obtained from other external agents or projects in the country or internationally. Locally produced videos can be very effective since they address local issues with local people. Once a clear plan is developed and some rough editing tools are obtained for the computer, these videos are relatively easy to produce. Local people can often better relate by seeing themselves and their neighbours in the video. Videos can be adapted to a variety of audiences.

• Television. Usually expensive and sometimes not accessible by the community. It may be possible to obtain an outsourced video or produce a local video and request the local television station to show it. It may also be possible to interest the national and international television networks, such as CNN and BBC, in local stories which can provide good exposure to the community and the issues.

• Radio. A very effective method of communication to reach a large area if most community members have access to radios. Local radio stations can be requested to provide time for a regularly scheduled programme. The radio show can include interviews with local and outside experts, debates with stakeholders, documentaries, news, talk show where people phone in and information to stimulate discussion. Radio dramas have proven to be very effective.

• Newspapers. Local newspapers are a sure way of accessing local influential people. Newspapers may have or may be asked to develop a section on the environment. Journalists can be educated about environmental issues which will give them a greater interest in the subject. Good local stories can be provided to the national press.

• Newsletters. Newsletters can be prepared and distributed on a regular basis to inform about the programme activities, issues and upcoming events.

• Fact Sheets/Flyers. Short and simple, fact sheets and flyers can be used to provide information on a specific topic or issue.

• Comics. These can be used to disseminate information at the local level, especially to those who are illiterate. Comics must be short, be in the local language, and have a clear point relating to daily life with plenty of illustrations. Comics can be produced very cheaply and one copy can be shared by a whole family.

• Posters/Calendars/Fixed Exhibits. Very effective in the correct location. A calendar will stay on a wall all year. A colourful poster with a clear photo or illustration can deliver an important message. Fixed exhibits can be located in often-visited locations such as a town hall, school or market.

• Picture Stories. Picture stories can be presented in the form of flannel boards or flip chart drawings or some variation of these. They are illustrations of problems and solutions which can be put in sequence to tell a story and can be altered and added to in response to community feedback. Simple, colourful pictures can be very effective in helping people remember the key message of a presentation.

• Information Kits. A collection of materials on various topics organized and collected in a folder or binder. Larger information kits can be used for school education programmes and can include publications, handouts, presentation materials, posters, laboratory equipment and other materials.

• T-shirts. Sometimes useful in awareness raising and as a prize/gift for participation. They can often be a good conversation starter. Different t-shirts can be produced for different stakeholder groups and messages.

• Sponsoring Events. Local events can be sponsored to provide relevant environmental information to the general public. These can include such events as Earth Day celebrations, Coastal Clean-Up, sports competition or a village feast/celebration. Theme nights about the sea, such as an environmental concert where the fishers write and sing the songs can be effective. Other events may include plays, dramas and contests, or high profile activities such as beach clean-up or tree planting.

• Street or Village Theatre. Street or village theatre uses storytellers, theatre groups, clowns, dancers and puppets to inform people about an issue by telling a story. The presentations use imagery, music and humour to raise people's awareness of an issue that is affecting them. Local people can be encouraged to join in and play a part in the presentations. The presentations can be filmed or recorded for radio and thus made available to a wider audience.

• Issue-based Information Campaigns. Information campaigns can be launched in strategic locations to enhance the environmental awareness of the people. Depending upon the output of the information campaign, a forum can be held to strengthen collaboration among different support groups. Lectures, leaflets, photo exhibits, film/video showings and testimonials can all be utilized. If possible, networking with different support groups (e.g. international scientific communities, NGOs) should be facilitated to further strengthen the advocacy.

• Community Consultations. Community consultations are conducted in order to disseminate information, gather and validate vital information and lobby support for the project. Visual aids and resource persons can be utilized.

• School Curriculum Development. Targeted curriculum development in primary and secondary schools on such topics as coastal ecology. This will often need to be coordinated with the Department/Ministry of Education and the local school district. Curriculum modules can be prepared which include lectures, readings, laboratory and field experiments, science projects, site visits, videos, PowerPoint presentations, computer exercises and other educational materials. Teachers should be involved in the development of the curriculum module. Scholarships can be provided to students through local competitions.

