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Co-management, a governance process whereby management responsibility is shared between resource users and other collaborators, is a mainstream approach for governing social and ecological aspects of small-scale fisheries. While many assessments of co-management are available for single time periods, assessments across longer time-scales are rare–meaning the dynamic nature, and long-term outcomes, of co-management are insufficiently understood. In this study we analyse ten-years of catch and effort data from a co-managed, multi-species reef fishery in Solomon Islands. To further understand social, ecological and management dynamics we also draw on interviews with fishers and managers that had been conducted throughout the same decade. We aimed to answer (1) what are the temporal trends in fishing effort, harvesting efficiency, and catch composition within and beyond a periodically-harvested closure (i.e. a principal and preferred management tool in Pacific island reef fisheries), and, (2) what are the internal and external drivers that acted upon the fishery, and its management. Despite high fishing effort within the periodically-harvested closure, catch per unit effort remained stable throughout the ten years. Yet the taxonomic composition of catch changed substantially as species targeted early in the decade became locally depleted. These observations indicate that both the frequency of harvesting and the volumes harvested may have outpaced the turnover rates of target species. We argue that this reflects a form of hyperstability whereby declining abundance is not apparent through catch per unit effort since it is masked by a shift to alternate species. While the community sustained and adapted their management arrangements over the decade as a response to internal pressures and some signs of resource changes, some external social and ecological drivers were beyond their capabilities to govern. We argue the collaborative, knowledge exchange, and learning aspects of adaptive co-management may need even more attention to deal with this complexity, particularly as local and distal pressures on multi-species fisheries and community governance intensify.

The southwesternmost coast of Madagascar, including the Mahafaly seascape, is home to some of the country’s most ecologically and culturally important coral reefs, which remain largely understudied. These ecosystems are facing growing pressure from a panel of disturbances, with climate-induced events such as marine heatwaves being among of the causes of coral bleaching. The decline of these reefs can directly threaten the livelihoods of the local communities, who depend heavily on the resources they provide. In this context, understanding how different disturbances impact coral reef condition and recovery is critical for developing effective management strategies and conservation for this vulnerable region. This study investigates coral bleaching dynamics in the Mahafaly seascape during and after the fourth mass coral bleaching event in 2024. Six reef locations within locally managed marine areas were surveyed, comprising a total of 11 stations, with 20 one-square-meter quadrats randomly deployed at each station during each sampling period. Average hard coral densities of 18.3 and 19.3 colonies m −2 were recorded during and after the event, respectively. Bleaching prevalence peaked during the event, affecting 38.8% of coral colonies, with a marked decrease to 6.0% afterward. However, coral mortality remained relatively low across the entire seascape, with a slight post-bleaching increase in dead colonies (+3.5%). Northern sites experienced the highest thermal stress, with Beheloke and Besambay reefs being the most susceptible to bleaching, whereas Ambola exhibited remarkable resilience. In the south, Ambohibola showed low vulnerability, Lembehitake moderate susceptibility, and Itampolo the highest bleaching prevalence despite lower thermal stress. Taxa-specific patterns were also evident, with thermally sensitive branching genera being most affected, contrasting with the relative tolerance of massive and encrusting corals. The heterogeneous coral bleaching patterns observed across the seascape emphasize the importance of site- and taxa-specific monitoring to prioritize management actions where reef resilience is highest or degradation most severe. Despite bleaching severity, the results suggest that coral assemblages in the seascape have a strong capacity to recover following the event. The Mahafaly seascape reefs could serve as vital refugia in the face of climate change, underscoring the need for ongoing conservation efforts.

