Fish wars: Conflict and collaboration in fisheries management in Southeast Asia

✍ Scribed by Robert Pomeroy; John Parks; Richard Pollnac; Tammy Campson; Emmanuel Genio; Cliff Marlessy; Elizabeth Holle; Michael Pido; Ayut Nissapa; Somsak Boromthanarat; Nguyen Thu Hue

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 208 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0308-597X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2007.03.012

✦ Synopsis

As a result of declining and overfished small-scale nearshore fisheries in Southeast Asia, there are increasing conflicts and social tensions between and among different user groups, leading to coastal ''fish wars''. A challenge facing fishers, resource managers and national decision makers in the region is to identify more appropriate governance and public policy mechanisms to manage conflicts over fishery resources and to resolve them productively in the interests of both long-term sustainability and short-term economic feasibility. A quantitative analysis undertaken in selected coastal communities in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam with and without co-management indicate that co-management does lead to reduced resource conflict levels. The analysis has also shown that when resource conflicts are reduced, food security improves.