In many countries, centralised management of coastal resources
has not ensured sustainability. Centralised government agencies
often lack the resources to enforce central-level management deci-
sions, or to support local arrangements. Therefore, and often in the
context of decentralisation, participatory and integrated manage-
ment has succeeded in a better way. While various approaches have
been used by different groups, management responsibility and/or
authoritythat is shared between local communities and government
or
“
co-management
”
is the key to any system improvement. More
practically, co-management usually involves decentralised decision-
making, providing an opportunity for partnership arrangements in
which government, communities and other stakeholders share both
the responsibility and the authority for decision-making and
implementing agreed management plans (
Arthur, 2005
).