Institutions for sustainable fisheries development: the case of marine fisheries in a coastal commune, Vietnam

In Vietnam, marine fisheries play an important role in the national economy and livelihoods of coastal people. However, marine fisheries in Vietnam are severely depleted in recent decades. Although formal institutions, such as, government agencies and government fisheries policies, are responsible for protecting marine fisheries, they have not been successful in managing this sector. Traditionally informal institutions have been in existence and played an important role in Vietnam coastal villages. Despite their importance, the informal institutions have not been recognized and officially documented by the government. This raises a very imperative demand for restructuring of the current fisheries management into one that integrates both formal and informal institutions for sustainable fisheries development. To adjust the current fisheries management based on the integration of formal and informal institutions, it is necessary to understand the role of both formal and informal institutions in managing marine fisheries for sustainable marine fisheries development. This present research is conducted to study the role of both formal and informal institutions; specifically: : (1) to examine the effectiveness of formal institutions in managing marine fisheries. ; (2) to learn about the contributions of informal institutions to marine fisheries management for sustainable fisheries development. ; (3) to compare the effectiveness of formal and informal institutions in managing marine fisheries. The research employed an interdisciplinary holistic approach to understand institutions using a case study. This research made use of a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and participatory approaches based on participatory observation, a household survey, group discussions, and interviews to collect the data. The findings of this research indicate that the formal institutions, including the government agencies and other stakeholders, and fisheries regulations and policies responsible for marine fisheries management, have not been successful in addressing the issues of marine fisheries. The ineffectiveness of the formal institutions has exacerbated the decline and depletion of marine fisheries. As a result, the formal institutions could not achieve sustainable fisheries development. Despite the failure of formal institutions, the informal institutions, including fisher’s groups, community norms, fisher’s knowledge, and whale worship, have made remarkable contributions to fisheries management at the local level. These informal institutions seem to be more effective than the formal institutions since they are integral part of traditional fishing practices. Furthermore, the informal institutions provide support to the formal institutions by encouraging fishers to abide by the fisheries laws, rules and regulations. Therefore, proper integration of the informal institutions into the formal institutions could improve fisher’s observance rate of the formal institutions. This could be a good solution to issues facing the current marine fisheries management. The findings of the research assert that, to have better marine fisheries management for sustainable fisheries development, it is imperative to simultaneously improve the formal institutions and take full advantage of the informal institutions.