• Recreational/Site Visits. Local people, government officials, government staff and others can be invited on an outing for a picnic and day at sea. Participants can snorkel and explore the coastal ecosystems. These can be good fun and provide informal education.

8.4. Capacity Development

Complementary to environmental education, there is the need to develop the capacity for individuals and organizations to effectively participate in co-management. Capacity can be defined as 'the ability of individuals and organizations or organizational units to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably' (UNDP, 1998). Capacity development includes understanding what co-management is and how to organize and participate in it, communicating with other stakeholders, dealing with administrative and business matters, and participating in negotiations. Capacity is a continuing process and is the power of an individual or organization to engage, in this case, in co-management.

The objective of capacity development is not to supply a product or service but to foster the development of specific individuals and organizations (Box 8.11). Capacity development is often needed to raise an organization's performance level, which is reflected in its efficiency (minimizes costs), effectiveness (achievement of its goals) and sustainability (relevance and acquiring resources for operation). The core capacities of an organization or community consist of:

• Defining and analysing the environment or overall system;

• Identifying needs and/or key issues;

• Formulating strategies to respond to or meet needs;

• Devising or implementing actions; assembling and using resources effectively and sustainably;

• Monitoring performance, ensuring feedback and adjusting courses of action to meet objectives;

• Acquiring new knowledge and skills to meet evolving challenges.

Most capacity development efforts focus on only one or a few of these critical capacities needed by an organization, on the assumption that the

improvements brought about in these capacities will lead to improvements in the performance of the organization as a whole. This assumption is seldom tested, however. The capacity development efforts should be tested periodically in order to provide a basis for improving future capacity development efforts (Horton, 2002).

A key issue in capacity development is what is referred to as 'social capital'. It is important to recognize that the whole social community is more than the sum of its individual parts. People form relationships that fulfil a number of social needs such as communities of common interests, mutual obligation, care, concern, interest and access to information. These can be considered as networks of norms and trust which facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit. Social capital facilitates a process of learning through interaction. This social capital is critical to achieve collective action and to prosper and sustain a social, economic and institutional environment that is ready to adapt and change. The social networks can be horizontal (across the community) to give communities a sense of identify and common purpose or vertical (government to community to individuals) to broaden capacity and support.

8.4.1. Levels of capacity development

Capacity development efforts may focus on different levels. Capacity for co-management can take place at three levels:

• Individual;

• Organizational;

• System or enabling environment.

These three levels are nested within each other and there is regular interaction to form a whole. Capacity development efforts need to address challenges at various levels in the community, as well as externally.

The system or enabling environment level includes two distinct but complementary capacity development activities. First, this level includes capacity development for the broader co-management programme and associated activities at the community level. This includes developing capacity to prepare for negotiation, developing a common vision, negotiating plans and agreements, organizational representation, conflict management, and monitoring and evaluation. Second, this level also includes capacity development at the community level to support advocacy and networking for the enabling environment for co-management including policy, legal, regulatory, management and resource dimensions. The focus of this level is on the government or public sector, but may also include private companies. It has a national or regional scale and is multi-sectoral. It is to provide a political voice so that economically and socially disadvantaged user groups and communities can be considered in decisions and processes that relate directly to the resource and the well-being of the group or community.

Capacity development at the organizational level, such as a community-based fisher organization, involves several dimensions, including:

• Mission and strategy;

• Culture/structure and competencies (organizational and management values, management style, standards, organizational structure, core competencies);

• Processes (functions such as communication, planning, office management, relationships with other organizations, report writing, meeting facilitation, consensus building, research/policy development, monitoring and evaluation, performance management, financial and human resources management);

• Human resources (relationships with staff, members, management, external groups);

• Financial resources (both operating and capital required for the organization, fund raising, self-financing mechanisms);

• Information resources (media, electronic and paper resources management to support the mission and strategies of the organization);

• Infrastructure (physical assets, computer systems, telecommunications, productive work environments);

• Conflict management.

