Fisheries Extension Education (2+1)

3.3.3 Goals of co-management

- Sustainable management of fishery resources

- Equity, empowerment and redistribution of power.

- Better quality of life for coastal fishing communities.

Major thrust is sustainable management of fishery resources through empowerment of resource users/fishing communities.

Fisheries co-management of a local fishery resource has the mandates to resolve the issues of:

- Scale of production in the light of sustainability

- Kind of stakeholders to be involved depending on the nature of the resource.

- Delegation of management functions on different issues.

- Establishment of co-ordination mechanism among the stakeholders.

There is no definite model on co-management, but it is a spectrum of management approaches. In the co-management spectrum, the government can play a lead role in making regulations and its enforcement, and capacity building. The community can take up major responsibilities on stock enhancement through responsible fisheries, conflict management among fishers and different stakeholders, formulation of management plan for the fishery resources and enforcement of regulations. The spectrum of management approaches will vary from one situation to another.