A theory of scaling for community-based fisheries management

Dirk J Steenbergen,Andrew M Song,Neil Andrew

doi:10.1007/s13280-021-01563-5

Abstract

Community-based approaches to fisheries management has emerged as a mainstream strategy to govern dispersed, diverse and dynamic small scale fisheries. However, amplifying local community led sustainability outcomes remains an enduring challenge. We seek to fill a theoretical gap in the conceptualization of ‘scaling up community-based fisheries management’. We draw on literature of agriculture innovations to provide a framework that takes into account process-driven and structural change occurring across multiple levels of governance, as well as different phases of scaling. We hypothesize that successful scaling requires engagement with all aspects of a governing regime, coalescing a range of actors, and therefore, is an enterprise that is larger than its parts. To demonstrate where the framework offers value, we illustrate the development of community-based fisheries management in Vanuatu according to the framework’s main scaling dimensions.

Highlights

With less than a decade to run, there is increasing international focus on how governments are tracking toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Considering the unique challenges associated with scaling a bundle of principles, the objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that better captures complexities of scaling community-based fisheries management (CBFM)
Despite increased focus on scaling local-level collective action institutions like CBFM, there has been less attention given to the theory guiding such initiatives and an insufficient understanding of what it means to scale innovations of such type

Summary

INTRODUCTION

With less than a decade to run, there is increasing international focus on how governments are tracking toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We elaborate on three important considerations for when new ideas and/or practices are introduced into existing regimes, which are derived from the PROMIS framing around scaling agriculture innovations (Wigboldus et al 2016) This roots our framework in, firstly, a reflective perspective that considers possible consequences and implications of scaling; secondly, an understanding that deliberate innovations enter regimes through either direct change interventions (push) or measures that incentivise behaviour change (pull); and thirdly, a recognition that people and institutions follow habituated patterns that over time has become accepted practice and influence if and how new innovations are taken up. Innovations should be understood to be putting scaling processes onto a path dependent course, which on one hand is necessary to guide desired development but on the other hand can limit creative options that will see it deviate from status quo (Muilerman et al 2018)

A FRAMEWORK FOR SCALING CBFM

CONCLUSION