Coastal resource management and its impact to regional fisheries in Southeast Asia

―Toward further development of community-based resource management―

Abstract

In the Southeast Asia, decentralization of coastal resource management has progressed rapidly, while people’s and resource users’ participation in the decision-making process of resource management has increased. Many countries of this region have made enormous effort to explore a wide variety of decentralized and participatory approaches. Community-based approach is regarded as the most effective tool to achieve sustainability of resources, scatter efficiency of resource allocation, and bring equity of resource distribution. However, there arises a pressing need to further develop CBRM models, due to drastic changes in social and economic environments of coastal fisheries. This paper has three purposes. Firstly, institutional development of coastal resource management will be focused, including decentralization, participation and increasing role of local governments. Secondly, the development of CBRM models will be discussed in depth, referring to the past and present experiences of CBRM projects. The last part of this paper describes the institutional frameworks of decentralized and participatory approaches, and the mechanism of sharing responsibility between central and local levels. The final goal of this paper is to identify a new direction of CBRM approaches in the Southeast Asia.