A study on more than 40 coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans indicates that co-management provides a solution to overfishing.
The finding is the outcome of the largest field investigation of co-managed tropical coral reef fisheries ever conducted, an effort in which researchers, from the Wildlife Conservation Society, ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and others, studied 42 managed reef systems in five countries. The team of 17 scientists from eight nations concluded that co-management partnerships were having considerable success in both meeting the livelihood needs of local communities and protecting fish stocks.
The paper appears in the most recent edition of the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
The team studied local fisheries arrangements on coral reefs in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, using a combination of interviews with local fishers and community leaders, and underwater fish counts.
The study’s main finding is that co-management has been largely successful in sustaining fisheries and improving people’s livelihoods. More than half the fishers surveyed felt co-management was positive for their livelihoods, whereas only 9% felt it was negative. A comparison of co-managed reefs with other reefs showed that co-managed reefs were half as likely to be heavily overfished, which can lead to damaged ecosystems.
“However we also found that where fisheries are closest to big, hungry markets, they tend to be in worse shape,” said Dr Nick Graham of the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia. “This strongly suggests globalised food chains can undermine local, democratic efforts to manage fisheries better. People often assume that local population size is the main driver of overfishing – but our research shows that access to global markets and seafood dependence are more important, and provide possible levers for action.”
According to the authors, the new study fills an important gap by providing fisheries managers with an example of how governments and local communities can work together effectively to protect local environments and food resources.
