Collectively, environmental stakeholders are just as smart as scientific experts
Many species are threatened with extinction, fish stocks are overfished. How can the complex relationships between wildlife, natural ecosystems and humans in a large number of habitats be captured with reasonable effort? Researchers need sound data over long periods of time and complex mathematical models. Can environmental stakeholders produce a similar result? An international team led by Professor Robert Arlinghaus has developed a method for combining the empirical knowledge of fishery stakeholders in such a way that the result corresponds to the best scientific understanding. This is of particular interest when human and financial resources are insufficient to achieve a profound scientific understanding or when, for example, fish stock data cannot be retroactively recorded.