Community Fisheries Management Handbook - Saint Mary's University

“We are vulnerable without legislation, policy and regulation (the force of
law). Fisheries organizations and coastal communities need to work closely
together in the process of developing or impacting policy.” Mary Keneally,
RCIP Project, September 2003).
This chapter is about how community-based fisheries management
organizations can influence and change the policies that impact their
communities.
This chapter talks about:
Problem identification and analysis
Setting policy objectives
Identifying policy alternatives
Advocacy and lobbying
Public education
Much of the information in this chapter is adapted from research papers
and resources prepared by the Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP)
project (www.ruralnovascotia.ca).
WHAT IS POLICY?
Policy is the body of formal or informal practices that dictate how existing
rules and legislation are implemented. Most government legislation (such
as the Canadian Fisheries Act) is accompanied by policy documents that
guide bureaucrats in applying the law. Usually, in community-based fisheries
management, when people say that they want to make policy change,
they are referring to changing the approaches, practices and operational
guidelines of governmental fisheries regulatory agencies such as DFO
(Canada) or NMFS (U.S.).
Policy also includes the more informal institutional policies that influence
how rules and regulations are interpreted – for example, whether or not
docking fees are always collected from recreational boaters at a public wharf.
However, this chapter deals mainly with changing more formalized government
policy, rather than the informal practices – even though the latter also
influence efforts towards community-based fisheries management.
WHY IS CHANGING POLICY IMPORTANT?
Many different kinds and levels of policy have an impact on fisheries
and coastal communities. Fishing livelihoods are affected by the policies
of various levels of government, corporations, and their own fishing organizations.
Many coastal residents believe that bad government policy is the main
reason for the decline of their fishery and their communities. They have
felt powerless against top-down decision making and its impacts. Thus,
changing unpopular policies through community-based approaches is empowering.
People realize they can influence the policy making process.
Community-based fisheries management is difficult under the current
regulatory framework of many fisheries. Local efforts to change restrictive
government policy are creating small spaces where community-based approaches
are possible.
HOW TO DO IT
The reality is that changing policy is a slow process and can be discouraging
for community members. Unfortunately, the changes that need to
happen often will not occur in the time frame to be most useful to those
who started trying to bring about change. However, there are positive steps
that can be taken, and the main focus of this chapter is on how community
members can be proactive in trying to develop and change policy.
There are many different groups and interests working to shape public
policy to meet their own needs, and those working for communitybased
fisheries management are but one part of a large and complex policy
change process.
There are many occasions when community groups are not actively
shaping policy, but instead have to react to policy imposed by government,
and are trying to prevent or minimize negative impacts on their
communities from that policy. A way for community-based management
groups to do this is by participating in policy consultations or reviews
C O M M U N I T Y F I S H E R I E S M A N AG E M E N T H A N D B O O K