The Practice of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries on the High Seas: Challenges and Suggestions

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) has developed rapidly and become an important method of high seas fishery management. The EAF has already been practiced by many Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The practice of the approach in the management of high seas fisheries faces numerous challenges, such as constraints by the approach, increasing stakeholders affecting the implementation of the EAF, inconsistency with political ocean boundaries, resistance from vested interests, and the threat of Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated fishing. In order to deal with the dilemma faced by EAF, ideas are proposed as follows, building a sense of maritime community with a shared future, advancing the approach by explicating definition, objectives, and priorities, strengthening coordination and cooperation between the states and regional fisheries organizations, adopting area-based management tools with biogeographical criteria, and enhancing the level of stakeholders’ participation.

Community knowledge as a cornerstone for fisheries management

“…6). In setting up the system, many papers in our collection asserted that the defined community in question should be centered from the beginning, so they may take a proactive role, and such that the process will be grounded in local wisdom, including traditional or experiential understandings as well as local values (e.g., Jentoft 2000, Kaplan and Kite-Powell 2000, Hawkins 2002, Nasuchon and Charles 2010, Batista et al 2011, Kabir et al 2013, Dong and Guo 2022. In order to attain the trust required to even begin such a process, other papers recommended that the perception of fairness, e.g., via equitable and allocation of resources, be a priority: equity in both process and outcomes matters (e.g., Hawkins 2002).…”

“…, whereas others were national case studies from more industrialized locations (e.g., implications of individual transferable quotas [ITQs] or science-policy protocols in the Global North;Charles 1997, Eythórsson 2000, Hawkins 2002, van Hoof 2010, Yagi et al 2012, Chambers and Kokorsch 2017, Soomai 2017b, Tirrell 2017, or international in scope (e.g., discussing membership status in regional fisheries management organizations [RFMOs];Edeson 2006, Lodge 2006, Dong and Guo 2022. The concept of fish harvesters and other stakeholders organizing into labor unions, community organizations, and other forms of advocacy or decision-making institutions was referenced regularly (e.g.,Ruddle 1998, Mulekom 1999, Sutinen and Johnston 2003, Lieng et al 2018.…”