Mapping of actors and formation of bodies of fishing participation

Abstract

Management of fisheries includes numerous sectors with different interests; thus, in order to reconcile these, the establishment of bodies of co-management bodies is suggested. Their formation begins with the selection of representative actors of the sectors involved; however, this has not been regulated, which makes its widespread implementation difficult. Here, an efficient and transparent method for identifying the key actors from four fisheries is evaluated in order to try it in different contexts. So as to identify the effort needed to get to know these actors, techniques of social and natural sciences were combined. In each case it was found that two informants, with an experience of twenty years in fishing management, identified the four sectors included here, and another ten, from other areas, did the same with the majority of key actors. This method cannot be used a priori to calculate the sample size; it is designed to be applied after the sampling is carried out or during the interviews. In contrast to traditional methodology, it is possible to transparently define at what moment to stop the process of data collection. These results demonstrate that the method can be standardized and implemented in order to facilitate the forming of co-management bodies.