Rights-based and co-management of fisheries for sustainable development of coastal fishing communities in Thailand | |
| Author | Supaporn Anuchiracheeva |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.AQ-04-10 |
| Subject(s) | Fishery management--Thailand Sustainable fisheries--Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Technical Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. AQ-04-10 |
| Abstract | In many countries, coastal fisheries resources are considered as a kind of common pool resource (CPR), where it is difficult to exclude any of resource users and assert control over an extent of subtractability. Access to such resources is opened to all citizens and there are no controls over the access in terms of amount of resource exploitation and number of users. Thailand‘s coastal fisheries resources fall into this category. The visible problems that are caused by Open access conditions can be categorized as; difficulty to manage the resources, over—exploitation of the coastal fisheries, and conflict among resource users. Rights-based fisheries management and co-management between government and local fishermen are considered as innovative approaches for managing coastal fisheries resources. These two approaches are expected to encourage effective management of fisheries through the delegation of selected management functions to local levels and to recognize the need to progressively replace "open access" to fisheries resources with "limited access” regimes through the introduction of rights—based fisheries that may also facilitate scaling down of fishing capacity, and encourage the use of responsible fishing gear and practices. For changing ways for the management of fisheries resources from a conventional system to the approach by co-management and rights—based fisheries, one needs clear understanding on the roles and responsibilities of government agencies and local fishermen. Those roles and responsibilities would have to be legitimized into laws or regulations. The ability of local institutions and varibus aspects local fishery sector and their way to use fishery resources would have to be fully considered when resource use rights are designed or materialized and management functions delegated. In order to address these issues, my research was carried out to review present fisheries management situation in the Thai fisheries sector. This was followed by a series of detailed site studies at selected coastal communities in order to analyze the pros and cons of supporting the implementation of the rights-based and co—management approach. Results of the study may suggest a strategy for coastal fisheries management at the study sites and other local communities of similar conditions. A pilot project for community- based fisheries management has been undertaken by the Department of Fisheries in Bang Saphan Bay, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, and the bay and its vicinity were selected for the study site. From the research finding, there are five main points to suggest for the effective management of the coastal fishery communities as well as marine resources in the future. The suggestions are as follows 1) Co-management between government and local fishermen on fishery resources is essential for the new approach. The fishery law should support the management rights of local fishermen on fishery resources, especially at the operational level. 2) For granting management and use rights to local communities, a boundary of resources and resource users needs to be clearly defined. Demarcation of the waters will have to be designed not only based upon the general biological. information from scientists but it requires to introduce local specificity in terms of geographical, biological, social and economical concerns. To avoid conflict on the benefit sharing of the fishery resources, the existing benefit sharing structure, or existing fishing grounds, of local fishermen have be fully taken into account. 3) To perform the new role of fishery management, it is necessary to strengthen the local fishermen to be capable of handling the new rights and responsibilities. The capability needs to be developed in both areas of fishery resource management and institutional management. 4) For changing their role iii ,from exclusive manager to co-manager with fishermen, the government agencies may to be restructured, and the government officers be reeducated on the new management approaches, as it can be very different from the present system. 5) Rights-based and co- management approach will not be easily implemented in form of a pilot project based at narrower districts, because a success even by a pilot project will have impact on the adjacent and other areas outside. Such trials will have to be expanded to all coastal provinces by following the same principle of the approach, but details of project operation will require local specificity. If the implementation of rights-based and co-management approach is limited to only a small area, the trial might give offence to outsider fishermen who still Operate their fishing under the open access regime. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. AQ-04-10 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AQ) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shivakoti, Ganesh; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Demaine, Harvey;Pedersen, Ole;Kato, Yasuhisa;Ruddle, Kenneth; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DANIDA (Danida-JTCZM); |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |