Risk management for fisheries

Introduction 342 Risk, risk management and the fisheries context 343 Survey of risk management strategies in use or applicable to fisheries 345 Identify and analyse risk: decision analysis and risk assessment 345 Multicriteria decision making 347 Multiple objective optimization 348 Decision aids 348 Scenario planning and maps 349 Dynamic risk management: option value and adaptive management 349 Management strategy evaluation 350 Avoiding risk: the Precautionary Principle 351 Managing risk through transfer 352 Controlling risk: diversification and the portfolio effect 353 Controlling risk: price risk management 355 Forwards and futures 356 Enterprise integration 357 Risk financing: buffers 357 Abstract Risk management methods provide means to address increasing complexity for successful fisheries management by systematically identifying and coping with risk. The objective of this study is to summarize risk management practices in use in fisheries and to present strategies that are not currently used but may be applicable. Available tools originate from a variety of disciplines and are as diverse as the risks they address, including algorithms to aid in making decisions with multiple stakeholders, reserves to buffer against economic or biological surprises, and insurance instruments to help fishermen cope with economic variability. Techniques are organized in a two-stage framework. In the first stage, risks are identified and analysed. Strategies presented in this category focus on decision analysis, including multicriteria decision-making tools, and the related concept of risk assessment. Then in the treatment stage, identified risks can be transferred, avoided, or retained using tools such as the Precautionary Approach, portfolio management, financial contracts to manage price risk and horizontal integration. Published fishery applications are reviewed, and some empirical examples of risks and risk management using US fisheries data are presented.