Browsing by Author "Pomeroy, Robert S."

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Coastal Resources Co-Management in the Caribbean
(2004) McConney, Patrick; Pomeroy, Robert S.; Mahon, R.
"In the small island developing states of the Caribbean the term co-management is increasingly used in the context of promoting conservation, especially of overexploited smallscale coastal fisheries. The term is used often and liberally by government fisheries management authorities, and also among non-governmental organisations such as fishing associations, cooperatives, community-based environmental groups and other key stakeholders. Yet shared concepts of what the categories, phases and other dimensions of co-management are seem to be scarce. Also missing are clear objectives of what the parties expect to be achieved through co- management. The stakeholders, who genuinely support the notion of improving collaboration for fisheries conservation and socio-economic development, embrace very different perspectives on co-management. In order to maximise the returns from participation, civil society and State stakeholders need to distinguish means of achieving successful collaborative co-management from those that relate more to co-optation and coercion. These are some of the conclusions arising from six institutional analysis case studies, undertaken between 2001 and 2003, on marine resource co-management initiatives in the Caribbean. Key conditions for improving the situation include more effective communication amongst the stakeholders through participatory planning, management and evaluation designed for institutional learning. For this to happen, and for it to have an impact on conservation, capacity and power must be increased within the government agencies and their non- governmental partners. Guidelines on key concepts and conditions to facilitate successful coastal resource co-management, developed from these case studies, are presented to encourage the introduction of improved institutional arrangements."
Fisheries Co-management and Small-scale Fisheries: A Policy Brief
(1994) Pomeroy, Robert S.; Williams, Meryl J.
"Global-scale changes in the supply, demand, value, management and uses of fisheries resources could threaten progress towards sustainable food security in many parts of the developing world, but they could also stimulate improved management and use of the resources. Decisionmakers are searching for better ways of managing all fisheries, including small-scale ones. "This policy brief addresses some of the issues and options available, arguing that recent lessons point to potential benefits in some fisheries from management partnerships between the government and local fishers and communities - fisheries co-management. The trend to greater formal involvement of users in management of resources was recognized in many chapters of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda 21 Declaration and are enshrined in such international instruments as the International Convention on Biological Diversity ratified in 1993. This policy brief cautions, however, that co-management is not a universal panacea and more experience and research are needed to learn about the conditions leading to successful fisheries co-management."
Fisheries Co-Management: Key Conditions and Principles Drawn from Asian Experiences
(1998) Pomeroy, Robert S.; Katon, Brenda M.; Harkes, Ingvild
"The purpose of this paper is to present results of the research; specifically, key principles and conditions, which facilitate the successful implementation of co- management as identified through the project's research activities in Asia. These research results represent just one set of results from the various activities of the project. The paper will begin with a discussion of the strategy and data sources used in the research. As a foundation for the research, the project utilized key conditions for successful common pool resources institutions as identified by Ostrom (1990, 1992). These will be revisited in the second section and assessed in light of their applicability for fisheries co-management in Asia. New conditions and principles identified through the research will be discussed in section three. The paper will conclude with policy implications for fisheries co-management in Asia and worldwide."
Fisheries Co-Management; A Worldwide, Collaborative Research Project
(1995) Pomeroy, Robert S.; Sverdrup-Jensen, Sten; Raakjær-Nielsen, Jesper
"There is a need for rapid and substantial evolution of existing fisheries management systems in developing countries to support sustainable resource use. It is unlikely that local communities can accomplish this change on their own. But neither can the national government accomplish it entirely through bureaucratic instruments. There must evolve a more dynamic partnership using the capacities and interests of the local community, complemented by the ability of the national government to provide enabling legislation and institutions and other assistance. This partnership can be called co-management, where the national government and the community share authority for fisheries management. "ICLARM, with funding from DANIDA, has embarked on a fiveyear worldwide research project on fisheries co-management. The research project will address issues of co-management at both the national and community levels. The research framework provides for a structural approach to examining and documenting the origin, current status, operation and performance of fisheries management systems. Institutional analysis, which examines how institutional arrangements, the set of rights and rules by which a community organizes activities and which affect use behavior and incentives, will provide the basic research framework for studying fisheries management institutions. "In the paper, we will provide details on the overall project objectives and scope, the research framework, project structures, and activities to date. It is hoped that presentation of the project framework at this meeting will provide feedback for improvement."
