Ecologically Sustainable Development to Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

2. Ecologically Sustainable Development to Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management • Where we were - 2000 revisited • Daryl Quinlivan – Deputy Secretary DAFF

3. ESD to EBFM? Where we were and where to • By 2000 all levels of Government agreed to implement ESD for all activities under their jurisdiction • Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) enacted 1999 • ESD a major objective of all fisheries jurisdictions • Moving from ESD to EBFM? • Risk focussing on biology and forgetting economic and social responsibilities • If a fishery is not economically viable additional measures to meet EBFM may not be effectively resourced or implemented.

4. Economic status of fisheries and ESD Australian Fisheries Production by Sector (2005-06 dollars)

5. Biological status of fisheries

6. Early agendas and moves to ESD • Six key themes influencing ESD development and implementation: • Commercial fishing interests • Fisheries management agencies • Environmental agencies /NGO • Recreational fishing • Indigenous fishing • Community expectations

7. A common understanding to move forward • Closer alignment of agendas between stakeholders but debate on the details: • Responsibilities and resources • Performance indicators • Levels of risk • ESD the cornerstone of Fisheries management • Still criticized for not addressing social (and economic) aspects • “ecosystem” aspects • Smaller and more mature fishing industry makes the timing right to work with industry and improve response to ESD and ownership of responses

8. Are we there yet? • Come a long way in 8 years, all major fisheries strategically assessed and approved for export under the EPBC Act; • Continual improvement is reasonably expected; • Pursuing ESD becoming more of focus of fisheries management; and • ESD is a continuum and in a system of unknowns we will always be learning more and adapting policy to meet the changing environment.

9. Governance – have we got it right? • Shared jurisdictions and our current legislative framework make pursuit of ESD challenging • Relationship between State fishery and Commonwealth Environment agencies • International fisheries • management environment • complicates effective pursuit • of ESD OCS Arrangements

10. Moving forward Nationally - Unknowns • Progressed biology (ecosystems) but more work needed on the social, and economics aspects of the tipple bottom line • The many unknowns: • Impact of climate change • Potentially less productive fisheries • International markets • What do we need to know – balancing risk and cost of management

11. Moving forward Nationally -Ownership • Increased ownership of ESD by fisheries managers and industry • Industry need to realise benefits of ESD responses • Consistent and clearer measurement of performance on ESD • More efficient systems and better relationships between key stakeholders