Request for co-operation of the BSRAC with the Jakfish project
Jakfish – Judgement and Knowledge in Fisheries involving Stakeholders (2008-
2011)
A project funded by the European Union’s 7 th framework programme
General aims
JAKFISH will develop institutions, practices and tools for dealing with scientific support to policy under high uncertainty. The project will focus on European marine governance, particularly on fish harvesting. The objectives of JAKFISH are:
1. To examine and develop the institutions, practices and tools that allow complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity to be dealt with effectively within participatory decisionmaking processes,
2. To examine how scientific information is used and what types of roles scientists play in the formulation of policies,
3. To study how the current scientific processes take into account the multi-objective nature of fisheries management,
4. To synthesize the obtained views and to redefine the institutional role of science in
EU polices to improve the overall governance in CFP.
Partners

Cefas (The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), UK

Aalborg University (Innovative Fisheries Management), Denmark

Danish Technical University (National Institute of Aquatic Resources), Denmark

University of Portsmouth, UK

Estonian Marine Institute / University of Tartu, Estonia

University of Helsinki, Finland

Institute for Marine Research, Norway

Dialogik gemeinnuetzige Gesellschaft fuer Kommunikations – und
Kooperationsforschung GmbH, Germany

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece
Request for co-operation of the BSRAC with the project
We ask a few stakeholders (managers/interest group members/herring fishers) to collaborate with the researchers of the University of Helsinki. The task involves participatory modelling of herring fisheries management. A few workshops / meetings will be needed to realize the task. All travelling costs will be covered by the project.
Participatory modelling: aims and procedure
The request for collaboration relates to the object of developing tools and decision aids to facilitate participatory decision-making processes. The task will be based on recently developed bio-economic modeling techniques which enable the evaluating of alternative management strategies while placing uncertainty at the center of the decision-making process.
The aim is to involve stakeholders in the development of models and the evaluation of policy advice. There is a need to develop interactive modelling techniques which a) are based on the interests of stakeholders, b) use existing databases to relate stakeholder views to scientific views, c) can carry out effective probabilistic

parameter estimation and d) can model new hypothesis presented by stakeholders, but link them to existing information sources.
The study will concentrate in factors behind the negative biomass trend and poor growth rates of Baltic Main Basin herring stock. There have existed different kinds of hypotheses regarding herring fisheries, leading to different kinds of management options. Alternative model structures will be built based on discussions with stakeholders. These will be compared with the model structures provided by biological research. The case study will include the following steps:
1) The task and the steps will be presented in a common meeting.
2) A “stakeholder model” will be built based on current knowledge of the stakeholders (=knowledge and beliefs of causal relationships without recent scientific input).
3) The “scientific model” is offered as one possible model structure of dependencies to the stakeholders. The doubts and concerns of them on this scientific option are recorded (=how scientific view is accepted and why not in some details).
4) Updated model structures will be built as a synthesis of the most likely model of the biologists and the stakeholder views. These “meta-models” will be compared to the first scientific model. The sensitivity of the recommended management actions on the stakeholder arguments will be tested and presented to stakeholders (does your view matter, and in which respect?).
5) The meta-models will be discussed with the stakeholders. They may give feedback, assess whether they can adopt the information given by the model, as well as consider problems in accepting the assumptions of the model.
6) Differences between the views will be analysed. How well the scientific models cover the whole interest nets of the stakeholders, and how the inclusion and linking of additional variables helped the stakeholders link the different risk components to their own argumentation?
The “stakeholder models” include all variables that are essential from stakeholders’ point of view (ecosystem, fish stock, market, social aspects, etc.), whereas “scientific models” may lack something important from stakeholder’s point of view, or include variables that are irrelevant for them.
The case study will show how large proportion of risks and concerns of stakeholders can be covered by the current scientific activities. If this case study is successful, the study will offer new ways to improve the use of scientific information.
In case you are interested in the participatory modelling of herring fisheries, please contact: Päivi Haapasaari, e-mail: paivi.haapasaari@helsinki.fi / tel. +358-44-
5351319.