Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol Strengthening post-hoc analysis of community-based fisheries management through the social-ecological systems framework Jessica Blythe a,b, ⁎ , Philippa Cohen a,b , Hampus Eriksson a,c , Joshua Cinner b , Delvene Boso a , Anne-Maree Schwarz a , Neil Andrew a,c a WorldFish, P.O. Box 438, Honiara, Solomon Islands b Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia c Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia ABSTRACT Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) is held up as one of the most promising approaches for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. Yet, the complex features that shape CBFM outcomes remain inadequately understood. In part, this stems from the fact that few community-based projects meet the data requirements for formal impact evaluations. Given this context, diagnostic approaches are increasingly seen as a frontier for strengthening CBFM analysis and securing small-scale fisheries sustainability. This study explores the capacity of Elinor Ostrom's social-ecological systems (SES) framework to strengthen post-hoc diagnosis of CBFM. It draws on data from published and grey literature (including field notes, meeting minutes, and project reports) generated throughout an eight-year CBFM project in five Solomon Island villages. Results suggest that successful CBFM outcomes were facilitated by effective information sharing, harvesting rules that merge traditional and contemporary practices, strong leadership, and resource monitoring, while uneven power differentials under- mined positive outcomes. The paper argues that the SES framework can add analytical rigour to post-hoc analysis when it used to: 1) engage with temporal dynamics that shape CBFM processes; 2) integrate insights from plural theories, and 3) explore interactions between multiple CBFM outcomes. Ultimately, the paper argues that diagnostic applications of the SES framework can contribute towards conducting more systematic analysis of diverse CBFM data, improving CBRM practices, and realizing more sustainable small-scale fisheries 1. Introduction Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) emerged in the 1980s as an alternative to government-led or private protection approaches to marine resource management [1–4]. CBFM is character- ized by the devolution of resource management authority to local communities, allowing fisheries governance processes to be determined locally and often involving community partnership with stakeholders including government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) [5,6]. Support for CBFM is based on the notion that people who depend on marine resources are often the best informed about local resource contexts, the most committed to sustainable harvesting, and will thus develop more effective and appropriate management practices to address local objectives [7,8]. Despite a substantial shift towards CBFM for small-scale fisheries governance, particularly in the developing world, empirical evidence suggests that the outcomes of CBFM for people and ecosystems are mixed [9,10]. For example, community management benefited fishers in Indonesia by contributing to poverty alleviation, but the benefits did not endure after the project implementation period [11]. Alternatively, evidence from inland Africa suggests that the transition to CBFM redistributed power in a way that excluded local fishers from resource decision-making processes [12]. Ultimately, effective and sustainable fisheries governance requires more systematic understandings of the attributes that render some management strategies more effective than others [13,14]. Considerable efforts have been directed towards the design and implementation of CBFM [15–17]. By comparison, the factors that influence successful CBFM outcomes remain inadequately understood. In part, this stems from the fact that few CBFM projects meet the data requirements for formal impact evaluations such as before-after con- trol-impact experiments [13,18]. The reasons for this are many. First, many CBFM efforts are low intensity so as to protect the “bottom-up” nature of the initiative, but also to ensure that CBFM is replicable in http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.05.008 Received 2 February 2017; Received in revised form 5 May 2017; Accepted 5 May 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. E-mail addresses: jessicalblythe@gmail.com, jessica.blythe@jcu.edu.au (J. Blythe). Marine Policy 82 (2017) 50–58 0308-597X/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. MARK