Community Based Management may supplant other management processes or be blended into them, and to be implemented successfully, it should be based on several prerequisites met by the fishermen, managers, and scientists:

• Collective recognition that our natural resources contain inherent value, that an ecological problem or crisis indeed exists, and that acceptance of responsibility is necessary to correct the problem.
• For all participants, access to adequate information and understanding of ecological principles that affect their future and enable them to contribute responsibly to the decision-making process.
• Means of assessing living fish populations in real time without relying solely on dead-fish counts.
• Local small-scale fishermen, whose families fish for generations, have a broad base of empirical knowledge, are anxious for the ecosystem and resource to recover and remain healthy for generations, understand they are part of the marine ecosystem, are willing to incorporate new scientific information, and are capable of effective self stewardship to achieve the long term health of fisheries ecosystems.