Participation Rhetoric or Community-Based Management Reality? Influences on Willingness to Participate in a Venezuelan Freshwater Fishery

Abstract

Community-based management (CBM) has progressed from the conceptual fringe to the dialogical heart of environmental management. Despite its rhetorical popularity, limited quantitative data exist on factors influencing local involvement. A quantitative survey of three Venezuelan fishing villages resulted in a predictive model of willingness to participate in CBM. Sense of community and fishery dependence were significant positive influences. High level of concern about the current and future state of the fishery correlated with an unwillingness to participate, indicating a defeatist attitude about perceived insurmountable problems. We explore sense of community, defeatist attitudes, and education in CBM project formulation and implementation.