1. SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS Chapter 2: Sustainability Indicators in Practice
Tamara Belyakhina
Imtiaz Ahmed

2. Agenda Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY): Introduction Carrying Capacity
Animal population models
Problems with MSY application
Collapse of Peruvian anchovy fishery
AMOEBA

3. Introduction to MSY MSY: Maximum Sustainable Yield
Number or biomass of individuals that can be removed from an ecosystem without driving the population down
Major idea was introduced in 1930s
Important consideration of exploiting a resource for gain
State SI for the ‘Protection of the Oceans, all Kinds of Seas and Coastal Areas’

4. Carrying Capacity
The maximum number of individuals of a species that an ecosystem can sustain.
If the carrying capacity is exceeded, the population will be limited through lack of resources.
How many animals can be taken without destroying the stock? => Models of species population

5. Animal population models
N - population size
r - indicator of the multiplication rate of each individual in the population
K - carrying capacity

6. Problems with MSY application
Doesn’t fully take account of the complex nature of the ecosystem:
competition, symbiotic or commensal relationships with other species
tropic relationships
changes in carrying capacity due to pollution or other human influences
Highly dependent on the choice of starting point
r and K are assumed to be constant, and are difficult to estimate in practice
Doesn’t take into account difference between individuals in population in size, age, etc.
Meat consumption 6

7. The collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishery
The collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishery in 1972:
the largest fishery till 1971
fishing at or below MSY
heavy fishing in => excessive removal of fish at reproductive age
warm water phase in 1972 => negative effect on the anchovy population
Meat consumption 7

8. Sustainability indicators in marine ecosystems: The AMOEBA approach
AMOEBA is an acronym which in Dutch stands for ‘general method for ecosystem description and assessment’.
Highly visual approach to encapsulating sustainability
It has been created with non-specialists in mind
Ten Brink et al (1991) took a broad view of sustainability and concluded that there were three categories of ‘valuable characteristics, whose sustainability is desirable’:
Yeild
Bio-diversity
Self-regulation

10. Advantages of AMOEBA Approach
Its appeal of measuring sustainability is not difficult to understand
Sustainability is summarized in visual terms as AMOEBA with a clear, even if subjective, sense of a target
It has a very practical feel, primarily because it was designed to be used as a decision-making tool in environmental management

11. Criticism on AMOEBA Approach
The AMOEBA is fundamentally based on numbers (population sizes), it does not in itself provide any information on the mechanisms involved in the changes (the pressures)
The approach is based on simple addition (all indicators are combined into one diagram)
The third problem with the AMOEBA approach is centered on the choice of a reference condition

12. Conclusion
This chapter has examined two levels of SI: an individual SI (MSY) and an attempt at collecting individual indicators together as a single diagram (AMOEBA).
the main problem with such SIs is that they attempt to encapsulate a very complex system in a few simple measures

13. Thank you for your attention!