A major part of capacity development is at the individual level. This includes both members and non-members of fisher and other co-management organizations, as well as other beneficiaries of the programme. This is the most critical level as it involves the individual's capacity to function effectively and efficiently with the organization and, more broadly, with the co-management programme. Capacity development is designed according to the individual's function and relationship to the organization and the co-management programme.

Horton (2002) states:

It is often assumed that developing individual capacities will automatically lead to improved organizational capacity and performance. This is not the case. For example, there are many cases where individuals have developed skills in participatory research, but very few cases where participatory research has become institutionalized in the standard operating procedures of research or development organizations.

8.4.2. Approaches to capacity development

Capacity development cannot be 'done' by outsiders. An external agent can promote or stimulate capacity development and provide information, training and other types of support. But an external agent should not attempt to lead an organization's capacity development effort or take responsibility for it. The organization's managers and members must set goals and make decisions. Leadership must emerge from within the organization, and the organization's members must do most of the required work. However, an organization can benefit from external expertise and advice. But ultimately, the organization's own managers must be in the driver's seat (Horton, 2002).

Capacity development involves the acquisition of new knowledge and its application in the pursuit of individual and organizational goals. For this reason, learning by doing, or experimental learning, lies at the heart of capacity development (Horton, 2002).

The main tools for capacity development include one or more of the following approaches:

• Information dissemination;

• Training to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes;

• Facilitation and mentoring by an external agent;

• Networking, with the exchange of information and experiences from other people working on similar tasks, as well as through workshops, networks and communities of practice;

• Feedback, in order to promote learning from experience within an organization.

The type and amount of capacity development will depend upon the organizations' goals and the budget available for these activities. The provision of information or one-time training, while able to reach more individuals and organizations, seldom produces lasting changes in the participants' behaviour. Facilitation by an external agent is generally more effective, although it is more costly.

Capacity development is promoted by the following key factors:

• An external environment that is conducive to change;

• Top managers who are committed to provide leadership for change;

• A clear set of objectives and priorities;

• A critical mass of members involved in, and committed to, the change process;

• Awareness and understanding of the initiative;

• Open and transparent processes and decision-making;

• Adequate resources for developing capacities and implementing change;

• Adequate management of the capacity development process.

8.4.3. Strategic management

In planning and setting priorities for capacity development, there is a need to assess the factors that are limiting the organization's performance and identify those capacities that constrain performance the most. An organizational assessment is often needed to determine performance and capacity constraints and opportunities for change. Most organizations should undertake strategic management. Strategic management can be defined as an approach whereby an organization defines its overall character and mission, its longer term objectives and goals, the product/service it will provide, and the means (strategy) by which this can be achieved. Strategic management should address all dimensions of capacity at all three levels – individual, organization, system or enabling environment. This approach allows an organization to establish the desired relationship with other organizations or stakeholders within the broader co-management programme in which it functions. This requires a full and ongoing assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) both externally and internally (Box 8.12). This approach should be participatory and consultative. Capacity assessments can be carried out as 'one off' types of initiatives, or they can be carried out at any one or all stages of co-management programme. For example, an organization embarking on involvement in co-management may need to develop initial capacities to carry out planning and negotiation, and other capacities later as the co-management programme matures. In all cases, emphasis would be given to utilizing existing capacities and to developing new capacities only as they are needed (UNDP, 1998).

8.4.4. Evaluation

Evaluation of the capacity development effort can serve two purposes. The first is accountability to determine if objectives have been achieved and resources used appropriately. The second is that evaluations are carried out to learn lessons that can be used to improve ongoing and future capacity development efforts (Horton, 2002).

An important aspect of capacity development is determining how the initiative can be sustained and remain relevant by responding to change. Sustainable change can be enhanced by:

• Involvement in decision-making;

• An atmosphere of mutual respect and trust;

• Building existing strengths and dimensions of capacity;

• Reward performance;

• Encourage new ideas and risk taking;

• Continual capacity development;

• Supportive leadership.

