Ecosystem approach: Malawi Principles

The Governments of the Netherlands and Malawi recently convened a workshop that developed the following 12 principles of an ecosystem approach to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

• Management objectives are a matter of societal choice.
• Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level.
• Ecosystem managers should consider the effects of their activities on adjacent and other ecosystems.
• There is a need to understand the ecosystem in an economic context.
• A key feature of the approach includes conservation of ecosystem structure and functioning.
• Ecosystems must be managed within the limits of their functioning.
• The ecosystem approach should be undertaken at the appropriate scale.
• Objectives for ecosystem management should be set for the long-term.
• Management must realize that change is inevitable.
• There must be a balance between conservation and use.
• All forms of relevant information should be considered, including scientific and indigenous and local knowledge, innovations and practices.
• All relevant sectors of society and scientific disciplines should be involved.

There are more specific strategies, such as, inter alia, promoting in situ conservation, supported where appropriate by ex situ conservation; the use of aquatic protected areas; cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary planning and management; and the certification of environmentally friendly products (eco-labelling), such as the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM) and WWF and Unilever's Marine Stewardship Programme. Fisheries management is an obvious strategy that could help implement policy, however, the real goals of fishery management are often simply to maximize production or to perpetuate existing activities, despite their non-sustainability and needs for subsidies. Fishery management should be seen as in situ conservation. International treaties such as the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries are making strides in this direction by advocating the elimination of perverse subsidies, the reduction in the over-capacity of the world's fishing fleets, and the conservation of native aquatic genetic resources.