AbstractFishermen, like other resource users, follow a range of adaptation strategies in response to environmental or economic stressors. This paper examines how multi‐level governance arrangements influence fishermen's adaptation strategies, with evidence from three villages in Tamil Nadu, India. In the absence of local or regional constraints, fishermen adapt to changing conditions by either increasing or decreasing their fishing effort. In situations where regional and local management rules conflict, fishermen defer to community‐level institutions – even if limited – at the expense of state or district government regulations. However, robust behavioural constraints may in some conditions emerge from extra‐local governance, as we show for one village that invited district‐level governance. Furthermore, our results show that while village‐level heterogeneity may inhibit local resource governance, resulting local conflict may actually create opportunities for legitimate external rules. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
