Ecosystem monitoring for ecosystem‐based management: using a polycentric approach to balance information trade‐offs

Over the past few decades, the call for ecosystem-based management (EBM) created a major shift in global resource management policy. EBM aims to achieve conservation, sustainable use and the fair allocation of benefits from natural resources, thereby striking a balance between short-term needs and sustainability (Cowan et al. 2012). Monitoring in this context requires whole ecosystem indicators, including information on the status/trends of species, habitats and environmental conditions in the biophysical, and related human system.