| Summary: | Includes bibliographical references. === Small-scale fisheries are increasingly seen as complex socio-ecological systems, requiring alternative management approaches. These new approaches to natural resource management advocate the inclusion of resource users in all aspects of management, including monitoring. Research suggests that involvement of local resource users in resource monitoring is beneficial as it promotes local empowerment, community stewardship and contributes to social and resource sustainability. This study aims to contribute knowledge about the nature and effectiveness of a community-based fisheries monitoring system at the Olifants River estuary in South Africa and documents lessons learned. This research reports on the revision and revitalisation of an existing community monitoring program operating at the Olifants River estuary and presents the results of data gathered from this one year monitoring program. It also compares these results with data gathered from previous years when the monitoring system was operational. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of the community monitoring system are discussed. A participatory research approach was followed by employing members of the Olifants River community as catch monitors and working closely with the fishers and monitors to better understand their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the monitoring system. Findings of this research suggest that despite weaknesses in the community monitoring system, the data gathered provided useful information about the catch effort trends for the fishery for the year under consideration and also enabled some comparisons of selected fisheries indicators with previous data to be made. These comparisons suggest that catch per unit effort for the target species, harder (Liza richardsonii) is stable and there is no indication of overexploitation of this resource. A key weakness of the monitoring is that it is ad hoc and funding is insecure. Due to poverty levels in the community, local monitors may take up short-term employment opportunities in the community and thus neglect their monitoring responsibilities. This means that the data sets are not comprehensive. Key strengths include the fact that it is simple, cost effective and can be implemented by community members. Furthermore, local involvement in resource monitoring builds capacity and skills as well as local empowerment. Finally, this research contributes to knowledge that can inform the implementation of community monitoring programs proposed by the recently published Small-scale fishing policy of South Africa. Key Words: Small-scale fisheries; natural resource management; participation, community monitoring, local empowerment.
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