ABSTRACT
This chapter explores community-based resource management (CBRM) in the Solomon Islands to contribute a critical social science perspective on navigating social transformations towards sustainability. It also explores CBRM as a governance transformation in the Solomon Islands on the premise that the establishment of 137 co-managed areas represents a significant change in the country's governance landscape. Coastal fisheries play a critical role in the livelihoods of Solomon Islanders, supplying daily protein requirements and serving as one of the few sources of cash income for the largely rural population. The chapter illustrates that windows of opportunity for transformation can emerge when specific circumstances converge across scales. Transformations are seldom discrete in time or in space. Transformation is always political and subjective. It is shaped by multiple actors, with multiple forms of power, pursuing multiple objectives. Navigating governance transformations presents several challenges. Governance transformations involve the negotiation between multiple, sometimes conflicting, priorities.
