Fishermen's organisations in fisheries management. Perspectives for fisheries co-management based on Danish fisheries

This paper examines the role of fishermen's organisations in the fisheries management decision-making process based on Danish experiences. The fishing industry world-wide is facing large challenges in the years to come deriving from the management system, technology and the market. These challenges cannot be met without the central fisheries administration entering into a constructive dialogue with the user-groups, which are often referred to as co-management in the literature. A typology of fishermen's organisations is developed in order to emphasize the differences in motivation and capacity of fishermen's organisations and evaluate their strategies and effectiveness in relation to participation in fisheries co-management institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the present performance of fishermen's organisations meet future requirements related to fisheries management and market development.