Abstract
INCOFISH will conduct specifically targeted strategic research towards reconciling multiple demands on coastal zones. It will evaluate and integrate data, tools and concepts suitable to contribute to the goals set by the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, such as restoring healthy fish stocks and ecosystems by 2015. INCOFISH will focus its research activities on the following Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) issues: document historical performance of ecosystems to deal with the 'shifting baselines' syndrome and provide sound reference points for resource restoration; provide electronic maps for all coastal species to establish authoritative species inventories and explore scenarios of global change and invasive species; create spatial ecosystem models for all coastal systems treated in this project as a basis for understanding the resource; provide guidelines and tools for best sizing and placement of marine protected areas; research impact of ecotourism on coastal ecosystem and provide best-practice guidelines; identify suitable simple indicators to promote and monitor sustainable fisheries; provide valuation of coastal ecosystem products and services and of different management regimes: review legal instruments for sustainable fishing in coastal zones; revisit coastal transects as a tool for structuring and understanding multiple demands on coastal zones; provide an archive and web portal for easy, public access to all data and tools relevant for ICZM. The tools and concepts resulting from INCOFISH research will be tested in real-world scenarios in selected coastal systems worldwide. They will together form a package with the potential to impact on solving societal problems in the coastal zone in Europe and in developing countries.'
Europe