Participatory research towards co-management: Lessons from artisanal fisheries in coastal Uruguay
2013
Trimble, Micaela | Berkes, Fikret
Participatory research has become increasingly common in natural resources management. Even though participatory research is considered a strategy to facilitate co-management, there is little empirical evidence supporting this. The objective of the present paper is to analyze the contributions of participatory research to help encourage the emergence of co-management, based on a case study in Piriápolis artisanal fishery in coastal Uruguay (where management has been top–down). We argue that participatory research involving artisanal fishers, government, and other stakeholders (university scientists and NGOs) can be a key stimulus towards co-management. We build this argument by considering “seven faces” by which co-management can be analyzed: (1) as power sharing; (2) as institution building; (3) as trust building; (4) as process; (5) as learning and knowledge co-production; (6) as problem solving; and (7) as governance. Our findings show that participatory research had an impact on these various faces: (1) power was shared when making research decisions; (2) a multi-stakeholder group (POPA), with a common vision and goals, was created; (3) trust among participants increased; (4) the process of group formation was valued by participants; (5) stakeholders learned skills for participation; (6) two problem-solving exercises were conducted; and (7) a diversity of stakeholders of the initial problem identified by fishers (sea lions' impact on long-line fishery) participated in the process. The case shows that participatory research functions as a platform which enhances learning and knowledge co-production among stakeholders, paving the way towards future co-management.
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