Main Topics
Renewable natural resources (e.g. fish stocks and forests) are threatened worldwide due to
non-sustainable exploitation and global environmental change, making depending industries
and regions vulnerable. Over-exploitation is typically characterized by over-capitalization and
destructive competition between small-scale and regionally/globally acting enterprises. In COMPROMISE the
complex interactions between natural, social and institutional systems related to this will be
investigated with an integrative approach. It is a key feature of such system that
they characterised by low levels of knowledge. This holds for the dynamics of stocks,
the economic characteristics of firms, strategies of the fishing industry, as well as for
the impact of policy frameworks. Thus, in order to provide further knowledge qualitative
methods are needed. The encompassing analysis starts with case
studies of some fisheries in developing countries under stakeholder involvement. Typical
factors and agents, patterns and conflicts will be characterized by drawing from expertise
from system analysts, social and natural scientists, combined with modern modeling
methods. The aim is to identify success factors for a sustainable management of renewable
resources.