Catalyzing sustainable fisheries management though behavior change interventions

Small-scale fisheries are an important livelihood and primary protein source for coastal communities in many of the poorest regions in the world, yet many suffer from overfishing, requiring effective and scalable management solutions. Positive ecological and socioeconomic responses to management typically lag behind immediate costs borne by fishers from fishing pressure reductions necessary for fisheries recovery. These short-term costs challenge the long-term success of these interventions. However, social marketing may increase perceptions of management benefits before ecological and socioeconomic benefits are fully realized, driving new social norms and ultimately long-term sustainable behavior change. Using ecological surveys and community-perceived measures of management support and socioeconomic conditions, we assess the impact of a standardized small-scale fisheries management intervention that was implemented across 41 sites in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The intervention combines TURF-reserves (community-based Territorial Use Rights for Fishing coupled with no-take marine reserves) with locally-tailored social marketing behavior change campaigns. Leveraging data across diverse indicators, our results suggest that communities were developing new social norms and fishing more sustainably, even before long-term ecological and socioeconomic benefits of fisheries management had materialized. Article impact statement: Moving from overfishing to sustainability, fisheries can use behavior-change campaigns to bridge from near-term losses to long-term gains. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved