Community involvement in fisheries management: Experiences in the Gulf of Thailand countries

This paper examines the involvement of coastal communities in fisheries management among the countries of the Gulf of Thailand—Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Initiatives to decentralize management to local governing bodies, to utilize traditional management methods and to engage in community agreements to protect local resources are explored. An examination of recent experiences indicates some movement toward more local involvement in management. However, the study also leads to several suggestions for the future: in Vietnam and Cambodia, there is a need for significant legislation to control fisheries operations and greater clarity of the role of communities in management; in Malaysia, there is an overall need for more support to local fisheries management; and in Thailand, the need is for greater support of local-level enforcement and monitoring activities.     

Dysfunctions in common fishing regulations

One of the main concerns of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) lies in guaranteeing consistency among the different implemented actions. The main concern is establishing a relationship between the levels of compliance with the Multi-annual Guidance Programme (MAGP), the adoption of total allowable catches (TACs), and the levels of compliance with rules by producers.     

Understanding marine ecosystem based management: A literature review

Ecosystem based management takes into account the interconnectedness and interdependent nature of ecosystem components and emphasizes the importance of ecosystem structures and functions which provide a range of services. The concept has now been adopted by many international agreements and national governments and is in the process of being implemented. This paper seeks to review the literature and to analyze the understanding of the subject. The term is defined and its implementation in fisheries and for all marine uses is analyzed. It has been concluded that to understand marine ecosystem based management one must consider ecosystems as complex adaptive systems which can show changes at higher levels from actions and processes occurring at lower levels. Recognizing that humans are part of these complex adaptive systems is vital in that their actions along with other processes can lead to transformations in ecosystem functioning. This recognition is also important to show how society can sustainably exploit these resources and that the inclusion of all stakeholders in the management process is necessary to legitimize the process. The uses of the precautionary principle along with adaptive management are seen to be useful tools in implementing these insights into the management of natural resources. Finally, the need for reducing consumption of fish is considered.     

The institutional implications of environmental ethics for fishery management in the US exclusive economic zone

The public discourse surrounding many fishery management issues suggests that ethical concerns may be an important aspect of these issues for a segment of the American public. Questions have been raised about the capacity of regional fishery management councils created under the Fishery Conservation and Management Act to be adequately responsive to different ethical values. To date, legislative efforts to broaden council membership have been unsuccessful, but pressure for institutional reform is likely to increase with the adoption of an ecosystem approach to fishery management.     

Landscape-scale analysis of ecosystem risk and returns: A new tool for ICZM

Management of the coastal zone often focuses on “islands” of high value ecosystems, in terms of economic value or conservation. However, integrated management requires landscape-level analysis of all ecosystem values. The biodiversity portfolio analysis (BPA) method is derived from the logic used in share (equity) portfolio management in terms of balancing within a portfolio the returns with the risks. Optimising the returns from a share portfolio, or a suite of ecosystems in a landscape, is dependent on the relationship between the units in terms of risk and return. Three case studies are then presented to test the applicability of the BPA method at the international (North West Europe), regional (Durham Heritage Coast, UK) and local (part of South Uist, Outer Hebrides, UK) spatial scale. The Biodiversity Portfolio Analysis for NW Europe showed that risk and return were highly correlated in the studied Member States. The ranking of risk and return, with the highest first, was Ireland > UK > France=Netherlands > Belgium. For these Member States the risks to ecosystem service provision were positively correlated with GNI (r=0.97, P<0.01); suggesting that the higher the economic importance of coastal and marine resources in a Member State the more at risk the resources are. The regional and local case studies were more focussed on providing information on which to base Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) decision making; both case studies used stakeholder participation to determine risks and returns. The conclusions from these two case studies show how the BPA method can be useful in terms of setting ICZM priorities and in addressing local coastal issues. The BPA involves making a number of assumptions, however, it does provide coastal managers with a potential tool to strategically plan due to increased awareness of the interaction between the ecosystems in the portfolio.There is a need for such techniques, which involve stakeholder participation and which create objective outcomes, to support the implementation of ICZM.     

Challenges in developing China's marine protected area system

Since the 1980s, there have been continuous increases in the coverage of marine protected areas (MPAs) in China, and a total of 158 MPAs have been declared. The MPA system in China is characterized by (1) decentralised designation and management with reduced control from the central government; (2) a dominance of de jure fully protected MPAs that are often implemented as de facto multiple-use areas; and (3) a lack of objective evaluation processes. To improve China's MPA system requires an appropriate integration of fully protected and multiple-use MPAs, and an approach that balances the advantages of top-down and bottom-up approaches.     

Honey, I cooled the cods: Modelling the effect of temperature on the structure of Boreal/Arctic fish ecosystems

Historically colder regions of the North Atlantic had fisheries dominated by only a few fish species; principally cod and capelin. Possible population dynamic mechanisms that lead to such dominance are investigated by considering how a charmingly simple published multispecies model of the North Sea would react if the system operated at a lower temperature. The existing model equations were modified to describe temperature effects on growth, fecundity and recruitment and the model was rerun based on typical temperatures for the North Sea and a colder system. The results suggest that total fish biomass in the colder system increases but the community is more vulnerable to a given rate of fishing mortality. In the colder system, within species density dependence is reduced but relative predation rates are higher. Consequently, intermediate-sized species are vulnerable to relatively high levels of predation throughout their life history and tend to be excluded, leading to a system dominated by small and large species. The model helps to explain how temperature may govern coexistence and competitive exclusion in fish communities and accounts for the observed dominance of small and large species in Boreal/Arctic ecosystems.     

Scientific advice in integrated ocean management: The process towards the Barents Sea plan

It is widely held that integrated management of ocean areas needs to be based on integrated scientific advice. Such advice crosses disciplinary and traditional sector boundaries. This paper aims to provide insight into the role of science and scientific knowledge in a process towards integrated ocean management. It does so by exploring the organization of the process towards the integrated management plan for the Barents Sea-Lofoten area in Norway. It sheds light on the complexity of management questions in a context characterized by uncertainty and political controversy, largely concerning petroleum activity. Scientists were asked to provide a dynamic view on these issues and have delivered important material that furthers the task of policy development. However, there is a persisting lack of understanding about the consequences of human impact on the ecosystem. The paper finishes by pointing at the need for a larger societal discussion on what activities we consider appropriate, considering the limits of science to provide the knowledge base for questions that transcend the environmental domain.     

南沙群岛珊瑚礁地貌图像信息管理系统

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