Fisheries and Aquaculture Department

Overview of the activity

Having clarified the scope of the fishery and the main community values for the management plan to achieve, it is useful to identify and preferably document all relevant information on the fishery in a Scoping document by updating the EAF Baseline report.

The relevant information includes any current fishery policy and management documents plus any overriding national policies, legislation or treaties that may constrain and guide how the management planning process proceeds. Information on fishery activities, such as catch and effort and the status of the main target species available from status reports and stock assessments, should be identified. Any knowledge about the broader ecosystem where the fishery operates, including critical or vulnerable habitats, endangered species, and interactions should also be identified. All social and economic information on the relevant communities that the fishery contributes to or affects is also required.

This does not have to be formal information and in many cases much of what is known about the fishery will reside within the ‘heads’ of key individuals who have specific expertise or experience with the fishery and its history. Such people should be encouraged to participate in the process. Where virtually no information is available, some form of rapid assessment of the fishery and the community may be valuable to undertake.

All the above information will be useful for the remainder of the EAF process, but it will be especially valuable for use in identifying issues, determining risks, setting priorities and developing management options. Therefore it should be at least collated and preferably summarised along with the outcomes of the scoping meeting into a scoping document. It would also be sensible at this time to review the Roadmap to ensure that it is does not require any amendments given the outcomes from the scoping meeting or any constraints imposed from including additional people who have been identified as required participants.

Relevant questions

• What documented and informal information is available on the area, fishery, sector, stock status, ecosystem, community etc. might already be available?
• Are there already syntheses or summaries available?
• What specific people or expertise is needed/are available (e.g. in the research laboratory, the Ministry, the regional fishery secretariat) to be involved in other parts of the EAF planning process?

Key actions

• Identify and compile any available information on the fishery, the key target and other species and the ecosystem it operates within including past assessments, studies or management plans.
• Collate relevant national policies or international agreements and identify any possible constraints;
• Summarise the social and economic status and issues of the fishery participants, the relevant communities and the region;
• If needed, complete a rapid assessment of the fishery and the relevant communities.
• Identify any additional individuals with specific expertise or knowledge (including traditional) that would be valuable to involve in the planning process.
• Draft an EAF scoping/baseline document that includes the outcomes of the scoping exercises and an appropriate summary of identified information
• Present the completed to stakeholders and revise as necessary
• Review the Roadmap and amend as necessary 
   

Tools

To assist in this process an Outline Structure of a scoping report that is an annotated set of draft headings has been generated. This will help by making it clear what types of information could be useful for the remainder of the EAF process.  There are also a number tools that can assist in data synthesis for spatially based data including low cost participatory mapping tools and various computer based GIS and related  tools.  There are also a large number of stock, social and economic assessments that can be used to provide useful background for the issue identification process that will occur next in the EAF process.

Community consultation tools outlined previously could also be of value plus getting a rapid community assessment if this is required.

The selection criteria for these tools are given in the table below.

Tools and information sources		Selection criteria
		Difficulty	Cost	Capacity	Know.	Participation	Time
	Table of contents and description for completing an EAF baseline report	Easy	L	L	L	M	S-L
	Participatory sketch, scale and photo mapping	Easy	L	L-M	L-M	M-H	S
	Social and Economic Assessment Methods	Moderate	L-H	L-H	L-H	L-H	S-L
	Quantitative Stock Assessment Methods	Moderate	L-H	L-H	L-H	L-M	S-L
	GIS based tools for data synthesis	Fairly Hard	M-H	M-H	M-H	L-M	M-L
	Participatory Rapid Community Assessment (PCRA)	Moderate	L-M	M	L	M	M

L= Low or Long; H= High; M= Medium, S=Short

  Back to Activity 1.2       Forward to Step 2