Policy Evaluation of Marine Fisheries System; a multi-criteria participatory approach with the case of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The process of policy formulation, dissemination and implementation needs effective strategies and management structures to maximize the utilization of scare resources for human well being together with environmental well being. Fisheries are living natural resources. Therefore policy initiatives require comprehensive information as well as appropriate evaluations in different dimensions with country’s requirement. In this manner this study was carried out to appraise current status of Sri Lankan marine fisheries considering five evaluation fields with regard to fisheries policy evaluation. Moreover Rapfish technique was adapted to compare the status (ecological, economic, social, technological, and administrative) of both principal fisheries (coastal and off shore fishery) with reflecting the impact of current marine policies. The study revealed that both fisheries were still not bad in ecological perspective than result of other fields’ evaluations. But, in the same time system of current fisheries management regime was evaluated as weak and ineffective even though it was the policy formation body. Here it is distinguished that formation and implementation of policies take minimum consideration of available decision support tools and also careless policies to improve the robustness of decision support tools vice versa.