What is EAF and what are the benefits?

Considerable progress was made in the 1980s and 1990s as efforts were made to regulate fisheries to ensure sustainable use. At the time, the focus was almost exclusively on a single-species approach. Fishery studies tended to assume that the fishery and the target species existed in isolation from the rest of the ecosystem. As pressure on resources and ecosystems increased, the shortcomings of this single-species approach became more obvious. We now know that fishing activity not only impacts on the target stock, but on other parts of the ecosystem as well. For example, fishing methods are never selective and in addition to the target species, other species are inevitably caught. Some of this so called bycatch may be valuable and be retained, while some bycatch may simply be discarded. The bycatch of fisheries can include endangered or threatened species such as sharks, seabirds and turtles.

Another major weakness of the single-species approach is that the target stocks are not only affected by fishing; they are also affected by other factors such as loss of critical habitat (e.g. through coastal zone development or pollution). They will also be affected by changes in abundance of predators and prey which could be caused by other fisheries, and they can be heavily affected by climatic changes.

These realizations have led to global calls for the implementation of EAF. The key objective of EAF is the sustainable use of the whole system and not just targeted species. The need to sustain or improve the condition of ecosystems and their productivity is essential for maintaining or increasing the quality and value of fisheries production. EAF also recognizes that humans are an integral component of the ecosystem and that the many (sometimes competing) interests of people in fisheries and marine ecosystems have to be addressed.

EAF represents the marriage of two different perspectives, namely ecosystem management and fisheries management. As a result, while EAF is the responsibility of fishery agencies, its full implementation will require collaboration with and cooperation from those agencies responsible for managing other activities that impact on the aquatic ecosystem (e.g. coastal zone development, offshore mining and oil and gas extraction). For EAF to be fully realized, it is important that these agencies and stakeholders interact and work together. This handbook focuses mainly on those actions that are within the mandate of fisheries agencies.

EMANUELA D'ANTONI, FAO

The purpose of an ecosystem approach to fisheries is to plan, develop and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the multiple needs and desires of societies, without jeopardizing the options for future generations to benefit from the full range of goods and services provided by marine ecosystems.

The key principles addressed by EAF are as follows:

• fisheries should be managed to limit their impact on the ecosystem to an acceptable level;
• ecological relationships between species should be maintained;
• management measures should be compatible across the entire distribution of the resource;
• precaution in decision-making and action is needed because the knowledge on ecosystems is incomplete;
• governance should ensure both human and ecosystem well-being and equity.

The wider principles identified by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for an ecosystem approach in any environment, terrestrial or aquatic, are also useful and are shown in Box 1. All the CBD principles are relevant and important in EAF as well, and are consistent with the FAO list of principles in the previous paragraph.