The Resilience and Robustness of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem

The resilience and robustness of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) to provide goods and services was being degraded by among others, over-exploitation of fishery resources under a highly variable environment. Thus, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa collaborated through the Benguela Current Commission, the first in the world that implement ecosystem-based management through the application of five-modular LME assessments for sustainable development. This powerful LME modular approach is based on the assessments of productivity, pollution and ecosystem health, fish and fisheries, social economics and governance.  This paper will demonstrate how this approach has been applied successfully in a multi-sectorial transboundary LME management the BCLME region.