A review of the application of driving forces – Pressure – State – Impact – Response framework to fisheries management

doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.07.029

Ocean & Coastal Management

Volume 69, December 2012, Pages 273-281

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.07.029 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the literature on applications of the Driving forces, Pressure, State, Impact, Response (DPSIR) framework to fisheries. The interpretation given to each DPSIR category differs in existing studies, and as a result the indicators used to support fisheries management also vary considerably. This impairs comparisons concerning the state of different fishery systems, and does not provide a common base of knowledge concerning potential management measures that can be adopted in a given context. This paper clarifies the interpretation of each DPSIR category and proposes a set of indicators that can be applied in fishery contexts. The set of indicators proposed is also classified according to sustainability dimensions. It is argued that organising the indicators according to the DPSIR framework and sustainability dimensions (ecologic, economic, social and governance) is a positive contribution to serve as a guideline for future applications to adopt standardized indicators and improve fisheries management.

Highlights

► We review the literature on the application of DPSIR and PSR models to fisheries. ► The interpretation of each DPSIR category is clarified. ► The indicators describe ecological, economic, social and governance dimensions. ► A common set of indicators relevant to fisheries management is identified.

Introduction

World fisheries have developed significantly in recent years. The investment in new technologies (e.g. modern fleets and processing factories) allowed this industry to supply the growing international demand for fish and fishery products (FAO, 1999). These developments lead to negative impacts such as the overexploitation of fish stocks and the damage of the ecosystems (Pauly et al., 1998).

In the World Conference on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987, p. 43), sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. In the fisheries context, the study by Rudd (2004) states that the achievement of sustainability is a primary goal of fisheries management, although it has not yet been reached. The selection of effective management instruments is a difficult task as fisheries are complex systems of biologic, technologic, economic and social factors. An overview on different management approaches for fisheries from an economic perspective is provided by OECD (1997).

According to Charles (2001, p. 188), the sustainability of a fishery system may be evaluated following four steps: i) the choice of an adequate set of sustainability components for the fishery system; ii) the development of criteria to assess each component of sustainability; iii) the specification of a set of quantifiable indicators to measure the status of each criteria (enabling the comparison between criteria); iv) aggregate indicators into indices of sustainability (when the indicators are comparable) or assist with guidelines for indicators comparison. This author also suggests four main sustainability components for fisheries: ecological, socioeconomic, community and institutional.

The selection of appropriate indicators to analyse fishery systems is essential. The indicators defined are the starting point for the data collection process, and so they determine the information that will be available for fisheries' stakeholders to analyse and make decisions. In the Food and Agriculture Organization guidelines for responsible fisheries (FAO, 1999), five frameworks are suggested to support the indicators selection process: i) the FAO definition of sustainable development considers five components: natural resources, environment, human social needs, human economic needs, technology and institutions; ii) the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries considers six categories: fishing operations, fisheries management, integration of fisheries into coastal area management, post-harvest practices and trade, aquaculture development and fisheries research; iii) The general framework for sustainable development includes two categories: the well-being of the environment and human well-being; iv) the Driving forces – Pressure – State – Impact – Response (DPSIR) and its variants; v) The ecologically sustainable development (ESD) with a dichotomic structure similar to that of the general framework for sustainable development, including environmental and human components.

The DPSIR framework is the approach more frequently argued to be suitable to study fisheries systems. For example, the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2002) recommends the DPSIR framework to describe fishery and aquaculture activities, Young et al. (2008, p. 62) suggests the use of PSR and DPSIR to develop reference systems to promote the assessment of both progress towards sustainability goals and efficiency of management measures. The European Commission (2010) and Turner et al. (2010) recommend the use of DPSIR in the management of marine resources. The report provided by the INDECO (2005) project mentions both DPSIR and ESD frameworks. Nonetheless, few studies have applied the DPSIR framework to select indicators to assess fishery systems. However, DPSIR has also been criticized to “over-simplify” reality by non-considering many connections between features and feedbacks between them as well (INDECO, 2005 and Garcia et al., 2000).

This study aims to highlight the adequacy of the DPSIR framework to select appropriate indicators to assess the sustainability of fishery systems, and clarify the meaning of DPSIR categories under the fisheries context. It is also argued that selecting the indicators and structuring the information taking into account the sustainability dimension can help decision making. The literature review provided in this paper is also intended to enable selecting a robust set of indicators that can be systematically applied in studies of fisheries systems sustainability, leading to improved management practices.

