Comanagement in northwest Russian fisheries

Summary

This article provides a presentation of the fisheries management system of north-western Russia. The main theoretical question is whether it is meaningful to discuss the issue of comanagement in a post-Soviet context. On the one hand, there is a considerable degree of user-group participation in this particular fishery, generating la positive effect in terms of legitimacy and user-group influence. On the other hand, the legacy from Soviet corporatism calls for a certain caution in classifying the particular system as comanaged. The unclear distinct ion between "government" and "user groups" in particular makes this problematic. Comanagement theory pre-supposes by its very nature a clear separation between different interest groups in society. In empirical settings where such separation is not obvious, it might be argued that the perspective loses some of its significance.

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DOI : doi.org/10.1080/08941920050121...