The role of scale within an Ecosystem Approach to fisheries management: Policy and practice in Southeast Asian seas

Primary considerations for adopting an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) as a management approach will involve an expanded scope of fisheries management over conventional approaches; specifically, EAFM will involve a broader scale of management. Development of a sub-regional EAFM plan can complement local, national, and regional fisheries management priorities, as well as help to catalyze management action at multiple levels that may not otherwise occur. A sub-regional EAFM policy planning approach has been undertaken for the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape (SSS), a sub-region of Southeast Asia. This sub-regional policy planning approach illustrates how “scaling up” EAFM can support relevant international, regional, and other sub-regional fisheries management plans and environmental initiatives, while “scaling down” EAF can support relevant national, provincial/state, and local fisheries management plans in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. •Identifying different scales are important aspects of taking an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM).•Development of a sub-regional EAFM policy plan can complement and link existing governance scales of fisheries management.•EAFM implementation will need to consider mechanisms to ‘scale up’ and ‘scale down’ decision-making and development.