Objective and themes

The priority programme is based on the belief that the worldwide problems in relation to sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources stems from a combination of three causes:
1. lack of understanding of essential ecological processes in the sea, resulting in a mismatch between scales of ecological processes and scales of human exploitation systems;
2. deficiencies in the international legal regime, resulting from a spatial mismatch between the distribution of legal authority over jurisdictional (geographical) zones and ecological subdivisions, in combination with limited possibilities to oblige states to comply with internationally agreed management policies;
3. the fact that human behaviour is traditionally based on self-interest and short-term goals (i.e., a mismatch between ecological and economic time scales) which tends to neglect unpaid environmental effects and external costs to others and to future generations.

Aims of the programme
This priority programme aims at an integrated analysis of the three problem areas identified in order to develop new theoretical concepts for sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources which ultimately has to result in new guidelines for practical application at sea. It has to be stressed that the proposal aims at all types of marine living resources, not only fish stocks. Hence, we put extra emphasis on the newly recognized resource which is formed by marine biodiversity. The central theme of this proposal thus is the perceived mismatch of scales, i.e., those of ecological processes and those of human management and exploitation systems.

Themes
Four research themes are investigated:
1. Analysis of the spatial scales over which populations of marine organisms interact, and the possible mismatch with the scales of human exploitation systems.
2. Analysis of the temporal scales of development of populations of marine organisms, and the possible mismatch with the scales of human exploitation systems.
3. Review and analysis of natural and anthropogenic processes that affect marine species diversity.
4. Design of better systems for the exploitation of marine living resources to ensure sustainability, taking explicitly the scales of ecological processes and human exploitation systems into account.