FISHERIES MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND THE MDGS: PAST EXPERIENCE AND FUTURE VISION
This paper examines the eleven year Department for International Development funded Fisheries Management Science Programme as a model to explore how fisheries management science can contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It describes how the Programme strategy was able to adapt to a changing policy environment and local needs and demands for research in order to achieve these goals. It describes a research portfolio that addresses a number of themes contributing to achieving ecologically and economically sustainable fisheries that can support and maintain fisheries associated livelihoods. These themes include policy information required to support fisheries; the information systems needed to involve fishers, particularly the poor, in the comanagement of fishery resources; fisheries assessment methods and how these can be integrated within pro-poor capture fisheries management strategies; and, the role that enhancement fisheries can play in poverty alleviation. The paper concludes by highlighting what more needs to be done, building on the achievements of the FMSP, and outlining a vision for the future.
Assessing the impacts of fisheries management science: a review of the Department for International Development's fisheries management science programme
A central objective for the UK Department for International Development (DFID)-funded research on renewable natural resource systems has been that the research commissioned results in significant positive developmental impacts. This paper examines how the DFID-funded Fisheries Management Science Programme has approached the assessment of the impact achieved through the projects it has commissioned. Fisheries pose a particular challenge for the attribution of impact and a variety of approaches to impact assessment are required, as the systems are characteristically complex, dynamic and heterogeneous. Typically fishery systems operate across multiple scales, involving a wide range of stakeholders with different, and sometimes conflicting, objectives. The paper describes the model and methods that were employed and highlights some of the developmental impact of fisheries management research achieved by projects commissioned during the 11 years of the programme. The lessons learned regarding uptake, adoption and impact assessment should be of interest both to researchers and those funding developmental research.
Recovery in rubble fields: long-term impacts of blast fishing.
This paper presents initial results from a study of factors that inhibit or enhance hard coral recovery in rubble fields created by blast fishing in Komodo National Park and Bunaken National Park, Indonesia. Within nine sites monitored since 1998, there was no significant natural recovery. Levels of potential source coral larvae were assessed with settlement tiles in the rubble fields and in nearby high coral cover sites. Rubble movement was measured and shown to be detrimental to small scleractinians, especially in high current areas. In shallow water (2-6 m deep), rubble is often overgrown by soft corals and corallimorpharians, which inhibit hard coral survival. There is increased scleractinian recruitment in quadrats cleared of soft coral, and Acropora nubbins transplanted into soft coral fields suffer greater mortality than those transplanted above the soft coral canopy. Gaining an understanding of the prognosis for coral recovery is essential not only in order to assess the long-term impacts of blast fishing, but also to improve management decisions about protection of intact reefs and potential restoration of damaged areas.