TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to link empowerment to the engagement of low-power stakeholders in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs) to suggest how empowerment-based engagement can be strategised to prevent and overcome management crises within a natural common good and ultimately achieve effective co-management.Design/methodology/approach This research employs a longitudinal case study methodology. The subject of the study is Torre Guaceto MPA, a natural common good, internationally recognised as a best practice of co-management.Findings The case study illustrates specific empowerment areas and actions that help move low-power stakeholders to higher levels of engagement to achieve effective co-management. It also suggests that the main strategic implication of empowerment-based engagement is the creation of empowered stakeholders who can serve as catalysts for sustaining the common through the development of entrepreneurial skills that satisfy joint interests.Research limitations/implications The applied methodology of a single case and the peculiar conditions intrinsic to this case can be overcome via the inclusion and comparison of other similar commons.Practical implications The study provides a stakeholder management model of empowerment-based engagement that offers concrete evidence of empowerment strategies that can be adopted and adapted by the management of similar natural common goods.Originality/value The research fills the literature gaps related to understanding the antecedents of engagement and its strategic implications within natural common pool resources. VL - 120 IS - 11 SN - 0007-070X DO - 10.1108/BFJ-01-2018-0041 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-01-2018-0041 AU - Freeman Edward Robert AU - Civera Chiara AU - Cortese Damiano AU - Fiandrino Simona PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Strategising stakeholder empowerment for effective co-management within fishery-based commons T2 - British Food Journal PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 2631 EP - 2644 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -