The Toolkit presents the lessons learned from testing best management practices in 11 pilot MPAs using a participatory process. It provides guidance on how to better involve fishers in the process of helping MPAs shift towards small-scale fishery co-management.

The 11 pilot MPAs exemplify a wide range of management conditions prevailing in the Mediterranean. In this sense, the testing process addressed the challenges jointly identified by MPA managers and fishers on the relationship between SSF and MPAs. The examples presented illustrate how even in cases where a formal co-management system is not in place, cooperation with local small-scale fishers can often bring unexpected benefits for the MPA managing body.

The Toolkit will offer practical support to those developing co-management approaches with the long- term goal of improving the overall governance of natural resource management in the Mediterranean. The ultimate goal of the FishMPABlue 2 project is to maintain biodiversity and natural ecosystems while increasing sustainability, including socio-economic, of small-scale fisheries, through better managed and connected MPAs and more involved fishermen.
 
This toolkit has been developed within the partnership of the Interreg Med project FISHMPABLUE 2, led by Federparchi, and in which the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Centre has played a specific role to collect regional and international information as to identify different governance models for the participation of artisanal fishermen in the sustainable management of halieutic resources inside and around marine protected areas. This three-year project is about to end in November 2019.
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Visit the toolkit here:
https://fishmpablue-2.interreg-med.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Sites/Biodiversity_Protection/Projects/FishMPABlue_2/Toolkit_FishMPABlue2_25jul2019_52pgs_WEB.pdf