Journal Article
Governance Arrangements That Fit Social‐Ecological Context Are Associated With Fishery Sustainability
Mateja Nenadović; Alfredo Giron; Timothy Frawley; Adrian Munguia‐Vega; Kara E. Pellowe; Erica Ferrer; David Gill; Blanca González‐Mon; Andrew F. Johnson; Emilie Lindkvist; Fiorenza Micheli; Amy H. Weaver; Octavio Aburto; Ana Laura Flores‐Morales; Fiona Gladstone; Elizabeth Mansfield; Guido Marinone; Alejandro Parés‐Sierra; Anastasia Quintana; Jessica Reilly Moman; Salvador Rodriguez Van Dyck; Maja Schlueter; Jorge Torre; Björn Vollan; Heather M. Leslie; Xavier Basurto
Fish and Fisheries · Vol. 27, Issue 2 · pp. 381-399 · 2026
Abstract
In many parts of the world, natural resources are primarily managed by governance arrangements at the local level. Those arrangements range from collective, such as cooperatives and associations, to individualistic, such as patrons and owner‐operators. A key question is how such arrangements influence resource use and associated social and ecological outcomes. We hypothesize that sustainable resource use is not associated with a specific governance arrangement, but instead that every type of arrangement has a certain set of social and ecological conditions under which sustainable resource use is feasible. This hypothesis was empirically investigated using fisheries landings data from Mexico. We found that sustainable resource use can be achieved through multiple governance arrangements provided that they are matched to appropriate social‐ecological contexts. Our findings help identify which governance arrangements are best suited to particular contexts and provide the initial building blocks for developing a theory of governance contextual fit in social‐ecological fishing systems.