Eliciting stakeholder preferences on the potential benefit of diversified small-scale fishery activities

This paper examines stakeholders' preferences concerning diversification of small scale fishery activities, which has become a necessity for many small-scale fishermen in order to provide additional sources of income, as their income is often inadequate. It's looks at participatory modelling as a potential tool to enhance mutual understanding and legitimacy. Fisheries stakeholders and those with an indirect interest in diversification of their activities were invited to participate in the process of framing the management problem and to give input and evaluate the scientific models that are used to provide suggestions to decision makers. We followed a number of different strategies to investigate the role of participatory knowledge development. The study empirically integrates the traditional models of multicriteria decision aid approach with the deliberative mapping perspective. We conclude that participatory modelling has the potential to facilitate and structure the deliberative process within a dialogue between scientists and stakeholders about uncertainties and the quality of the knowledge base. It can also contribute to collective learning, increase legitimacy, and advance scientific understanding.