Book Description

The contribution of small-scale fisheries is significant regarding food security and employment, especially in the developing countries. However, with the persistent overfishing and unstainable exploitation, the performance of small-scale fisheries was severely devastated, not only due to its weak governance but of poor management, perverse subsidies, destructive fishing practices, and unrestricted access. Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) is a process by which the people themselves are given the opportunity as well as the responsibility to manage their resources, define their needs, goals, and to make decisions that have an impact upon their well-beings. Due to its social and economic benefits of efficiency, equity and sustainability, it is widely employed in the developing countries in Asia. This research focused on the impact analysis of CBFM on the sustainable management of fisheries resources and fisher’s livelihood in Cambodia, Bangladesh and Philippines by applying meta-analysis to quantify the magnitude of intervention and analyze the heterogeneity of the effects in each country. By integration of difference-in-difference in the construction of effect size, more accurate estimate of effect sizes was derived. The results show a consistent positive effect on management indicators in all three countries, which justified that CBFM was an effective and sustainable approach to organizing and managing fishing activities and fishing community. The mix results in the effect size of fish catch indicated that CBFM was better effective with the implementation of stock recovery programs.