Ecologically Sustainable Development of Fisheries

Ecologically Sustainable Development (or ESD) is a dynamic concept that seeks to integrate short and long-term economic, social and environmental effects into the decision-making of government and industry.  ESD was formulated over 10 years ago, but until recently has proved hard to implement effectively and demonstrate its achievement, in a practical manner.  All Australian fisheries agencies and industry groups are committed to implementing the principles of ESD.

This website is part of a national initiative to implement ESD within the management of all Australian fisheries and aquaculture resources.  It is aimed at assisting fishery managers, the industry, environmental groups and the wider community in understanding:

• What is ESD?
• The ESD issues relating to fisheries.
• The initiatives are currently underway to develop methods to assess ESD performance in fisheries.
• The structures that have been put in place, such as the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation's ESD Reporting and Assessment Subprogram, to assist these initiatives.
• The progress that has been made in moving towards ESD-based fisheries management.

On this website you will find general information for people who wish to gain a broad understanding of these issues.  There is also detailed information, in the form of a series of downloadable documents, available for those who wish to apply ESD methodology to fisheries.  These documents will be updated whenever revised or additional material is available.