Local community-based approach for sustainable management of artisanal fisheries on small islands

The community involved identified four main issues that are causing an unsustainable island fishery: 1) Overexploitation; 2) Poor self-management of Cofradías and commercialisation problems; 3) Fisher individualism and low co-management strategies, and 4) Illegal fishing increase vs. artisanal fishing decline. Results show the required policy enhancements to tackle those issues with, for instance, the creation of marine protected areas, the promotion of a common islander vision, and an increase in participatory research projects between scientists and fishers. Participants also revealed the necessity to adapt existing regulations to local specificity to reduce the gap between policy makers and local community.