Developing environment indicators for assessing fishery management (INDECO)

Background

EU fish stocks have been declining for years. So far, fishery policies have not managed to halt the drop and have not provided enough environmental protection from the associated damage to marine ecosystems. The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) now provides for the progressive implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. This requires an understanding of the relationships between fishing activities and ecosystems from which indicators can be developed. Well-designed indicators are a recognised means to help assess progress towards policy objectives, as well as providing a basis for adjusting policies and communicating with stakeholders.

Objectives

INDECO seeks to ensure a coherent approach to the development of indicators at EU level, in support of environmental integration within the CFP and internationally. It achieves this by:

• Synthesising existing research and analysis from national, EU and international sources
• Using operational models establishing the relationship between fishing activities and changes in the marine environment to underpin some of the ecological indicators
• Identifying data gaps and ways of addressing them
• Seeking ways of ensuring that agreed indicators are subsequently used in the policy process

Policy development

• The development of environmental indicators will assist in monitoring EU progress towards integrating environmental protection into fishery management policies set out in COM(2001)162, COM(2001)143, COM(2002)186 and the Council report on environmental integration, submitted to the Göteborg Summit, June 2001
• INDECO brings together both scientific and EU policy expertise so as to ensure a scientifically robust contribution that is of maximum relevance to EU policy-makers and other end-users

Cefas contribution

A report reviewing potentially useful indicators that can be used to identify the ecosystem status.

A report that synthesises the findings of the review and case study application to provide conclusions about potentially useful operational modelling methods and generic indicators of marine ecosystem status.

Partners

This project involves 20 partners from 11 different countries.