The DPSIR framework proposes a base to organise the indicators. It provides not only a set of categories to support the selection of indicators, but it also encourages discerning the causal relationships between these indicators. It identifies the human motivations (driving forces) to act into the environment, the concrete human actions performed with potential to damage the nature (pressure), the status and the potential changes on natural resources and socio-economic features with a negative influence (state and impact), and the preventive or curative measures that may be applied by society to improve the system concerning the environment and socio-economic aspects (response).

The study starts by reviewing the meaning of each DPSIR category, particularly focussing on fisheries context. It proceeds with a comparative analysis of the DPSIR indicators proposed in 8 different studies. Based on the resulting compilation of indicators, this study proposes a set of indicators for fisheries, classified according to DPSIR categories and dimensions of sustainability (ecologic, economic, social and governance), which can guide their application in empirical studies.

The paper is structured as follows. The section 2 presents an overview of the main concepts underlying the DPSIR framework. Section 3 presents the review of PSR and DPSIR models for fisheries available in literature. Section 4 presents the proposed set of indicators structured according to DPSIR categories and dimensions of sustainability. A discussion on the DPSIR model proposed is provided in section 5. Section 6 presents the conclusions.

Section snippets

DPSIR framework overview

In 1993 the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed the Pressure, State, Response (PSR) framework (OECD, 1993). This framework aims to develop indicators of sustainable development, organized in three categories: pressure (P), state (S) and response (R). The PSR framework is based on a concept of causality: human activities pressure the environment, changing the quality and quantity of resources (state). Society responds to these changes with adaptive, preventive,

Review of DPSIR models for fisheries

This section performs a synoptic review of DPSIR models developed within the context of fisheries. The PSR framework is considered as a particular case of the DPSIR framework.

Despite the popularity that the DPSIR framework gained in the last years among the scientific community and the recommendations of FAO (1999) and EEA (2002) for its application to the study of fisheries systems, only two studies had directly analysed fisheries with the DPSIR framework (Mangi et al., 2007; Knudsen et al.,

Summary of DPSIR indicators used in fisheries

This section presents a proposal concerning DPSIR indicators for fisheries systems, including their classification in DPSIR categories. Since there is ambiguity in the literature regarding the rational underlying each DPSIR category, a baseline is needed. Table 1 proposes one indicator for each feature identified in Appendix 1. The indicators are classified according to the DPSIR category and sustainability dimension. For each indicator the following information is provided: name, a concise

Discussion

The selection of DPSIR indicators for fishery systems can be improved in future studies with the standardization on the interpretation of the significance of each DPSIR category and on the selection of similar metrics for each feature. The standardization of the indicators selected (i.e. historic records addressing similar metrics) enables a direct comparison of fishery systems status and management measures adopted. The set of indicators proposed in the former section, along with the

Conclusions

The DPSIR framework has been suggested as a tool to specify fisheries indicators by EEA (2002) and by FAO (1999). However, to date only a few studies have applied this framework to select the indicators used in the assessment of fishery systems. The studies reviewed in this paper used the DPSIR framework to address different objectives: to base the development of management tools for fishery systems, to identify possible causes of a specific issue in fisheries, and to describe the fishing

Acknowledgements

This study was undertaken under the framework of the project “Desarrollo sostenible de las pesquerías artesanales del Arco Atlântico” (PRESPO) under the INTERREG IVB Programme – Atlantic Area, co-financed by the EU (ERDF Programme).

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ReviewA review of the application of driving forces – Pressure – State – Impact – Response framework to fisheries management

Abstract

Highlights

Introduction

Section snippets

DPSIR framework overview

Review of DPSIR models for fisheries

Summary of DPSIR indicators used in fisheries

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Sustainable Fishery Systems

Environmental Indicators: Typology and Overview

An Indicator-Based Approach to Assessing the Environmental Performance of European Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture

The FAO guidelines for the development and use of indicators for sustainable development of marine capture fisheries and an Australian example of their application

Ocean Coast. Manage.

Development of a fish-based multimetric index to assess the ecological quality of marine habitats: the Marine Fish Community Index

Mar. Pollut. Bull.

The concepts and development of a participatory regional integrated assessment tool

Clim. Change

Development of Indicators of Environmental Performance of the Common Fisheries Policy

Impact of 100-year human interventions on the deltaic coastal zone of the inner thermaikos Gulf (Greece): a DPSIR framework analysis

Environ. Manage.

Identifying drivers for fishing pressure. A multidisciplinary study of trawl and sea snail fisheries in Samsun, Black Sea coast of Turkey

Ocean Coast. Manage.

Analysis of coastal wetland changes using the “DPSIR” model: a case study in Xiamen, China

Coast Manage.

Review
A review of the application of driving forces – Pressure – State – Impact – Response framework to fisheries management