Meeting sustainability expectations: translating and aligning objectives, reporting and evaluation of the performance of Australian fisheries

Funded Activity Summary

The Australian fishing industry is under increasing scrutiny due to campaigns that communicate that stocks are overfished and poorly managed (AMCS 2011). This contributes to calls for MPAs, resistance to consumption of some seafood, and a general erosion of community support for fishing industries (Hilborn & Kearny 2012). FRDC is addressing these issues through a suite of initiatives, including the SAFS and NHSP projects. The project proposed here examines the consistency and transparency of fisheries governance. The need is to ensure that the Australian community’s expectations for the management of its fisheries are adequately reflected and accounted for throughout governance processes, from the objectives of legislation through to reporting and evaluating performance and status of fisheries.

This project was developed to directly address the following needs as identified in the National R,D&E Strategy 2010:
- provide greater clarity in management objectives,
- develop governance models for better accountability; and
- develop performance indicators, including social, ecological and economic.

The project will also contribute to the following priority areas:
- integrating social, environmental and economic considerations into fisheries management strategies; and
- identifying and understanding community aquatic values and how these can be integrated into fisheries management .

This project will meet these needs by generating knowledge about ways to improve the design of:
1. legislative objectives for fisheries resources and management objectives for specific fisheries, and thereby achieve greater alignment with the Australian community’s expectations for management of fisheries resources; and
2. management objectives for specific fisheries so they can be operationalized to achieve greater articulation with reporting and evaluation of performance and status.
In addition, the project will contribute to the development of common reporting frameworks and formal classifications for social, economic, ecological and management performance and status of key Australian fisheries.


Objectives:
1. Determine the extent of alignment between the Australian public's expectations for the performance of fisheries and legislative objectives for fisheries resources in each of the jurisdictions
2. Determine the extent of alignment between legislative objectives for fisheries resources between Australian jurisdictions
3. Determine the extent of alignment between management objectives and reporting frameworks for each of Australia's key fisheries
4. Determine the level of articulation between management objectives and reporting for each of Australia's key fisheries
5. Identify options and provide recommendations for common reporting frameworks and formal classifications for social, economic, ecological and management performance and status of Australia's key fisheries
6. Develop guidelines and identify instruments and processes for the optimal design of fisheries legislative objectives and management objectives for specific fisheries.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-07-2013

End Date: 24-08-2015

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $164,674.50

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Fisheries Management | Human Dimensions Research | Policy | Sustainability

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