The aim of this paper is to provide insights into how the implementation of co-management systems can be a way of building trust between authorities and the users of a common-pool resource (CPR). In this paper, it is shown that a new co-management system can be triggered by an ecological crisis, and that trust and social factors are crucial for successful institutional development. This paper also discusses the definition of the concept of 'co-management' and the importance of scale and horizontal/vertical linkages in the management of CPRs. "It is concluded that managing fisheries with unexpected changes and complexity in linked social-ecological systems require actors (both fishermen and authorities) who learn from failures and, when necessary, initiate and achieve institutional change. The creation of social- ecological resilience can be looked upon as a process - a socially-generated collective good - which is likely to result in better governance systems. In this context, the role of institutions in building adaptive capacity and supporting collective rationality is important. To the extent that the conclusions derived from this case study are applicable to society in general, this would indicate that, in order to restore the legitimacy of and trust in policy making and governing institutions in society, more bottom-up processes with user participation and engaged citizens are needed