Title: Management of inshore artisanal fisheries in Guyana: co-management approach

Government intervention into fisheries management is mostly to prevent the over exploitation of stocks and ensure economic benefits from the fisheries. In order to achieve this goal the government has to have an effective management system in place that will ensure that all decisions have the desired effects. In most of these cases fishers are not involved in the management process and decisions are made without consulting them. This is one of the reasons why fishers often ignore the decisions and since they are aware that the government is in many cases incapable of enforcing these decisions they get away with it. This situation eventually leads to the decline of the resources and decreasing profits from the fisheries.

One way out of this dilemma is by getting the fishers involved in the management of the resources through empowerment. Since the government is unable to manage the resources centrally it has become necessary to decentralise power so that some of the management can be given to the fishers.

In order for this to occur the government may need to form partnerships with communities for them to assist in managing the resources. At the same time the fishermen gain but have to be responsible for their decisions and actions. In Guyana through the fishing co-operative societies that are already established, the government has an opportunity to share in the management of the resources. This can be achieved by using TURFs as a special variety of property rights based systems of fisheries management.