Interdisciplinary Multivariate Analysis (IMA) for Adaptive Co-Management

Artisanal fisheries are fundamentally important in the developing world but are often complex from resource, technical and institutional perspectives. Increasingly, adaptive co-management is being encouraged to redress the failures associated with the top-down stock-assessment-driven management paradigm commonly applied to these fisheries.

Phase I of this process project aimed to combine a simple analytical framework and an interdisciplinary multivariate methodology to help higher level managers accelerate the adaptive learning process among locally managed fisheries by identifying and communicating successful combinations of contextual variables and decision-making arrangements (livelihood assets, transforming structures and processes, management strategies etc.) that give rise to desirable fisheries-related livelihood outcomes.

Successful validation of the approach during Phase II promoted improved management strategies for the benefit of poor people in south and south-east Asia and Africa.