Sharing the benefits of sustainable fisheries: from global to local legal approaches to marine ecosystem services for poverty alleviation

How can science be translated into law in ways that encourage more sustainable fishing that benefits the poor? This inter-disciplinary project explores whether and how the innovative legal tool "benefit-sharing" can be integrated with the concept of marine ecosystem services to reduce the systemic poverty of coastal societies who depend upon marine resources for both food security and income generation. Benefit-sharing and ecosystem services are rapidly maturing concepts aspiring to reduce overexploitation of the world's diminishing natural capital. Each, however, has evolved in relative disciplinary isolation, missing potential synergies when considered together.

Fisheries remain a highly contested ecosystem service arena, challenged by complex and fragmented arrays of legal instruments that affect access to and management of marine resources by developing countries and by small-scale fishing communities. The ability of marine ecosystems to provide abundant fish and fish products has been compromised by unsustainable fishing practices and associated biodiversity loss. Developing countries, especially least developing countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS), and their coastal inhabitants are the most vulnerable to these marine ecosystem services losses, as they are deeply reliant on fisheries for income and food, and are some of the poorest societies in the world.

The hypothesis is that benefit-sharing when framed as part of ecosystem service sustainability can address poverty issues among and within States, in the context of sustainable fisheries management. A combination of science, policy and legal research is needed to understand whether, how and to what extent benefit-sharing can effectively support both developing countries and small-scale fishing communities within these countries to achieve sustainable fisheries. Ultimately, this project aims to provide a better understanding of the role of law in equitably regulating sustainable fisheries as a provisioning ecosystem service, thereby contributing to a fairer regime among States, and to poverty alleviation within States.

The project is designed around interdisciplinary partnerships, with a number of envisaged beneficiaries at the international, national and local levels. Through its policy outputs (think-pieces), the project will benefit international policy-makers by translating standards dispersed through several instruments into workable guidance to ensure consistency in relevant international processes. Furthermore, the think-pieces will provide a clear understanding of emerging international guidance for national law-makers and managers responsible for their implementation at national and local levels, by clarifying whether and how legal arrangements for benefit-sharing can enable sustainable livelihoods through the conservation and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Similarly, the think-pieces will target NGOs, think tanks and bilateral donors that support regional, national and sub-national decision-making and implementation processes related to marine ecosystems. By targeting decision-makers and advisors at various levels, the project aims to reach as its ultimate beneficiaries small-scale fishing communities (over 50 million people) in developing countries, especially LDCs and SIDS.

In addition to the wide distribution of think pieces in English, French and Spanish, the project seeks long-lasting impacts on non-academic stakeholders through: its project website (including Twitter, blog posts, Facebook); an open-access legal journal article and interdisciplinary edited collection; and the identification of "champions for change" among the selected international experts involved in the project. In sum, the project aims at focusing and guiding practical approaches to marine ecosystem services for poverty alleviation on "global-to-local" legal approaches.

The project will benefit international policy-makers by translating international standards dispersed through a myriad of decisions, recommendations and guidelines into workable guidance on legal tools for benefit-sharing and marine ecosystem services in current international processes. In that, the project will be particularly timely: oceans and seas have been a prominent topic in the Sustainable Development Goals debate, which will feed into the Global Summit of September 2015 to agree on a new UN development agenda; negotiations of a new treaty on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction are likely to be launched in September 2015. In addition, and the implementation of the Fish Stocks Agreement continues to be regularly reviewed.

Furthermore, the projects will provide a clear understanding of emerging international guidance to the benefit of national law-makers and environmental managers who are responsible for implementation at national and local levels, by clarifying whether and how legal arrangements for benefit-sharing can enable sustainable livelihoods through the conservation and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Similarly, the project will target NGOs, think tanks and bilateral donors that support regional, national and sub-national decision-making and implementation processes related to marine ecosystems. By impacting on decision-makers and advisors at various levels, the project aims to reach as its ultimate beneficiaries small-scale fishing communities (over 50 million people) and local villagers in developing countries, especially least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS).

The project pathway, and resulting impact is designed around 3 iterative phases, which incorporate several of ESPA's pathway-to-impact (PTI) pillars. The project baseline is developed through two sequential situational analyses: the first being the science-policy analysis, the second being the legal assessment of tackling identified gaps and opportunities against the notion of benefit-sharing. The third part of the PTI cycle is the use of exemplary case studies as the evidence settings to test and demonstrate the knowledge insights from the situational analyses and to strengthen the capacities of a wide range of beneficiaries to translate pivotal research into practice on the ground (and in the sea). In order to build individual and collective capacity (communities, institutions) to understand, test and support the concept of benefit-sharing for long-term gains of small-scale fishing communities, the project will work in partnership with intermediary users (world-leading academics and practitioners from natural and social sciences) through remote dialogue and Edinburgh-based workshops to enhance research uptake and wide range of stakeholders. Based on the situation analysis, and stakeholder inputs (knowledge production) a selection of exemplars will be undertaken to capture a representative and illustrative suite of biomes, based on SIDS and large marine ecosystems, reflecting different applications of legal options for benefit-sharing among and within States.

A series of think-pieces presenting in a succinct and accessible way whether and how benefit-sharing can (and crucially when it cannot) contribute to poverty reduction through sustainable fisheries will be specifically targeted to: a) international negotiators; b) national decision-makers; c) NGOs advising small-scale fishing communities, as well as operating at the international and regional levels; and d) bilateral development partners. They will be available on the project website, distributed through targeted mailing lists (translated in French and Spanish) and also discussed in an international side-event. At no cost for the project, the findings will also be included in an online training module on benefit-sharing targeting indigenous peoples and local communities (in English, French or Spanish)