BRIDGES Research Program, Fisheries & Biodiversity in SWIO

BRIDGES (https://www.bridges-wio.com) is a transdisciplinary scientific cooperation program aiming to identify solutions for biodiversity conservation and fair, sustainable fishing in the South-Western Indian Ocean. Over 10 years, BRIDGES will study how marine spatial planning and networks of area-based conservation tools can enable healthy ocean and better conservation of biodiversity, and favor sustainable production of blue food in the context of global change.
Two types of social-ecological systems are studied:
- Social-ecological systems associated with reef resources (fish, invertebrates, etc.), the associated habitats (coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, etc.) and interfaces (watersheds and offshore areas): mainly artisanal fishing and also small-scale and inshore fishing.
- Social-ecological systems associated with large pelagic resources like tuna and bycatch species groups and coastal and offshore habitats: offshore, small-scale and industrial fishing.

The BRIDGES Research Program is structured around targeted and interconnected projects, each with its own objectives and achievements:
BRIDGES INFORMATION project will build an information system structure that brings together existing data and digital resources, accessible to the entire scientific community and stakeholders. It will also support and provide training in the FAIRisation of digital resources to consolidate a technical and scientific community around the data. BRIDGES OBSERVATION will define and implement a long-term interdisciplinary observatory of the marine social-ecological systems in study sites. The observation strategy will be optimized throughout the entire observation chain including data collection, processing, validation, storage, dissemination, and re-use phases. BRIDGES AVATAR project will create a 'digital avatar' to simulate the two types of social-ecological systems studied, in order to generate and analyse system trajectories in different changing contexts, existing spatial management methods and tools, possible future outcomes associated with different management scenarios. These simulated trajectories are intended to serve as input for the management strategies put in place in the study sites by administrators and decision-makers. BRIDGES RESILIENCE will provide knowledge for sustainable and fair spatialized management of coastal resources, using a transdisciplinary, living-lab territorial approach. Scenario assessments, solutions and transformation initiatives will be explored during participatory workshops. The trajectories coproduced with the actors will be integrated into the modelling tools. BRIDGES CO-CONSTRUCTION will enhance our understanding of the stakeholders involved in maritime governance, analyse interactions and generate spaces for dialogue regarding the management of marine protected areas. RIDGES IMPACT will engage in strong collaborative work to navigate towards a jointly envisioned future and the desired transformations for local socio-ecosystems. The objective is to co-design impact pathways with the aim of enacting transformations desired by stakeholders.
These ambitions will be supported by cross-disciplinary scientific activities, an ambitious capacity and knowledge sharing program and a major communications/promotion component.