Fisheries Improvement Projects and small-scale fisheries: The need for a modified approach

Fishery improvement projects (FIPs) have recently emerged as a mechanism to assist fishery recovery. Yet successfully expanding the FIP model into small-scale fisheries (SSF) will require modifying its design in order that it might best work within these more complex social and economic environments. Drawing on a growing understanding of what contributes to successful SSF management, as well as other similar smallholder market-based instruments, this article distils a core set of recommendations for a revised "FIP +" approach. The '+' denotes a broader set of integrated and complimentary interventions that recognize the complex social and economic landscape inherent within SSF, and that SSF reform will not occur through simply raising fishers' income alone. In order to be successful the FIP + model will need to consider investing in the following: strengthening tenure and community governance; covering upfront opportunity costs; reducing fisher vulnerability to market shocks by supporting a broader livelihood portfolio; and relaxing credit, social and human constraints within the wider context of SSFs. In addition it should do so in a manner that is conditional on improving fisheries management.