Institutional innovation in fisheries governance: adaptive co-management in situations of legal pluralism

• Institutional innovation is needed to address sustainability shortfalls in fisheries management.
• Adaptive co-management may be the answer, but it must deal with legal pluralism.
• Institutional bricolage may address underlying value conflicts.
• Explicit community values may tether management experiments.
• The power of established institutions may reject institutional bricolage.

In fisheries management, social and institutional sustainability factors have proven difficult to incorporate into planning and are often traded off in support of ecological and economic factors. Thus, there has been little support for institutional innovation such as adaptive co-management. The literature on legal pluralism indicates one constraint on innovative institutions. In response, Bavinck and Gupta suggest ‘institutional bricolage’ to bridge underlying value differences. However, value conflicts may prevent institutions from moving towards ‘mutual support’.