James Anderson, Taryn Garlock and Frank Asche at the University of Florida’s Global Food Systems Institute, have worked with Chris Anderson, Jennifer Meredith, and Michael DeAlessi at the University of Washington, Jingjie Chu at The World Bank, and several other institutions to develop Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs). The FPIs are designed to determine how fisheries management systems are performing in community, economic, and ecological dimensions.
The FPI project was initiated by James Anderson in 2009 with the support of the International Coalition of Fisheries Association (ICFA). The Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) consist of 68 output and 54 input metrics of fishery performance spanning the ‘triple bottom line’ dimensions of ecology, economics and community in a fishery system. The FPIs were developed as a response to the fact that most global fisheries performance assessment approaches emphasize primarily fish stock and ecological conditions, and contain little information on economic and social issues. Moreover, fisheries management systems are often prohibitively expensive – especially in poorer regions of the world. Data-poor fishery systems needed assessment, and there needed to be a comparable approach – a common language, a common metric. The FPIs are a completely independent, science-based and objective tool, providing indicators not only for outcomes; but also for input factors that facilitates good governance and positive fisheries outcomes. Much can to be learned by comparing systems to determine what works and what does not.