Implementing Ecosystem Management in International Fisheries Organizations Through Adaptive Management: The Potential for Future Change

Managing fisheries resources according to an ecosystem approach is an idea that emerged from science and ecology and has now found its way into the international regulation of regional and high seas fisheries. Several fisheries agreements now impose an obligation on states to consider the protection of marine ecosystems. The impact of this relatively new obligation on institutional decision making has yet to be fully determined but implementation of ecosystem based management is impeded by strict requirements for scientific knowledge. At a domestic level, the concept of adaptive management is providing a useful approach to implementing ecosystem resource management. Institutions adopting an adaptive regulatory scheme confront the challenges of complexity and uncertainty in ecosystem analysis through iterative policy and institutional design adjustments. International fisheries institutions could benefit from adopting aspects of adaptive management policies to better implement ecosystem based management.