BioneersYouth
Continue your Bioneers dialogue and excitement here!
This is a forum for youth Bioneers attendees to share our unique experiences from Bioneers 2007. Here we will stay connected to other youth leaders we met at the conference and keep the dialogue rolling! Read what others are talking about and get involved with others in your area.Remember that you have to "join" WiserEarth, which is free of course, if you w ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Oct 10, 2007
Updated: Sep 28, 2009
Membership: Open
Public
Solution Info Hide
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Problem
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.
Action
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)
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.
Table of Contents
1. Why This Handbook? 3
2. What is Community-based Co-management? 7
3. What is a Process for Community-based Co-management? 22
4. Who are You and What is Your Role in Community-based Co-management? 33
5. 'Beginnings' or Pre-implementation 45
6. Community Entry and Integration 63
7. Research and Participatory Research 92
8. Environmental Education, Capacity Development and Social Communication 126
9. Community Organizing 152
10. Co-management Plan and Agreement 164
11. Conflict Management 198
12. Co-management Plan Implementation 211
13. 'Turnover' or Post-implementation 233
14. Making It Happen! 241
Results
|
ECB in the Marine Reserve in Trao Reef in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. |
|
Trao Reef Locally Managed Marine Reserve is a 3-year project implemented in Van Hung Commune, Van Ninh district, Khanh Hoa province, both funded and facilitated by the International Marinelife Alliance (IMA) Vietnam. The project supported the management of the Xuan Tu community marine reserve and assisted in restoration activities. Van Hung commune, particularly Xuan Tu village, is the main area where this project is being implemented. Trao Reef is composed of fringing reefs that run along or close to the coastal shoreline. It ranges from a depth of 2–3 m near shore to 6–7 m further away. Part of Trao Reef is even exposed at low tide. It has a remaining coral coverage of 40–60%. Recent marine field surveys have shown that, since 1980, there has been an average 10% decrease in the availability of marine resources in the area. Some species often found and caught in the past, such as abalone, sea cucumber and grouper, are now rare.
|
|
The key approach of the project is community-based participation. IMA Vietnam facilitated the establishment of a community-managed reserve. It is protected by the core group, that is elected by and representing the community and working following community-established regulations. Increasing the level of awareness and understanding of communities on the benefits of resource management is a primary concern of the project. To achieve this, the project had coordinated with Vietnam National Television, collecting information and facilitating their film making on coastal resources management activities in the project site. School competitions to describe the environmental problems and propose solutions were held. Subsequently the Le Hong Phong secondary school worked with IMA Vietnam to develop an environmental education programme for incorporation into the current school curriculum. IMA will provide videotapes and other relevant materials and support other activities for raising awareness among the pupils.
|
|
In the villages, activities such as the international coastal clean-up days were held attracting thousands of people. Collecting and organizing trash has become a good habit of the local villagers. Several clean-up-oriented activities have promoted awareness-raising about environmental issues such as trash. Over 600 people participated in these activities led by the Veterans' Association, Women's and Youth Union and Advocates. Children in primary school and women are primary participants. They collected plastics, tins and other non-biodegradables as well as accumulated dead vegetation. Some larger trash items were deposited in the Commune's landfill. Other trash was burned on site. One of the significant results gained from the above activities is the formulation of the local village trash collection group. It has been put into good operation with obvious regulation and the contribution made from the community members.
|
|
To complement the clean-up activities, various competitions on writing and singing were also held in the village. IMA Vietnam also facilitated study tours to Trao Reef and set up dialogues on marine biodiversity and resources conservation in relation to lobster aquaculture. Youth, women, fishermen and teachers of the local primary school participated in these dialogues. With these activities, the people had a chance to see the coral reefs and the impact of the protection efforts. It is obvious that these study tours and dialogues raised the awareness of the villagers and guided their action in marine resource protection.
|
|
All of these activities facilitated an atmosphere of cooperation, collaboration and success. A major learning is that co-management of resources is an evolving process where sustained training, facilitation and support is needed. Environmental education work provides an opportunity for sharing learnings that eventually informed local decision-making.
|
|
Source: International Marinelife Alliance Vietnam (nd). |
Limitations
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.
