RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT
Local Pathways to Global Wellbeing
St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
June 20 to June 24, 2005
Managing Together: Community Fisheries in Canada's Maritimes
Community-based management of natural resources provides a mechanism to transform governance practices, so as to better integrate ecological, socioeconomic, community and institutional sustainability at a local level. Where appropriate, this approach can provide a strong vehicle for resource conservation and sustainable development, through (a) better utilization of traditional ecological knowledge, (b) better acceptance of conservation and compliance with regulations, within suitably-empowered local communities and (c) better conflict resolution among local resource users, within a culturally-suitable context. This paper describes a set of initiatives in Canada's Maritime provinces to develop community fishery approaches. An emphasis is placed on one of these initiatives, Turning the Tide: Communities Managing Fisheries Together, that has helped build linkages between aboriginal and non-native participants in the fishery — motivated by a common desire for community-based management, and by the recent opportunity for aboriginal First Nations to enter the commercial fishery on a community basis. The paper describes the role played in Turning the Tide by three type of activities: (1) workshops, networking and capacity-building; (2) exchange visits, and (3) development of resource materials. The paper also discusses the need for grass-roots initiatives such as this to be complemented by governmental policy and logistic support for community-based management.
Anthony Charles
Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation
Management Science/Environmental Studies
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H3C3 Canada
tony.charles@smu.ca
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