Improving Environmental Stewardship in Fisheries Management: Global Perspectives from a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship

An ecosystems-based approach to fisheries management aims to address the issues of overexploitation and declines in global fisheries to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability within the industry and fishing... [ view full abstract ]

An ecosystems-based approach to fisheries management aims to address the issues of overexploitation and declines in global fisheries to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability within the industry and fishing communities. However, the approach has been complex to define in practice and many countries are still in the early stages of policy development and implementation. New ecosystem-based policies often only attempt to incorporate wider environmental considerations and do not address social or community elements within the management regime. The use of co-management initiatives between government, industry and fishing communities can help to promote environmental stewardship within marine resource users, with reciprocal benefits for the management system through greater input of local knowledge and compliance with regulations. Current initiatives around the world show the potential successes of taking a management approach that integrates both environmental and community aspects.

Through a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2017, research visits to Canada, Australia and New Zealand were conducted to investigate global approaches to ecosystems-based fisheries management. Best practice techniques were identified through interviewing and working with government officials, industry representatives, environmental organisations, researchers and community representatives. The Fellowship recommendations outline methods to incorporate environmental stewardship within ecosystems-based fisheries management to support environmental recovery, economic prosperity and community sustainability. A toolkit of Community Development techniques were also developed that can be applied to bridge the conservation-industry divide at a broader scale.