Participation, learning and sustainable fisheries: the case of co-management at lake Vättern, Sweden

Paper in proceeding, 2013

In this paper we apply multiple perspectives in order to investigate a co- management initiative of fisheries in Sweden, using the frameworks of Adaptive Co-Management and the Trinity of Voice along with a cognitive and social perspective. The analysis and evaluation of participation in environmental governance, here fisheries, focuses on the context, pre-conditions and outcomes, as well as the participatory and communicative process of the initiative, identifying critical factors supporting and hindering the success of the exercise in relation to expected outcomes. We conclude that the project generated positive outcomes and discuss the supporting factors of this result. The discussion also focuses on the need to bring a cognitive and social perspective in to the analysis as it explains the pre-conditions - in terms of the differing ways that participants view and understand ecological problems and changes - and that these views are crucial aspects of the communicative process and need to be addressed and attended to.