الملخص الإنجليزي
Globally, sustainable development is considered as a vital need to fisheries sector that integrated human well-being (socio-economic development) and environmental well-being (conservation). The Sultanate of Oman recognised the importance of this issue and started to promote the fishery management system by establishing new fisheries development plans and lots of management policies to achieve the sustainable development goals. However, there was no assessment carried out to see whether the sustainable development goals were fulfilled or not and at what level especially in the artisanal sector. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the progress of Al Batinah fishery towards sustainable development using Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) framework and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis approach (MCDA). Al Batinah Governorate was selected due to the availability of data compared to other governorates and for its high contribution to the artisanal fishery landing. A consultation review was conducted involving different kinds of stakeholders to identify all possible components (criteria) of the ESD framework (food, income, employment, primary commercial species, other aspects etc). In addition, objectives, indicators (per capita fish consumption, landing, abundance of target species etc), reference points and data along with their trends from 2008 to 2017 were also identified and/or gathered for each single component of the framework. MCDA was used to deal with the different kinds of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Progress of each component toward sustainability and sensitivity analysis were conducted in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of components. Attainment toward sustainability in Al Batinah fishery progressed showed a positive trend. Scores increased from 50 points (on 100 points scale) in year 2009 to 81 points in year 2016. Specifically, the progress toward sustainability in the human well-being was better. The scores increased from 55 points in year 2009 to 95 points in year 2016 indicating excellent progress. However, the progress toward sustainability in the environmental well-being was minimal. The scores increased from 42 points in year 2008 to only 67 points in the last three years (2015-2017) indicating a slow and a below average progress. The results indicated that the year (2016) had the best attainment toward sustainability and the management measures and/or practices adopted in 2016 favoured socio-economic development more than conserving the environment. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that year 2016 was the most preferred year and provided different strengths and weaknesses to improve both human and environmental well-beings and consequently improving the progress toward sustainability. The management authority is therefore advised to adapt conservative measures to promote and protect the environment. In the long-term, such preferences of human well-being over environment might threaten the whole fishery
