Understanding what diversity of small‐scale fisheries translates to in practice, and what this means for management regimes seeking sustainability, continues to be a challenging undertaking. This is particularly so in the tropical Pacific Islands region, where small‐scale coastal fisheries play a significant role in domestic food and livelihood systems. A renewed regional policy focus on supporting coastal fisheries, combined...

Co-management approaches have become a core part of coastal fisheries policy and planning practice in Vanuatu. With a long history of supporting community based fisheries management (CBFM), we trace its evolution in Vanuatu to understand how new structures and processes become adopted at scale. A theory of scaling for CBFM guides the analysis of regime shifts over time. We discuss planning for sustained spread under a national...