Technical Program

8. Economics and Social Science
8b. Resource management and millennium ecosystem assessment
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), which was initiated in 2001 by the United Nations Secretary General, assessed the consequences of ecosystem changes to human well-being. One of the ecosystem processes that is carefully assessed in the MA is the provision of food, and Chapter 18 of the Full Report (Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends) focuses on marine fisheries ecosystems. In this chapter, the negative impacts of fisheries operations on marine ecosystems, the decreased use of marine fish species as a cheap source of protein, and policy challenges dealing with the above issues are discussed. This sub-session addresses the socio-economic aspects of the topics presented in the MA, and discusses issues related to fisheries resource and ecosystem management.