The project is part of the Coastal Fisheries Initiative programme (CFI) which aims to motivate a change shift towards an integrated, inclusive and sustainable approach to fisheries management and development. CFI will contribute to address the global issue of weak governance as a root cause of overfishing and degradation of fishery resources and coastal and marine biodiversity. CFI has three projects in Indonesia, Latin America (this project) and West Africa, a technical assistance facility to develop a pipeline of investable projects (CFI Challenge Fund) and a mechanism for global coordination and knowledge management (Global Partnership Project).The present project addresses the key issue of weak fisheries governance in coastal fisheries in Ecuador and Peru, focusing mainly on artisanal and small scale fisheries. These fisheries have had an uncontrolled expansion driven mainly by increasing market demand, open-access policies, deficient or lack of regulation, and deficient surveillance and enforcement. Existing fishing pressure threaten valuable fishery resources and coastal and marine biodiversity. The project objective is to demonstrate holistic, ecosystem-based management and improved governance of coastal fisheries in the South-East Pacific. This is in line with CFI theory of change and directly contributes to the programme´s objective of demonstrating holistic ecosystem based management and improved governance of coastal fisheries. For this, the project strategy is (1) to establish communities of practice with fishers, stakeholders and authorities of both countries, (2) implement hands-on trials in fishery-specific (seven fisheries) and area-specific cases (two sites), (3) systematically document, exchange and disseminate experience and lessons within each country, between both countries and among participants of CFI, and (4) apply lessons to improve existing fisheries governance schemes or to implement new ones. The project has three components. Component 1 will contribute to improve the enabling conditions for fisheries governance in seven coastal fisheries (five in Ecuador, two in Peru). In addition, the limiting factors faced by Peruvian Regional Governments to administer marine artisanal fisheries will be analysed and trial actions for capacity building will be implemented in the regional government of Tumbes and Piura. Component 2 will focus on improve the enabling conditions for coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP). For this, pilots on CMSP will be implemented in the Gulf of Guayaquil (Ecuador) and Sechura bay (Peru). Component 3 will be the backbone of the learning process and will support the communities of practice of the project. It will focus on exchanging lessons and best practice among stakeholders within each country, among both countries and with global partners of the CFI. This component will facilitate to learn from the other CFI projects, to make available the experience from Ecuador and Peru, and to measure the advance with regards to the CFI theory of change.