With support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), ecosystem-based marine management has been operationalized across regions through the application of a Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) approach to assessment and management. The LME approach integrates five modules: (1) Productivity, (2) Fish and Fisheries, (3) Pollution and Ecosystem Health, (4) Socioeconomics and (5) Governance. The first three modules focus on assessing the changing status of LME, based on suites of biological and physical indicators of LME condition. The latter two modules examine movements toward improvements of LME benefits to civil society and resource recovery and sustainability.

Socioeconomics and Governance modules require significant social science inputs which have yet to be fully implemented across GEF-supported LME initiatives. The overall goal of this workshop was thus to advance these initiatives' understanding and use of socioeconomics and governance tools to improve LME management.