Governments play crucial roles in addressing social-ecological traps - situations where feedbacks between social and ecological systems lead to reinforcement between resource degradation and livelihood impoverishment. While it is widely recognized that resolving these traps necesitates integrated measures, empirical studies often focus on the impact of individual measures. This paper investigates all measures employed by the local government to address traps in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture and examines how these measures contribute to solving the traps. Based on empirical data from the Tam Giang lagoon, Central Viet Nam, it finds that the goverment develops measures that align with \"good practices\" which focus on both ecological and social challenges. Yet, in practice, it prioritizes addressing ecological challenges over the social ones. The government primarily directs resources and efforts toward combating resource degradation. Measures that tackle the high dependency on fisheries resources and lack of alternative livelihoods are often sidelined. These practices fail to address the key drivers and reinforceing feedbacks that create the social-ecological trap. The paper highlights gaps between science, policy and practice in addressing social-ecological traps. Bridging these gaps and transforming government responses to the traps require effective communication of scientific knowledge to the government; facilitation of collaborations among researchers, policymakers, managers and practictioners; provision of financial support to the goverment and addressing the lack of political will of the government.

Livelihood initiatives are common within marine protected areas (MPAs) aiming for poverty alleviation or higher income opportunities. However, results can be mixed in reality, as well as change over time. Furthermore, who benefits is a key consideration, as results can vary based on inequalities, including gender. Here, the monetary outcomes of different livelihood strategies were investigated across three MPA regions in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Using a quantitative approach, the results show that livelihoods have shifted in a six-year period, with livelihood strategies differing in poverty incidence and income. Livelihood initiatives, namely seaweed farming and tourism, did not provide significantly higher monetary returns compared to long-standing livelihoods, such as fisheries. Seaweed farming showed income stability but a high poverty incidence predominantly within women-headed households. During the study period, men primarily remained in fisheries, whilst women shifted to small-scale businesses and fisheries, largely exiting seaweed farming. This underscores a need for adaptive, gender sensitive management within fast changing coastal contexts.

Climate change, globalization, and increasing industrial and urban activities threaten the sustainability and viability of small-scale fisheries. How those affected can collectively mobilize their actions, share knowledge, and build their local adaptive capacity will shape how best they respond to these changes. This paper examines the changes experienced by small-scale fishing actors, social and governance complexities, and the sustainability challenges within the fisheries system in Limbe, Cameroon. Drawing on the fish-as-food framework, we discuss how ineffective fishery management in light of a confluence of global threats has resulted in changes to fish harvesters\' activities, causing shortages in fish supply and disruptions in the fish value chain. The paper uses focus group discussions with fish harvesters and fishmongers to present three key findings. First, we show that changes in the fisheries from increased fishing activities and ineffective fishery management have disrupted fish harvesting and supply, impacting the social and economic well-being of small-scale fishing actors and their communities. Second, there are complexities in the fisheries value chain due to shortages in fish supply, creating conflicts between fisheries actors whose activities are not regulated by any specific set of rules or policies. Third, despite the importance of small-scale fisheries in Limbe, management has been abandoned by fishing actors who are not well-equipped with the appropriate capacity to design and enforce effective fishery management procedures and protections against illegal fishing activities. Empirical findings from this understudied fishery make scholarly contributions to the literature on the fish-as-food framework and demonstrate the need to support small-scale actors\' fishing activities and the sustainability of the fisheries system in Limbe.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40152-023-00296-3.

Regulating the fuel consumption of small-scale fishing vessels could help to keep global warming well below 1.5 °C and lead to effective management in small-scale fisheries (SSF) of developing countries like India. In this regard, a bottom-up approach was carried out to collect the requisite data to explore the fuel consumption of small-scale fishing vessels along India\'s southeast coast. Consequently, twenty-four fishing vessels (type A to type X) were grouped into seven categories based on fishing methods. The estimated numerical value of fuel use intensity (FUI) ranging from 0.08 to 0.80 was used to examine the fuel-efficient fishing vessel and engine type. In addition, the estimated revenue on fuel ranging from ₹5625.06/l to ₹218.07/l and annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the Tier 1 method were used to understand the economic efficiency and GHG emission trend, respectively. The total annual GHG emissions from all the fishing vessels at the selected sites were about 1.25E + 08 t CO2-eq year-1. The result shows that longline-cum-gillnetters, seine-netters, longliners and drift-gillnetters largely contributed to 65% of the annual GHG emissions. By recognizing the factors influencing the fuel consumption of fishing vessels in SSF, this sector could be understood, effectively managed, and performed well. Therefore, the possible reasons were extensively discussed through a comparative approach, and potential recommendations for effective management were made.

Passive bottom-set nets are the most widely used fishing gears in Mediterranean small-scale fisheries (SSFs). Trammel nets, in particular, have key advantages such as their ease of use and handling and high capture efficiency for numerous commercial species. However, they entail high discard rates (5-44% of the total catch) connected to high mortality, thus exerting an adverse impact on benthic communities, besides catching individuals of commercial species under the minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) and specimens of protected species. Fish pots are seen as alternative and a more sustainable gear type that allow reducing discards in SSFs. In this study, a collapsible pot was tested at three coastal sites in the north-western Adriatic Sea (GFCM GSA 17) to compare its catch efficiency with that of the local traditional trammel nets. Data analysis demonstrated a similar catch efficiency for the commercial species, both among sites and as a whole. Moreover, the trammel net caught a larger amount of discards, both in terms of species number and of CPUEW. The catch comparison study involved the two most abundant landed species, common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis and annular sea bream Diplodus annularis. The pots were more effective for S. officinalis, whereas the trammel net was more effective for the shorter length classes for D. annularis, which were mostly under the MCRS (12 cm). The innovative pots could provide a valuable alternative to the trammel nets traditionally used in the Adriatic Sea, at least in certain areas and periods. Their main advantages include that they do not require a different rigging and they can be used without bait, while their foldable design allows large numbers to be easily loaded on board SSF vessels. The results of this pilot study indicate that pots can achieve the objectives of reducing discards and bycatch in SSFs without penalizing the catch of commercial species.

Like many small-scale fishing communities around the world, the community of Buen Hombre in the Dominican Republic is dealing with a set of challenges to reconcile its fishing activities with the ecology on which it depends. Also like many such communities, this case has been examined at a particular period in time by a group of social scientists, but not over substantial lengths of time in order to examine the longitudinal validity of the conclusions made during this period. In this paper we combine data from previous anthropological work with our own primary social and ecological data to conduct a longitudinal case study of the Buen Hombre fishery. Our over-time comparison focuses on a suite of mostly social and institutional variables to explain what we find to be a continued degradation of the fishery, and we conclude the analysis by presenting a causal-loop diagram, summarizing our inferences regarding the complex interactions among these variables. We find that a mix of factors, notably changes in gear and fishing sites used, the number of fishermen and their livelihood diversity, as well as an increased connectivity between Buen Hombre and its external environment, have contributed to the decline of the condition of Buen Hombre coral reef fishery. We conclude with a discussion of what may lie ahead for this particular case and others like it.