Report on Evaluation of Management Measures from a Governance Perspective

SEAwise research

From the starting point established in our Report on Requirements for Fisheries Governance to be Effective, SEAwise researchers pursued two distinct lines of inquiry:

• The first, utilising an online survey at the level of the SEAwise regional seas, explored stakeholder perceptions on how people and organisations work together and what challenges they face. Through this, we aimed to obtain insights into key elements of governance, such as legitimacy, trust, learning, coordination, and cooperation. Unfortunately, a major challenge with this research was attaining a sufficient number of replies from which we could draw comparisons or conclusions, something we attributed to a variety of factors including stakeholder fatigue. For the Mediterranean, however, we did receive a good number and spread of responses, allowing us to pilot the analysis we had intended to apply across the SEAwise regional seas – thereby, illustrating the potential of this approach.

• Our second line of inquiry focused on four localised case studies, each exploring a different governance process taking place within SEAwise’s regional seas: the North Sea, Western Waters, Baltic Sea, and Mediterranean Sea. The case studies allowed us to explore the complex, multi-level dynamics of fisheries governance at the sub-regional level. Reflecting the diversity in local contexts, SEAwise teams adopted varied research approaches for each localised case study. Whilst this flexibility enabled the collection of rich, in-depth insights, it also meant that drawing direct comparisons between cases, and reaching shared conclusions, was more limited. Across case studies, however, the key elements of governance (legitimacy, trust, learning, coordination, and cooperation) were core to what was deemed by stakeholders as contributing to governance effectiveness or lack thereof.