Pieces of the puzzle: Solutions for community-based fisheries management from Native Canadians, Japanese cooperatives, and common property researchers.

Abstract

This article sets forth several solutions as pieces in a complicated puzzle. Significant changes are required within many nations' fisheries. Problems abound and there are few success stories. Canadians fisheries share these difficulties, and, in addition, the Canadian Court's recognition of aboriginal rights has shifted the allocation of priorities within many of the fisheries. Many of the changes are necessary to address conservation needs and to redress social injustices. The community-based approach to fisheries management is one important direction for progress. Community-based management, however, is not a solution without problems of its own. It does not provide and off-the-shelf answer to resource management problems. Yet, there are potential benefits to both the resource and the human community. Community-based solutions do not come from citizens' groups, government agencies, academics alone; rather, solutions come from all of these participants. Ideas, designs, and commitments on paper are not enough. Successful community-based management needs all of these, but also needs the efforts of participants continuing to work out the inevitable conflicts.