The Socio-economic Impacts of Fisheries Management and Policy Designed to Achieve Biodiversity Conservation

  • Description

This report responds to a request from the Tubney Charitable Trust to carry out a basic review of current knowledge of the socio-economic impacts of fisheries management and policy designed to achieve biodiversity conservation. The fisheries sector is having a significant impact upon marine biodiversity in UK waters. The report discusses the importance and diversity of socio-economic knowledge and how it can help to place fisheries into the broader, more holistic, framework of sustainable development. It emphasises the complexity of the policy environment and the need to understand the conflicting and contrasting motives of the different stakeholders. Understanding what motivates policymakers and fishers is the first step to changing their behaviour. The report discusses the divergence between policy and policy implementation, and the complexity of policy instruments.