This study, carried out in five fishing communities along the Kenyan coast, examined fisheries-derived income of fishers and traders in two different invertebrate fisheries (octopus and sea cucumber) and tested if differences in global market integration of these two products could explain differences in income inequalities among actors involved in the two fisheries. The structure of the value ...

No-take Marine Protected Areas (Nt-MPAs) constitute an indispensable tool for biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, there are other instruments such as marine coastal co-management policy frameworks which may be also considered as tools for conservation or as ancillary conservation instruments. Using focus groups, semi-structured interviews and survey questionnaires we analysed small-scale a...

Locally sustainable resource extraction activities, at times, transform into ecologically detrimental enterprises. Understanding such transitions is a primary challenge for conservation and management of many ecosystems. In marine systems, over-exploitation of small-scale fisheries creates problems such as reduced biodiversity and lower catches. However, long-term documentation of how governanc...

Information technologies (IT) can be used as an agent to foster social change. This case study describes an Internet start-up, Lonxanet, and analyzes its potential role as a catalyst of changes in the Galician (northwest Spain) artisanal seafood fisheries. These fisheries are traditionally associated to rural communities of fishers, selling their products in local auction markets known as lonxa...

This paper presents a survey of French Eastern English Channel fishers' observations of the past and current state of the marine ecosystem and their wishes for the future, as a first step towards formulating management objectives. Twenty-nine semi-directive interviews were carried out in June 2006 among fishers and shellfish farmers. Cognitive maps proved useful to formalise their experience an...

Change is a defining characteristic of coastal social-ecological systems, yet the magnitude and speed of contemporary change is challenging the adaptive capacity of even the most robust coastal communities. In the context of multiple drivers of change, it has become increasingly important to identify how threatened communities adapt to livelihood stressors. We investigate how adaptation is nego...

Developing the theoretical links between the knowledge of fishers and socieconomic outcomes of its use is important if fishers’ knowledge it to be taken seriously by policy makers. Having a theoretical basis that accounts for fishers’ knowledge allows for rigorous approaches to marine ecosystem-based policy development that incorporates both social and ecological variables in management experim...

Recent petitions to list the fisher (Martes pennanti) under the Endangered Species Act have brought attention to fisher conservation. Although commercial trapping of fishers in California ended in 1946, summarizing the commercial harvest data can provide a historical perspective to fisher conservation and may indicate the prevalence of incidental fisher captures in traps set for other species. ...

Fisheries management aimed at sustainable exploitation may affect fish populations indirectly by influencing human behaviour. We propose a methodology that includes stakeholders’ opinions, perceptions, and resulting behaviour, within assessment models designed to evaluate the impact of different management measures on the stocks. Based on interviews and a questionnaire, we use a Bayesian belief...