One of the difficulties in planning and implementing co-management is the
lack of specific direction on ‘how to do it’. There are a number of different
activities and interventions in the process of community-based comanagement.
While there are a number of very good publications (many often
difficult to obtain, especially in a developing country) which discuss individual
activities and components of the process of community-based comanagement,
there is no single publication which provides a reference to the process from beginning or pre-implementation, through to implementation,
and to turnover to the community or post-implementation. That is the purpose
of this handbook; to provide a practical reference on a process for communitybased
co-management for use by the various co-management partners. This
handbook is meant to be a working document that is revised and adapted to a
specific situation.
This handbook focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain,
estuarine or marine) in developing countries. The community-based comanagement
process may also be relevant to small-scale fisheries in
developed countries, as well as to other coastal resource (i.e. coral reefs,
mangroves, seagrass, wetlands) management. Community-based comanagement
seems to be found in, and be most relevant to, developing
countries due to the need for overall community and economic development
and social empowerment, in addition to resource management (see Chapter 2,
Section 2.8 for more discussion about different types of co-management).