Difference between revisions of "Ecosystem Approach Community of Practice: iMarine Business Cases"

Revision as of 13:57, 13 June 2012

Business Cases Summary

The iMarine Business Cases (BC's) cover the rationale behind the decision process that govern the selection of the business cases to support and it will illustrate the features of the third and unselected business case that could be addressed in the remaining selected business cases.

The Business Cases in iMarine serve several important purposes, even if they are not immediate drivers of activities. The Business Cases are where the outcome of activities can become evident, and will be 'measurable'. The brackets here are needed since the tools are not equipped with standardized features to measure their uptake, use and impact.

Throughout the life-cycle of the iMarine Project, the BC's purpose changes, and therefore require that the mediation and governance processes that aim to realize them evolve accordingly. The iMarine Board has a role in safeguarding that the overall activity in the project are beneficial to the realization of the Business Cases. The

The overall purpose of the BC's over the life-time of the iMarine project can be aligned with the themes of the planned iMarine Board meetings:

Semester 1; Mobilization of Board and identification of opportunities for collaboration and technologies;
Semester 2; Stabilization of opportunities and defining the technology scope;
Semester 3; Experimentation with technologies, and expansion of EA-CoPCommunity of Practice.;
Semester 4; Validation of collaboration structures and EA-Cop requirements consolidation;
Semester 5; Exploitation of EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. collaboration frameworks.

These high level themes will be reflected in the respective meeting reports.

Business Case descriptions

Support to EU Common Fishery Policy

The Business Case is described as follows: As a member of FAO, the EU has adopted the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) and one of its key instruments, the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, has become one of the drivers of the European Common Fishery Policy (CFP). The implementation of this EU CFP requires a complex flow of fishery data and information from fishing industry activity, through member states, to supporting EC agencies. As overall picture, the statistics which result of fishery data work-flows are exploited together with other thematic information, in order to formulate scientific advice on the basis of the assessed biological state of resources and socio-economic performance of the fishing sector. In turn, DG-MARE uses this scientific advice to elaborate its management and policy advice. Recently, the overarching need to have more integrated and higher quality data including in coverage, timeliness, resolution and accuracy has been stressed by DG-MARE and a substantial revision of the entire information work-flow and supporting tools has been engaged since 2009. Concerned work streams and priority levels are

(i) Activities database: forwarding of daily fishing vessels activity data, including VMS, log books, landings; 
(ii) Fleet registry – Fishing licenses database: work flows from member states to EU; 
(iii) Legal data; 
(iv) Scientific data for fixing quotas.

The activities in the first semester have resulted in an intensive yet informal collaboration between various EU-level related institutes and the iMarine project. Examples are the active participation to the iMarine Board of representatives of DG-Mare, EStat, and several Regional Fisheries Bodies where EU vessels are active.

The progress towards the objective of the first semester; identification of collaboration opportunities, can be evidenced by participation to meetings on Statistical standards, presentation of the iMarine project at the DG-MARE offices in Brussels, and ...

Support to FAO’s deep seas fisheries programme: balancing use of marine resources and protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas

The Description of Work describes this Business Case as follows: in 2009, FAO established international guidelines for the management of deep seas high seas fisheries with the aim to protect deep sea fragile ecosystems. In support to the implementation of these guidelines, FAO has formulated a programme of action entitled balancing use of marine resources and protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) in the high seas (DSF programme). One key component of this programme is the development of a VME Mapping Information System which will facilitate the registration, description, analysis and publications of all forms of information related to VMEs, in support to the management of High Seas Deep Seas Fisheries (DSF). In parallel, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI), an international partnership advancing the scientific basis for conserving biological diversity in the deep seas and open oceans, was launched in late 2008 in support to CBD’s goals of identifying Ecologically and Biologically Sensitive Areas (EBSAs) in the Deep Seas. GOBI’s work is supported by various sources of scientific data including OBIS and various other scattered information bases.

The activities of Board members were legion in the first semester, and focussed on assisting several programmes in the formulation of their activities, with special reference to the iMarine collaboration and data sharing and management features of geospatial data.

The progress toward the first semester objective ...

Support to regional (Africa) LME pelagic EAF community

The third business case is described as follows: The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) sets as principle that fishery management objectives should strive to reach an optimum balance between the fishery resource productivity, the biodiversity and habitat preservation, and the social and economic goals. The EAF implementation methodology addresses these principles at the level of a selected fishery and strives to ensure that the above mentioned values are given key focus in a management plan. As described by the EAF planning and implementation steps, the objectives for the fishery under consideration have to be specified and prioritized for each of these values, following which a set of multidisciplinary indicators and reference points can be defined. These indicators are monitored through various approaches including scientific assessments, catch or effort monitoring systems, rapid appraisal surveys with participatory methods. The scientific indicators build on spatially explicit models on the distribution of fisheries activity, the socio-economic structure of fishing communities, the concentration and abundance levels of commercially desirable fish stocks, the distribution of non-target species and vulnerable aquatic habitats. For an effective management response, such monitoring across disciplines and levels of data/information/knowledge elaboration requires a well organized (often institutionalized) workflow which orchestrates the inputs of the EA-CoPCommunity of Practice. actors vertically (from the data manager, through the scientist and up to the fishery manager and policy maker) and horizontally (across concerned disciplines).