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Aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, lakes and
inland seas, flood plains, coastal lagoons and
estuaries, coastal shelves and open oceans cover a
very large part of the Earth surface and, among
other amenities, goods and services, sustain the
production of fisheries and aquaculture. They yield
about 120 million tonnes of fish and fishery
products per year - the largest source of wild
protein - and provide a livelihood to as many as
140 million people. Fisheries and aquaculture, from
algae, ascidians and sea-cucumbers to molluscs,
crustaceans, fish and marine mammals, exploit a
large diversity or organisms.
Fisheries ecosystems are unavoidably affected by
fisheries activities that imply a selective removal
of part of the natural productivity for human
subsistence and development. However, undesirable
fishing practices such as overfishing and use of
destructive methods are unduly affecting these
precious ecosystems, calling for urgent corrective
action.
Except in the high seas, these ecosystems are
also usually used for other purposes such as
conservation (e.g. wetlands), forestry (e.g.
mangroves), agriculture (e.g. floodplains) and
human settlements (e.g. coastal areas).
Unfortunately, they are also, most often, the
ultimate recipients of the pollution produced by
human settlements and industrial activities,
inland, on the coastal area as well as at sea. Even
the most remote areas (e.g. deep ocean and polar
seas) are now affected, seriously putting in
question the sustainability of present practices
and the present ecosystems resources to future
generations.
Environmental NGOs have been particularly active
in raising awareness of governments and society and
have proposed a number of basic principles for
ecosystem conservation. All key international
agreements adopted over the last two decades,
including the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries, stress the need to
generalise the adoption of ecosystem-based
management approaches. In most if not all
countries, much progress in ecosystem research and
institutional development are still needed before
the implications of the approach are fully
understood and credible management strategies can
be adopted and effectively implemented.
The overarching principles of ecosystem-based
management of fisheries are an extension of the
conventional principles for sustainable fisheries
development to cover the ecosystem as a whole. They
aim to ensure that, despite variability,
uncertainty and likely natural changes in the
ecosystem, the capacity of the aquatic ecosystems
to produce fish food, revenues, employment and,
more generally, other essential services and
livelihood, is maintained indefinitely for the
benefit of the present and future generations.
The main implication is the need to cater both
for human as well as ecosystem well-being. This
implies conservation of ecosystem structures,
processes and interactions through sustainable use.
This means considering a range of frequently
conflicting objectives where the needed consensus
may not be achievable without equitable
distribution of benefits.
Various management concepts and approaches have
been proposed during the last half-century as a
basis for some sort of "ecosystem management":
Integrated Coastal Areas Management (ICAM);
integrated watershed management;
Integrated Aquaculture-Agriculture (IAA);
Integrated Irrigation-Aquaculture (IIA);
responsible fisheries management. While all of them
represent advances over pure single-species
fisheries management, none of them has included all
the ingredients that may be required to implement a
successful system of ecosystem-based
management.
Based on experience gained during 50 years of
fisheries management, on the set of principles and
points of operational guidance for ecosystem
management recommended by the 5th Conference of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
and on other instruments dealing with the subject,
the following elements emerge as the foundations
and components of an ecosystem management approach
to fisheries and aquaculture:
- Recognising that management objectives are a
matter of societal choice;
- Involving all stakeholders in
knowledge-sharing, decision-making and
management partnership;
- Decentralising decision and action at the
lowest appropriate level (subsidiary);
- Avoiding irreversible ecosystem impacts from
fisheries;
- Reducing reversible impacts to the minimum
possible (e.g. bycatch and discards);
- Considering transboundary impacts of
fisheries on adjacent or other ecosystems;
- Lobbying to reduce negative impacts of
non-fishery activities on aquatic
ecosystems;
- Understanding of ecosystems in an economic
context;
- Introducing ecological accounting into
fisheries management;
- Conserving ecosystem biodiversity, structure
and functioning;
- Adopting the concept of Protected Areas
(e.g. Marine Protected Areas - MPAs)
- Matching fisheries management system
boundaries with ecosystems boundaries;
- Improving collaboration between
environmental and fishery management
organisations;
- Undertaking action at the appropriate
scale;
- Setting management objectives both for the
short- and long term;
- Ensuring balance between conservation and
responsible use;
- Recognising that ecosystem variability and
changes are inevitable;
- Taking account of both scientific and
traditional knowledge;
- Improving knowledge on ecosystem impacts and
their reversibility;
- Adopting participatory and rapid appraisal
research methods;
- Mobilising all scientific disciplines;
- Ensuring quality and independence of
scientific advice;
- Recognising the pervasive uncertainty and,
as a consequence ,
- Applying widely the precautionary approach
and,
- Adopting adaptive management
strategies;
- Ensuring equitable allocation of benefits,
as a condition for compliance;
- Establishing indicators of sustainable
ecosystem use to monitor management
performance;
- Ensuring transparency, public awareness, and
consensus building;
- Establishing effective conflict resolution
and enforcement mechanisms;
- Establishing explicit and enforceable rights
to ecosystems resources.
Relevant international agreements and
frameworks
- 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance
- 1972 Stockholm Declaration of the UN
Conference on the Human Development
- 1973 Convention on International Trade of
Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna
(CITES)
- 1979 Bonn Convention on the Conservation
of Migratory Species of Wild Animals
- 1980 Convention for the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources
(CCAMLR)
- 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS)
- 1991 Global Environment Facility (GEF)
- 1992 Declaration of the UN Conference on
Environment and Development
- 1992 Helsinki Convention on the Protection
and Use of Transboundary Watercourses
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCC)
- 1992 UN Commission on Sustainable
Development (CSD)
- 1995 UN Agreement on Straddling and
Highly Migratory Fish Stocks
- 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries
- Convention on Biological
Diversity
- Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal
Biological Diversity
- UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCC)
- UNEP Regional Seas Conventions
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