Small-scale fisheries support the livelihoods and food security of millions of people worldwide, and if well managed can make significant contributions to socio-economic development. Coastal populations in developing countries can be highly reliant on coastal resources as small-scale fisheries provide an important source of income generation, are an important source of food, and in many areas often provide the primary source of dietary protein and micronutrients. However the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and the benefits they provide are under increasing pressure as populations grow, markets develop, technologies change and environments become degraded. Community-based and collaborative strategies (i.e., co-management) emerge as an important strategy to address challenges faced in managing small-scale fisheries. By engaging small-scale fishers in management, comanagement can more effectively sustain benefits provided by fisheries. In so doing, co-management can support the three pillars of food security i.e., by protecting resource availability and access, the role of fisheries in nutrition may be sustained or improved.
The expansion of co-management initiatives is particularly apparent in the Indo-Pacific where centralised approaches have typically had low levels of success in managing subsistence and domestically-marketed fisheries. In this region co-management initiatives combine scientific information and conventional approaches to marine resource management, with local knowledge and institutions; a model referred to as locally managed marine areas (LMMAs). There are now hundreds of coastal communities with LMMAs in which a range of resource-use rules are developed and implemented at the community level, often with support from government or non-government organisations (NGOs). However, despite widespread arguments that such models of co-management can result in sustainable fisheries, empirical studies that systematically demonstrate benefits to fisheries and to food security are lacking. This thesis presents a case study of Solomon Islands to address the overarching question; do locally managed marine areas contribute to sustainable smallscale fisheries, and what the implications are for food security.