Improving consumption based accounting for global capture fisheries

Christopher David West; Emilie Hobbs; Simon Croft; Jonathan Michael Halsey Green; Sarah Schmidt; Richard Wood

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298

Improving consumption based accounting for global capture fisheries

Christopher David West, Emilie Hobbs, Simon Croft, Jonathan Michael Halsey Green, Sarah Schmidt, Richard Wood

Stockholm Environment Institute at York

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Consumption-based accounting has been used to understand the resource and environmental pressures associated with the consumption of goods and services. Capture fisheries have significant economic, cultural, and environmental importance, yet relatively limited attention has been given to understanding their consumption-linked pressures. Where products of marine and inland fisheries are accounted for, they are typically done so within the context of ‘material’ footprints or within life cycle assessment-based studies which draw more attention to resource efficiency or pollution-related aspects of fisheries than the species or ecosystem-linked consequences of the extraction process itself. However, the sustainability of fisheries products is highly dependent on the catch method, location, and species targeted. To date, these have been missing from consumption-based accounts. Here, a collation of species-specific information comprising vulnerability and environmental pressure associated with capture is provided, which is then linked to a global multi-regional input-output model to - for the first time - create a dedicated consumption-based time-series for fisheries. Whilst the aggregate footprint of global capture fisheries has remained stable in recent decades, our results demonstrate that at national or regional scales different trends in consumption exist. Importantly, there have been significant shifts in the composition of catch within these consumption accounts, which have potential implications for the sustainability of underpinning supply chains. This paper draws attention to the fact that material efficiency perspectives are insufficient in the assessment of pressures on the marine environment driven by consumption of fisheries products, and – whilst challenges remain - there is a growing abundance of information and development of methods that could potentially be utilised to overcome gaps in the future.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1396-1408
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume	212
Early online date	5 Dec 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298

West_etal_MainText_new
©2018 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.
Accepted author manuscript, 1.45 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{307691ba70a041e88876c05be2e75112,

title = "Improving consumption based accounting for global capture fisheries",

abstract = "Consumption-based accounting has been used to understand the resource and environmental pressures associated with the consumption of goods and services. Capture fisheries have significant economic, cultural, and environmental importance, yet relatively limited attention has been given to understanding their consumption-linked pressures. Where products of marine and inland fisheries are accounted for, they are typically done so within the context of {\textquoteleft}material{\textquoteright} footprints or within life cycle assessment-based studies which draw more attention to resource efficiency or pollution-related aspects of fisheries than the species or ecosystem-linked consequences of the extraction process itself. However, the sustainability of fisheries products is highly dependent on the catch method, location, and species targeted. To date, these have been missing from consumption-based accounts. Here, a collation of species-specific information comprising vulnerability and environmental pressure associated with capture is provided, which is then linked to a global multi-regional input-output model to - for the first time - create a dedicated consumption-based time-series for fisheries. Whilst the aggregate footprint of global capture fisheries has remained stable in recent decades, our results demonstrate that at national or regional scales different trends in consumption exist. Importantly, there have been significant shifts in the composition of catch within these consumption accounts, which have potential implications for the sustainability of underpinning supply chains. This paper draws attention to the fact that material efficiency perspectives are insufficient in the assessment of pressures on the marine environment driven by consumption of fisheries products, and – whilst challenges remain - there is a growing abundance of information and development of methods that could potentially be utilised to overcome gaps in the future.",

author = "West, {Christopher David} and Emilie Hobbs and Simon Croft and Green, {Jonathan Michael Halsey} and Sarah Schmidt and Richard Wood",

note = "{\textcopyright}2018 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher{\textquoteright}s self-archiving policy.",

year = "2019",

month = mar,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298",

language = "English",

volume = "212",

pages = "1396--1408",

journal = "Journal of Cleaner Production",

issn = "0959-6526",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Improving consumption based accounting for global capture fisheries

AU - West, Christopher David

AU - Hobbs, Emilie

AU - Croft, Simon

AU - Green, Jonathan Michael Halsey

AU - Schmidt, Sarah

AU - Wood, Richard

PY - 2019/3/1

Y1 - 2019/3/1

N2 - Consumption-based accounting has been used to understand the resource and environmental pressures associated with the consumption of goods and services. Capture fisheries have significant economic, cultural, and environmental importance, yet relatively limited attention has been given to understanding their consumption-linked pressures. Where products of marine and inland fisheries are accounted for, they are typically done so within the context of ‘material’ footprints or within life cycle assessment-based studies which draw more attention to resource efficiency or pollution-related aspects of fisheries than the species or ecosystem-linked consequences of the extraction process itself. However, the sustainability of fisheries products is highly dependent on the catch method, location, and species targeted. To date, these have been missing from consumption-based accounts. Here, a collation of species-specific information comprising vulnerability and environmental pressure associated with capture is provided, which is then linked to a global multi-regional input-output model to - for the first time - create a dedicated consumption-based time-series for fisheries. Whilst the aggregate footprint of global capture fisheries has remained stable in recent decades, our results demonstrate that at national or regional scales different trends in consumption exist. Importantly, there have been significant shifts in the composition of catch within these consumption accounts, which have potential implications for the sustainability of underpinning supply chains. This paper draws attention to the fact that material efficiency perspectives are insufficient in the assessment of pressures on the marine environment driven by consumption of fisheries products, and – whilst challenges remain - there is a growing abundance of information and development of methods that could potentially be utilised to overcome gaps in the future.

AB - Consumption-based accounting has been used to understand the resource and environmental pressures associated with the consumption of goods and services. Capture fisheries have significant economic, cultural, and environmental importance, yet relatively limited attention has been given to understanding their consumption-linked pressures. Where products of marine and inland fisheries are accounted for, they are typically done so within the context of ‘material’ footprints or within life cycle assessment-based studies which draw more attention to resource efficiency or pollution-related aspects of fisheries than the species or ecosystem-linked consequences of the extraction process itself. However, the sustainability of fisheries products is highly dependent on the catch method, location, and species targeted. To date, these have been missing from consumption-based accounts. Here, a collation of species-specific information comprising vulnerability and environmental pressure associated with capture is provided, which is then linked to a global multi-regional input-output model to - for the first time - create a dedicated consumption-based time-series for fisheries. Whilst the aggregate footprint of global capture fisheries has remained stable in recent decades, our results demonstrate that at national or regional scales different trends in consumption exist. Importantly, there have been significant shifts in the composition of catch within these consumption accounts, which have potential implications for the sustainability of underpinning supply chains. This paper draws attention to the fact that material efficiency perspectives are insufficient in the assessment of pressures on the marine environment driven by consumption of fisheries products, and – whilst challenges remain - there is a growing abundance of information and development of methods that could potentially be utilised to overcome gaps in the future.

U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298

DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.298

M3 - Article

VL - 212

SP - 1396

EP - 1408

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

SN - 0959-6526

ER -