Project Governance and Sustainable Fisheries Resource Management: Evidence from Community Conservation Programs

Abstract

Multi-stakeholder collaboration and effective project governance are increasingly recognized to be key factors  on the management of fisheries resources in a sustainable way, but are seldom studied together in situations  where community-based conservation programs are implemented. The effect of project governance,  stakeholders’ cooperation, compliance of regulations, monitoring and evaluation on the outcome of sustainable  fisheries management (SFM) with community participation as an intervening variable and policy environment  as moderating variable. A convergent mixed-methods approach was used to gather primary data from 287  stakeholders in 42 community conservation programs (CCPs) in Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and  West Bengal, India. Structured survey instruments and semi-structured interviews (N = 31) and program  documentation were used as data sources. All four predictors had significant positive effects on the outcome of  SFM (multiple regression analysis, R² = 0.617, F = 75.44, p < .001). The indirect effect of community  participation on the relationship between governance and SFM was found to be 0.26 (95% BC-CI [0.18, 0.35])  in mediation analysis (Model 4) from PROCESS. Policy environment (β = 0.17, p = .008) also had a significant  moderating effect. The findings are contextualized with the fisheries production data from the Food and  Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) SOFIA 2024 and the Government of India (GoI)  Department of Fisheries. A conceptual framework that involves the three study variables is designed and tested  empirically. Practical recommendations for program managers, conservation practitioners and fisheries  governance policy makers are provided.