Network governance in fisheries

Globalisation is enabling an increasing number of stakeholders to become better informed and more determined to participate in the management of both coastal and high-seas fisheries. Centralised fisheries management agencies are therefore becoming increasingly unable to exert control over the flow of information in fisheries management processes, and less able to exclude other formal and informal institutions from influencing management processes. This work details the emergence of network governance processes and concludes that network governance is likely to erode the traditional command and control authority of many formal government-mandated agencies, and potentially increase the transaction costs in fisheries management processes. However, this style of emergent management may also increase the robustness of management decisions. Crown Copyright (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.