Complex species and ecological interdependencies in marine ecosystems complicate their management, because they tend to give rise to the need for detailed information and complex enforcement procedures. Precaution is a criterion of utmost importance to the management and use of living natural resources when scientific information about systems behaviour is limited. This is particularly true for marine ecosystems which are far less well researched than land-based natural systems. Complex biological systems do not always show immediate and linear responses to use and management activities but are characterised by threshold behaviour as well as time lags and spatial distance between cause and effect. Precaution assesses whether an instrument avoids the chance of serious or irreversible consequences.
Efficiency comprises two aspects.
First, is deals with the effects of a policy on industry profitability. In general, productive efficiency of the industry will improve if a policy mechanism allows structural adjustment. Second, it looks at the economic efficiency in a collective sense, assessing the total benefits of the associated change in resource allocation against its total costs. Continuing incentive and innovation address the question whether an incentive instrument encourages experimentation and change and provides an ongoing incentive for improvement of industry efficiency and environmental improvement beyond a set target. They achieve this, in part, by taking advantage of intrinsic motivation.