Toward Improving Compliance in Small-Scale Fisheries: A Mental Models Assessment of Compliance in a Nicaraguan Green Turtle Fishery

• In Event: Green Criminology 2

Abstract

Reducing fisher non-compliance with formal management rules is a major challenge to achieving sustainability in fisheries. This challenge stems partly from the costs associated with gaining meaningful compliance data, both in terms of quantity and quality. While some quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to assess fisher compliance, the selection of these methods appears to have been made with little regard for their utility among management agencies in resource-limited settings. We therefore present a case study of how the mental models approach to risk assessment may be used to evaluate small-scale fisher compliance. We conducted open-ended, semi-structured interviews (n = ~ 40) with fishers involved in a small-scale subsistence fishery for green turtle on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, July-August 2015, and we used mental models theory to guide our interview protocol and analysis. In graphically highlighting points of convergence, conflict, and interplay between participants’ mental models of fishing behavior, we identify a logic model that can inform government interventions to improve fisher compliance. Results can be interpreted within the broader interdisciplinary framework of conservation criminology to enhance theoretical understanding of resource user compliance as well as provide practical insight into the effective management of fisheries.

Authors

• Mark C.G. Gibson, Michigan State University

• Meredith L. Gore, Michigan State University