A synthesis of (non-)compliance theories with applications to small-scale fisheries research and practice

Non-compliance in fisheries is a persistent challenge for the conservation and sustainable management of the oceans and has particularly acute impacts in small-scale fisheries contexts. Small-scale fisheries often suffer from chronic overexploitation, poor management, lack of enforcement and non-compliance, but small-scale fishers are highly dependent on the ocean as a source of employment and food. Improving our understanding of the determinants of non-compliant behaviours in small-scale fisheries can help develop strategies to prevent and reduce its consequences. Here, we review two main approaches for the study of non-compliant behaviours and crimes more broadly, spanning criminology, economics and psychology. On the one hand, actor-based approaches address the underlying motivations for people to comply or not with regulations. Opportunity-based approaches, on the other hand, assume that non-compliance is not distributed randomly across space and time and focuses on the role that the immediate environment plays in the performance of non-compliant behaviours. We discuss potential applications of actor-based and opportunity-based approaches in guiding small-scale fisheries non-compliance research. Moreover, we provide guiding principles for integrating these approaches in a complementary way, highlighting opportunities and challenges for building a better non-compliance research agenda for fisheries and beyond. Addressing non-compliance is a common challenge for natural resource management in multiple ecosystems. Integrating these two perspectives has the potential to improve both research and practice.