Working with communities 'best for managing fisheries'

According to a study by the World Conservation Society (WCS) and ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia, collaborative arrangements among stakeholders — involving in particular local communities — are the best way to manage fisheries, but their success depends on certain social and institutional conditions being met. The study is the world's largest field study of its kind, covering 42 different sites across the Indo-Pacific ocean , including Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Papua New Guinea. The team of 17 scientists concluded that co-management was the most successful way of meeting both the livelihood needs of local communities and protecting fish stocks. Far less successful were such approaches as unrestricted access to fish stocks and top-down government control. Link to full article available here.