Initiatives Towards Co-Management of Marine Fisheries and Other Coastal Resources in an Island Environment: The Case of Palawan, Philippines
(1995) Pido, Michael D.; Pomeroy, Robert S.; Carlos, Melvin B.
"The Philippines is undergoing major transformations towards common property or co-management of marine fisheries. Among the important site is the island-province of Palawan which has the richest fishing grounds and possesses the largest intact assemblage of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangroves in the Philippines. However, these resources are under threat from population pressure and various illegal or destructive fishing practices. Despite the rich coastal resource base, the small-scale fishers remain among the poorest population. "Using institutional analysis as the framework for evaluation, a provincial forum and a training/workshop on rapid appraisal were organized to discuss with resource managers and decision makers the various management systems of fisheries and other coastal resources in Palawan. The various experiences suggest that the current management systems are determined by several contextual variables such as the biophysical and technological attributes, the market structure, the attributes of fisher stakeholders, as well as the external institutional arrangements and other exogenous factors. "Three emerging fisheries co-management systems have been identified. Two are spearheaded by national government agencies while one is administered by a city government. A common is the delineation of management responsibility among the various organizations involved. To become fully operational, however, there are certain development interventions that must be pursued and research activities to be undertaken to operationally define the organizational and institutional arrangements."
Institutional Analysis
(International Development Research Centre, 1998) Pomeroy, Robert S.
"Institutional analysis is the identification of various resource users, stakeholders and organizations involved in community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM). It also involves an examination of the institutional arrangements, the set of rights and rules for CBCRM in a community. An institutional analysis is usually conducted early in the CBCRM process during the planning phase. The level of detail can range from a simple description of the existing coastal resource management system to a very detailed analysis of the management system in terms of equity, efficiency and sustainability."
Institutional Arrangements for Common Property Fisheries Management: San Miguel Bay, Philippines
(1993) Pomeroy, Robert S.; Samonte, Giselle P.; Sunderlin, William D.
"San Miguel Bay has recently (1992-1993) been restudied by an interdisciplinary research team from ICLARM under the auspices of the Fisheries Sector Program (FSP) of the Philippine Department of Agriculture. In order to provide a scientific/technical information base for the preparation and implementation of a management plan for San Miguel Bay under the FSP, a Resource and Ecological Assessment (REA) was conducted to document the conditions of the fisheries, including the ecological parameters and resource habitats of the Bay, and characteristics of fishers and fishing communities. The research has also evaluated the formal and informal institutional arrangements for resource management in the Bay. "The primary objective of this paper is to provide an update on the prevailing biophysical, social and economic conditions in the Bay, with an emphasis on the institutional and organizational arrangements for fisheries management. The previous studies on San Miguel Bay have stressed the need for management, as well as the constraints to implementation of any comprehensive management strategy. Recent changes in public administration policy in the Philippines, which has devolved primary authority for nearshore fisheries management to local government units, provide a new institutional structure for fisheries management in the Bay. "The paper will begin with a profile of the biophysical and social conditions in the Bay. This will be followed by a summary of conclusions from the two previous studies on the Bay (early 1980s and 1986). The methodology for the current study will be described, followed by a discussion of current conditions. The institutional arrangements for management, both formal and informal, will be the focus of an examination of resource use and implications for management."
The Marine Conservation Project for San Salvador: A Case Study of Fisheries Co-Management in the Philippines
(1997) Katon, Brenda M.; Pomeroy, Robert S.; Salamanca, Albert M.