1. Periodically harvested closures (PHCs) are one of the most common forms of fisheries management in Melanesia, demonstrating multiple objectives, including sustaining fish stocks and increasing catch efficiency to support small-scale fisheries. No studies have comprehensively assessed their ability to provide short-term fisheries benefits across the entire harvest regime. 2. W e present a novel analytical framework to guide a meta-analysis and assist future research in conceptualizing and assessing the potential of PHCs to deliver benefits for multiple fisheries-related objectives. 3. Ten PHCs met our selection criteria and on average, they provided a 48% greater abundance and 92% greater biomass of targeted fishes compared with areas open to fishing prior to being harvested. 4. This translated into tangible harvest benefits, with fishers removing 21% of the abundance and 49% of the biomass within PHCs, resulting in few post-harvest protection benefits. 5. When PHCs are larger, closed for longer periods or well enforced, short-term fisheries benefits are improved. However, an increased availability of fish within PHCs leads to greater removal during harvests. 6. Synthesis and applications. Periodically harvested closures (PHCs) can provide shortterm fisheries benefits. Use of the analytical framework presented here will assist in determining long-term fisheries and conservation benefits. We recommend PHCs be closed to fishing for as long as possible, be as large as possible, that compliance be encouraged via community engagement and enforcement, and strict deadlines/goals for harvesting set to prevent overfishing.

In many tropical nations, coastal communities seek to manage their sea cucumber fisheries by establishing locally managed marine areas on their traditional fishing grounds. These managed areas can protect spawning stocks, however the extent to which they help to replenish nearby sea cucumber fisheries is debated, as nothing is known about the scales at which sea cucumber larvae disperse. In this study, we used genetic parentage analyses and statistical modelling to provide the first empirical measure of larval dispersal patterns for a sea cucumber species. We analysed tissue samples from 765 adult and 827 juvenile sandfish ( Holothuria scabra ) collected from five traditional fishing grounds of the Titan tribe, from Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. All adults were sampled from the Pere fishing grounds (the larval source area), with juveniles sampled from the Pere, Mbunai, Tawi, Timonai and Mbuke fishing grounds. Parentage analysis identified 15 juveniles that were the offspring of parents sampled from Pere fishing grounds, with six of these juveniles located in the same fishing grounds as their parents. The best-fit larval dispersal kernel predicted that the average H. scabra larvae travelled 15 km from its spawning location, with 50% of larvae settling within 6.7 km of their parents and 95% of larvae settling within 59 km of their parents. These results suggest that the Titan tribes’ desire to protect their H. scabra spawning stocks by establishing a network of locally managed marine areas across 65 km of continuous coastline is a culturally appropriate strategy, which has merit from both an ecological and fisheries standpoint.

The NGO Fauna & Flora started working in the Myeik Archipelago, southern Myanmar in 2013, and in 2017 three locally managed marine areas were established to aid sustainable fisheries management and support biodiversity conservation. These sites are the first protected areas specifically established for co-management of marine fisheries in Myanmar, in which long-term management rights have been formally granted to local fishing communities. The establishment of a further four locally managed marine areas is now in progress, with ambitions for a network to be established throughout the archipelago. To track changes in these habitats over time, assess effectiveness and inform adaptive fisheries management, annual coral reef monitoring will be conducted at these community-managed sites. We provide an overview of the locally managed marine areas recently established in Myanmar and of proposed new sites, and detail the establishment of the first permanent coral reef monitoring transects. In sharing the initial evidence gathered on the impact of new, local management measures, we aim to highlight the importance and benefit of developing marine resource management systems to strengthen fisheries management while simultaneously establishing a monitoring framework to fill a national and global coral reef data gap.

The status of most fish stocks in Madagascar remains poorly documented. Given their importance for food security and livelihoods, it is necessary to define management measures with reliable data. This study applied a length‐based Bayesian biomass (LBB) estimation method for analysing the fisheries' representative length‐frequency data of seven most commonly caught coral reef fish species in the southwest of Madagascar. Using Froese's indicators, the use of as a stock status indicator, allows a consistent comparison among species in multi‐gear, multi‐species fisheries and provides a practical basis for management advice in data‐limited contexts. The stock status was determined based on median estimates for the period 2018–2023, which provide an assessment of the overall status. Estimates for 2023 were used to describe the most recent status of the stocks. The outputs of this study provide a guide for fisheries managers, coastal communities and authorities to formulate effective management strategies for the sustainability of the marine fisheries in Madagascar. A key recommendation from the study is the need for fisheries managers to improve fisheries data and to periodically monitor biological indicators to assess the status of small‐scale fisheries stocks.

