Collaborative regulation setting

The rules and regulations of the closure need to be decided upon in a village meeting setting, encouraging participation by as many people as possible to ensure a high level of community ownership and support. If the regulations are not widely agreed upon as fair, they will be very difficult to enforce. Once the community is satisfied with the rules and regulations for the closure, locals laws should be discussed openly and agreed upon. Fines should be an amount that is realistic for fishers to pay, but large enough to effectively discourage theft. It is also important to determine procedures for enforcement of the local laws at the time of its creation to avoid future delays and/or confusion if an infraction is observed. The concept of local laws is often familiar in Madagascar, and there may already be an established procedure for enforcement. In such a case, it is best to work with well-established procedures. Local laws should be formalised in regional courts to ensure legality as well as to provide strong institutional backing if a local law infraction needs to be taken to court.

Existence of a legal framework for community management / customary laws such as the Dina in Madagascar.

Important points when developing regulations: - Access during the closure (for fishing other species, travel) - Paying a guardian will usually be cost-prohibitive. All members of the community and neighbouring communities are considered guardians for local law discussions: - Communication of fines to people attending enforcement meetings can improve faith in the association and encourages participation in meetings - Tiered fines can be an effective way of discouraging repeat offenses but showing compassion for a first-time offender not causing hard feelings towards the management association - Illegal catches from the closure should be confiscated and sold/shared out Logistics should be discussed and agreed by entire community - Confiscating fishing gear until fine has been paid is not effective: the person may need their gear to earn money to pay the fine - Members of other communities can come to fish at opening, but have to sell their catch to the village implementing the closure