Using common-pool resource design principles to assess the viability of community-based fisheries co-management systems in American Samoa and Hawai’i

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Community-based fisheries co-management provides a promising path to improve both environmental sustainability and social justice, but the outcomes of co-management programs to date have been mixed. This paper examines two fisheries co-management programs, American Samoa's Community-based Fisheries Management Program (CFMP) and Hawai’i's Community-based Subsistence Fisheries Area (CBSFA) legislation, using a framework of design principles derived from common property theory. The two programs provide an interesting contrast; while American Samoa's CFMP program has been successfully implemented in eleven communities, the Hawai’i program has struggled, with no CBSFA fully implemented for over 20 years. The purpose of this analysis is threefold: to utilize the design principles to assess the likelihood that a given fisheries co-management program will have a successful outcome; to test the design principles to determine how well these principles can serve as predictors for the outcomes seen in these two different programs; and to develop recommendations for how these design principles might be used to strengthen these two programs, as well as improve other fisheries co-management programs and policies in the future. The analysis reveals that the design principles provide a useful framework through which to assess co-management programs. Our analysis reveals that the principles can provide important insights for understanding the differential outcomes of the two programs as well as provide guidance for how these and other programs can be strengthened in the future.