During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance and management of fisheries to a broader approach that recognizes the participation of fishers, local stewardship, and shared decision-making. Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the management team, balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership with government, this approach is called co-management.

This handbook describes the process of community-based co-management from its beginning, through implementation, to turnover to the community. It provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists, examples, questions, and indicators for the planning and implementing of a process of community-based co-management. It focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine, or marine) in developing countries, and is also relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries and to the management of other coastal resources (such as coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, and wetlands). This handbook will be of significant interest to managers, practitioners, academics, and students of fisheries and natural resource management.