Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- 1. The setting, issues, and research methods -- Focusing on the Caribbean coast -- The study area -- Pressure on people and resources -- A project is born -- Participatory action research -- Objectives of participatory action research -- Assessing practice: key factors determining success or failure -- Structure of this book -- 2. The people and natural resources of Pearl Lagoon -- Ethnicity and demographics -- The population of Pearl Lagoon -- Formal and informal organizations -- The landscape -- Waterways -- Principal ecosystems -- Tropical lowland rainforests -- Pine savannas -- Swamp forests -- Mangrove forests -- The lagoon -- The fish population -- Recent changes in the lagoon -- Land and sea tenure -- Resource use -- Fisheries -- Agriculture -- Forestry -- Toward a better understanding of critical linkages -- 3. No life without fish: a local history of fisheries resources and their use -- Artisanal and commercial exploitation -- Changes -- The impact of fishing practices -- Women's roles -- Acopiadoras -- Growing concerns -- Local knowledge about the protection of fisheries resources -- The need for a management plan -- 4. "Going far to catch a fish": local perceptions of the dynamics and impacts of a changing resource base -- A shift toward the market -- Documenting local perceptions -- Changes in the Pearl Lagoon fishery -- Abandoning agriculture -- Changing women's roles -- Changing attitudes of youth -- Impact of the war -- "Farming going waste:" a synthesis -- Decreases in fish stocks -- Negative impacts on women -- Role of the gill net -- Stock decline: a synthesis -- "Now everything is money": changes in distribution patterns -- Decline in available fish -- Increasing social differentiation -- Reactions to changes -- Limits on exploitation -- Limits on outsiders.

Avoiding wasteful practices -- Conclusions -- Annex 1: Interview guide 1 -- Annex 2: Interview guide 2 -- Annex 3: Participants in first set of interviews -- Annex 4: Participants in the second set of interviews -- 5. CAMPlab: the Coastal Area Monitoring Project and Laboratory -- Early stages: building a team, defining the agenda -- Emergence of the CAMP committee -- Monitoring fish catches -- Catch per unit effort for the southern Pearl Lagoon fishery -- The process matures and expands -- A growing team -- Toward CAMPlab-DIPAL cooperation -- Focusing on the management plan -- Conclusions -- 6. Walking a fine line: the dynamics of the participatory action research process -- Historical context -- Taking care of the natural resource base -- Insecurity and tensions -- Demanding accountability -- Aspiring for "autonomy" -- Shared concerns, common action -- Discord -- Other limiting factors -- Conclusions -- 7. Working with the people: lessons learned -- Achieving PAR goals: moving toward critical consciousness -- Strides forward -- Enabling and constraining factors -- Changing the institutional approach -- A continuing struggle -- Bibliography.