We examine collaborative arrangements for resource management between communities and external agencies, with a particular interest in how community-based interventions are integrated into local contexts. This timely inquiry comes in a period when participatory resource management approaches are increasingly being applied to overcome the perpetual cycles of poverty in which poor resource-dependent people find themselves, i.e., social-ecological traps. Much of the literature on social-ecological traps has focused on identifying conditions, factors, and responses that are important in, for example, alleviating systemic poverty or developing sustainable resource management systems. However, insufficient focus has been placed on understanding the practical processes by which strategies are implemented, and how these can reflexively affect the system itself. Drawing from a case study of a locally managed marine area in Indonesia, we examine the interactions between a nongovernment organization and a target community during the implementation of a fisheries management plan. Applying insights from rural development studies, we show how external interventions, designed to pull people out of social-ecological traps, are operationalized into forms that make them locally familiar and appropriate through actions of community brokers and processes of “institutional bricolage.” We argue that as a consequence of implementing processes, such interventions should be expected to diverge from their initial science-based justification.

Community‐based natural resource management is recognized as an effective area‐based conservation approach. Accordingly, conservation organizations worldwide are providing support to local communities seeking to sustainably manage and use their local natural resources. However, there is little understanding of how different types of support provided by partner organizations influence local community governance of these resources. Our data, collected from Fiji using key informant interviews, demonstrates that there is no clear association between partner support and effective community governance of marine resources. While no associations were evident when investigating the effects of partner support on participation and perceived fairness of decision‐making at the village level, some significance was identified when investigating responses by social group. We did find a clearer signal, however, with regards to the types of interaction between partners and communities, such that regional meetings were associated with increased community knowledge of the boundaries of the customary fishing grounds and village meetings were associated with increased ecosystem monitoring. Our work underscores the need to evaluate how different types of support from partner organizations, and the manner in which they interact with communities, impact community‐based conservation initiatives. A heatmap demonstrating the direction of associated relationships between partner inputs and governing principles.

Combining no‐take marine reserves with exclusive access by communities to unreserved waters could provide the required incentives for community management to achieve positive impacts. However, few protected areas have been critically evaluated for their impact, which involves applying counterfactual thinking to predict conditions within protected areas if management had never occurred. Here, we use statistical matching to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of dual management systems on coral reef fishes in Tonga, with communities having both full no‐take areas and areas of exclusive fishing rights. No‐take areas generally had positive impacts on the species richness, biomass, density, and size of target reef fish, while exclusive access areas were similar to predicted counterfactual conditions. The latter is likely because overall fishing pressure in exclusive access areas might not actually change, although more fish could be exploited by communities with access rights. Our findings suggest that dual management is effective at incentivizing effective community‐based no‐take areas for biodiversity conservation and resource management.

No-take marine protected areas (MPAs) are commonly applied in community-based management schemes to sustain and enhance coral-reef fisheries. However, many MPAs in Fiji and the South Pacific are relatively small (\"641 km2), and few data exist regarding the effects of these MPAs on populations of exploited species. We used hook-and-line fishing surveys to assess whether 4 relatively small (<1 km2) community-based MPAs in Fiji (3 current, 1 former) were providing any commonly sought benefits to exploited reef-fish stocks. All of the MPAs had maintained no-take status for over 4 yr, although the former MPA was opened to fishing 4 mo before this study. The current MPAs exhibited significantly greater catch and biomass per unit effort, individual fish biomass, and/or percentage of reproductive-size fish than paired, adjacent fished areas, while this was not the case with the former MPA. Sites with intact MPAs also exhibited greater catch diversity than the former MPA site. Additionally, tag and recapture data from the 17 recaptured of 2650 tagged fish suggest site fidelity of these fishes, although fishes initially captured in the MPA at all 4 sites were later caught in fished areas, indicating that there is movement of fishes from the MPAs to fished areas. While the combination of these findings supports the utility of even relatively small MPAs as effective tools for the conservation of certain target species, it also suggests that MPA benefits may be quickly depleted and that even closures of extended duration may be insufficient for long-term fisheries management if the MPAs are not maintained.