"San Salvador, an island village of Masinloc municipality in Zambales, Philippines, has been inhabited by approximately three generations of residents. The initial migrants, who were largely farmers from the mainland of Zambales province, did not have a clear tradition of fisheries management and an indigenous expertise on fish stock management. Until the late 1960s, San Salvador residents recalled an abundance of coastal resources and a lack of resource use conflicts, which enabled fishers to enjoy an open and unrestricted access to the fishery. The scenario began to change in the 1970s due to three events: 1) influx of Visayan migrants from the Central Philippines, who belonged to a different ethnolinguistic group with different fishing practices; 2) integration of the village economy into the international market for aquarium fish; and, 3) shift to destructive fishing operations. Together, these event s progressively devastated San Salvador's fishing grounds. They also gave rise to conflicts over fishing gear and over productive fishing spots. "In the late 1980s, the effects of fishery depletion and unabated destruction of coral reefs began to be felt. Open access to the resource, coupled with the rapid decline in fish stocks over the past decades, subjected the San Salvador fishery to further stress. The average fish catch per unit effort reportedly dwindled from 20 kilos per fishing trip in the 1960s to only about 1-3 kilos in 1988, just before the start of the Marine Conservation Project for San Salvador (MCPSS). Many reef fishes, such as groupers, snappers and damselfish, were depleted. A survey of the coral reef substrate in 1988 showed an average of 23 percent live coral cover for the whole island of San Salvador. The worsening resource situation was closely linked to unsound fishing practices, ignorance of fisherfolk on fish stock management, and the existence of unscrupulous leaders from the village, who sometimes supported destructive fishing methods for their own gain. The financial and regulatory limitations of the centralized Philippine government increasingly became apparent. Local fishers, however, felt helpless about the situation and were too fragmented to embark on any collective action to halt resource degradation. The Marine Conservation Project for San Salvador, which was implemented from 1989 to 1993 by a non-government organization, known as the Haribon Foundation, highlights how the fisher community and the local government jointly regenerated fishery resources through coral reef management The redefinition of property rights and rules in 1989, along with vigorous law enforcement activities, complemented resource management efforts. The San Salvador experience attests to how a community can rise above the obstacles associated with de facto open access nature of fisheries. It offers hope to many small island communities in a similar situation with an unwavering resolve to avert resource deterioration."
Measuring Co-Management
(1998) Ring, Marshall William; Pomeroy, Robert S.; Katon, Brenda M.; Garces, Len
"Co-management is an evolving method of managing natural resources that involves the sharing of management responsibility and/or authority of a resource between the government as owners of the resource, and the local community as users of the resource. Co-management arrangements blend together two 'pure' management alternatives of state-level management and 'local-level management'. There is no one set form of co-management. Rather, co-management occurs across a broad spectrum of possibilities of power sharing depending on country and site-specific conditions. The following paper presents an approach used to measure a coastal co-management project in the Philippines. Although much literature exists on the theoretical components and benefits of co-management, comparatively few co-management agreements have been documented to determine if co-management works effectively, and the effects co-management has on the resource and resource users. To further understand the results of co-management applications, studying effective and operating co-management arrangements will be invaluable."
Measuring Transaction Costs of Fisheries Co-Management
(1998) Kuperan, K.; Mustapha, Nik; Abdullah, Nik Mustapha Raja; Pomeroy, Robert S.; Genio, E.; Salamanca, Albert M.
"Fisheries co-management as an alternative to centralised command and control fisheries management is often suggested as a solution to the problems of fisheries resource use conflicts and overexploitation. Various researchers have talked of the importance of studying the role of transaction costs between different institutional arrangements for managing fisheries resources. There have however been no attempts to verify empirically by measuring the transaction costs involved in fisheries management. This paper provides some measurements of the transaction costs under a fisheries co-management system. The transaction costs can be categorised into three major cost items. These are (1) information costs, (2) collective fisheries decision-making costs, and (3) collective operational costs. The transaction costs of fisheries co-management in San Salvador Island, Philippines is presented. The method of collecting information about transactions cost of fisheries co-management had not been attempted anywhere before. Information on the cost of a wide range of transaction costs variables were collected. The costs are used to assess the relative importance of the various transactions costs in a co-managed and a centrally managed system. The difference in the transaction costs between a centraly managed and a co-managed system is used as a basis for public policy decisions on the choice of alternative institutional arrangements for managing a fishery."