Coastal Zones

Biography

Biography: Mbachi Ruth Msomphora

Abstract

Stakeholder participation is a concept that has become acceptable in all areas of decision-making during the last few decades, partly due to dissatisfaction with the performance of fisheries management systems across the world. Among other issues, discarding, especially of marketable fish, is a serious and continuing problem despite the heavy emphasis on conservation policies. The absence of responsibility for industry and stakeholder groups is evidenced as the main reason for the problem. In this regard, authors in this field expect that a fisheries governance that entails sharing management responsibilities between the authorities and the resource users i.e. ‘co-management1’ and more recently ‘results-based management’ (RBM2) will result into developing a positive feedback loop. The purpose of this talk is therefore to show how a theoretical framework can be established on how and to what extent the stakeholders can efficaciously be involved in the management of fisheries, especially within the coastal areas (small-scale fisheries). This central topic is explored using the existing literature and practical knowledge from the Scottish Inshore Fisheries Groups (IFGs) case study; with particular interest on how coastal fisheries governance with the perspective of an interactive participation (interactive governance) could successfully be conducted.