Terms of Reference

Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) & Gulf of St. Lawrence Integrated Management (GOSLIM)

January 18-21, 2005
Moncton, New Brunswick

Chairperson: Jake Rice

The Ecosystem Overview Report (EOR) is an essential tool in the identification of the Ecosystem Objectives for the LOMA (Large Oceans Management Areas) for which the EOR has been compiled and for which the assessment has been conducted. Oceans Sector is responsible for providing both of these Ecosystem Overview Reports (EORs).

The peer review would address specific aspects of the Ecosystem Overview Reports. In particular we would review the following aspects of the EORs:

1. Are the known sources of information covered adequately in the report? This portion of the review would be concerned with data sets, information sources, and publications that we know exist, but have not been included in the reports.
2. For those things which are included, are the shortcomings of the information sources, and resultant uncertainties, captured adequately in the reports? This means that we do not fault a document for using information that is less than scientifically ideal, as long as it is the best information available, and the shortcomings are acknowledged.
3. As the EOR is designed not only to document the biological, chemical and physical components of the ecosystem but also to assess their condition, the document may draw conclusions, or undertake a partial synthesis of available information. Are these conclusions and/or integration of information consistent with the observations made in 1 & 2? The authors do not have to draw any conclusions at all, but some degree of synthesis would be helpful in the follow-up exercise in March in identifying the Ecosystem Objectives for these LOMAs. In that context the review should ensure that any conclusions do not go beyond the reliability of the information that is available, and any synthesis acknowledge the uncertainties in the information.

The review is not intended to evaluate the ecosystem Overview Reports relative to a perfect understanding of the status and trends in all ecosystem components and their relationships. Such a standard is inappropriate at this stage in building the capacity to take an ecosystem approach to integrated management. The peer review is only to ensure that the reports do a credible job with the information that is currently and readily available. One of the valuable products of the review will be insights into the more crucial weaknesses in current information sources, to assist with priority setting for improving the state of information and knowledge in the future.

In addition to the review of the EORs, the meeting will also discuss the EOR production process, especially the approaches which have been taken up-to-now under ESSIM and GOSLIM to derive the conclusions of their report. The goal would be to identify “best practices for the preparation, review and subsequent use of Ecosystem Overview Reports”. We do not expect to be able to identify “best practices” with a single review of two pilots, but some progress towards that goal should be possible. All Regions will benefit from any progress made towards establishing such “best practices”, particularly those which are just commencing the task for some of their LOMAs.

Considering that the review meeting will take place the week of January 17, 2005, we would expect all of the documents needed for this meeting to be available by January 7th.