Management of Natural Resources at the Community Level: Exploring the Role of Social Capital and Leadership in a Rural Fishing Community

Social capital and leadership characteristics are important in resource management. We present a case study of a fishing community showing high levels of social capital quantified through social network analysis, but low willingness to report rule breaking. Furthermore, identified key individuals possess few links to financial institutions and important markets. These findings may, individually or in combination, explain the lack of common initiatives to deal with the overexploitation of fisheries. Alternative hypotheses are also discussed and include homogeneity among key individuals leading to poor recognition of the problem of changing ecological conditions, and the structural characteristics of their relational network, which reveal one person in a very influential position.