Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance.

In fisheries management-as in environmental governance more generally-regulatory arrangements that are thought to be helpful in some contexts frequently become panaceas or, in other words, simple formulaic policy prescriptions believed to solve a given problem in a wide range of contexts, regardless of their actual consequences. When this happens, management is likely to fail, and negative side effects are common. We focus on the case of individual transferable quotas to explore the panacea mindset, a set of factors that promote the spread and persistence of panaceas. These include conceptual narratives that make easy answers like panaceas seem plausible, power disconnects that create vested interests in panaceas, and heuristics and biases that prevent people from accurately assessing panaceas. Analysts have suggested many approaches to avoiding panaceas, but most fail to conquer the underlying panacea mindset. Here, we suggest the codevelopment of an institutional diagnostics toolkit to distill the vast amount of information on fisheries governance into an easily accessible, open, on-line database of checklists, case studies, and related resources. Toolkits like this could be used in many governance settings to challenge users' understandings of a policy's impacts and help them develop solutions better tailored to their particular context. They would not replace the more comprehensive approaches found in the literature but would rather be an intermediate step away from the problem of panaceas.

MPA in labor: securing the Pearl Cays of Nicaragua.

Implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has always a step-zero, i.e., an initial phase when the idea is incepted, communicated and negotiated among stakeholders. What happens during this phase is likely to have an impact later on. If not done right, the management of the MPA may encounter problems at later stage that will be difficult to correct. Inspired by this working theory, this article describes the effort to establish the Pearl Cays off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as a protected area. This case-study illustrates the critical actions to be taken during step-zero, i.e., what needs to be considered and done before an MPA is formally declared. The area investigated consists of a number of small islands (cays) and coral reefs, fishing grounds and marine turtle nesting areas. Throughout history, the cays have played an important role in sustaining livelihoods of nearby communities. Although the idea of an MPA was originally conservation, the communities saw it as an opportunity to regain ownership and control of the cays. By Nicaraguan law, in order to establish protected areas, consultation and approval from local people is required. In the case of the Pearl Cays, this has proved difficult. The article demonstrates how MPA initiatives must sometimes relate to already ongoing complex social processes in the area where they are to be instigated.