BIO-ECONOMIC MODELLING

An analytical tool to facilitate management decisions. Bio-economic models establish functional relationships between specific characteristics of the natural resource base, (e.g. a fishery resource), and the activities of man to make use of such resource. The formalization of such relationships require certain abstractions from reality, as well as assumptions about the biological processes and human behaviour. To the extent that these assumptions may be partially violated in a specific fishery under study, the results of models should be considered as theoretical and potentially biased. While the reliability of models increases with the validity of the assumptions, there are limits to formalizing and to interpreting the results of highly complex systems. Sparre and Willmann (1992).