In many coastal nations, community-based arrangements for marine resource management (CBRM) are promoted by government, advocated for by non-government actors, and are seen by both as one of the most promising options to achieve sustainable use and secure inshore fisheries and aquatic resources. Although there is an abundant literature on what makes CBRM effective, is it less clear how CBRM is introduced or develops as an idea in a community, and the process of how the idea leads to the adoption of a new resource management approach with supporting institutions. Here the authors aim to address this gap by applying an explicit process-based approach drawing on innovation history methodology by mapping and analysing the initiation and emergence of CBRM in five fishing-dependent communities in Solomon Islands.