8.5. Social Communication

Successful change often depends on a variety of intangibles such as political will, trust, reputation and legitimacy. In addition, where suitable conditions exist or can be created, good communications can also be a key to bringing about change. Communications may be personal (one-to-one), inter-personal (among a few individuals) and social (when it involves social groups, such as a local community) (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000).

Social communication is the on-going flow of information and dialogue between the CO and the people in the community, and among the community members themselves about co-management, the programme, issues and solutions (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000). Effective social communication and information feedback mechanisms can empower and increase the involvement of community members in co-management. It provides for a better understanding of different stakeholders' perspectives and learning from different knowledge bases. For example, one objective of social communication can be to inform the community members about co-management and the need for co-management and to promote an open debate and understanding. Social communication can help community members gain ownership over the co-management programme. Borrini-Feyerabend et al. (2000) state:

They (community members) do not merely aim at 'passing on a message about an issue' but at promoting its critical understanding and appropriation in society. After all, the most important result sought by a genuine co-management initiative is not for people to 'behave' in tune with what some experts believe it is right for them, but for people to think, find agreements and act together on their own accord.

(p. 27)

The development of a social communication initiative should begin by understanding how people in the community communicate and discuss ideas and issues among themselves. It involves understanding the system of local media. This may range from word of mouth at the fish landing site or market, to call-in radio talk shows, to songs, to more formal gatherings. Social communication can take a variety of different forms and creativity is important to be effective. These forms range from one-to-one dialogue and group meetings to the use of mass media such as radio, television and Internet. It is important to avoid using a 'teaching' or 'preaching' attitude and instead to promote dialogue and open discussion of different points of view (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000).

Social communication may entail different forms of communication such as informing, raising awareness and training. While these forms of communication can be interactive between the sender and receiver, they are generally carried out in a 'top-down' manner with the sender in control of the message. Interactive learning is a different form of communication which enhances common knowledge, awareness and skills by having those with different views think, discuss and act together (Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2000).

The knowledge of how to communicate, the ability to communicate, and feeling comfortable in communicating are all skills which may need to be developed. Training in communication skills (both talking and listening) may need to be a precursor to a social communication programme. Training may need to target different groups with different communication needs, such as government officials and staff and community members.

8.5.1. Social marketing

One approach to social communication is social marketing. Social marketing is the use of the philosophy, tools and practices of commercial marketing to 'sell' a social cause, idea or behaviour change to a targeted group of individuals (Boxes 8.13 and 8.14). Social marketing can be used to accept a new behaviour, reject a potential behaviour, modify a current behaviour and/or abandon an old behaviour. The core unit of social marketing is the exchange between at least two parties. For example, the CO provides information to the target audience and the hoped for exchange is a change in behaviour, such as elimination of destructive fishing practices. The focus of social marketing is the community members. It is critical to think you know what is going on in their heads but to really find out the why and what.

The social marketing approach is a process that is very systematic and planned, with all stages of the programme clearly mapped out with objectives and behavioural targets. Steps in the process are:

• Define the problem based on analysis and community assessment;

• Identify behavioural change/actions that could eliminate/reduce the problem;

• Identify potential audience segment/target;

• Conduct root cause analysis – just ask 'why?';

• Establish goals and objectives for the programme;

• Position the intervention: product, price, place, promotion and politics;

• Deliver and monitor the intervention;

• Evaluate the programme (Kolter et al., 2002).

Among the more effective tools used in social marketing are advertising and public relations, promotions and publicity via mass media, special events,

celebrity endorsements, testimonials, and advocacy campaigns. For example, a slogan or vision statement, such as 'Our Seas, Our Future!', can be adopted to convey a message and develop solidarity. Any slogan should evolve with community members rather than be chosen by outsiders.

8.5.2. Communication

Social communication can be used to mobilize community members to participate in co-management. Participatory techniques can be used to raise