The increasing intensification of anthropogenic pressures on remote sites such as oceanic islands highlights the need for integrated approaches to marine management and conservation. Here, we applied an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) using Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management (ODEMM) framework to identify and quantify ecological risks associated with five socioeconomic sectors (fishing, military activities, shipping, tourism, and research), at Trindade and Martin Vaz Islands (Southwestern Atlantic). Through a structured expert elicitation process involving stakeholders, we constructed a matrix of linkages between sectors, pressures, and ecological components. Each impact chain (sector → pressure → ecological component) was scored based on spatial overlap, frequency, and degree of impact and combined multiplicatively to estimate Impact Risk (IR). We identified 515 impact chains, with fishing emerging as the dominant risk vector, particularly affecting pelagic fish, shallow reefs, and sedimentary habitats. Network-level proportional connectance analysis revealed high connectivity for military and shipping sectors, though with lower overall risk intensity. Although the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been a step forward, our results reveal that the absence of management and enforcement plans limits their effectiveness. We recommend strengthening fisheries enforcement, expanding MPAs to include critical habitats, and adopting continuous ecological risk assessments as a basis for adaptive management strategies. Our findings demonstrate the applicability of IEA–ODEMM in data-limited, remote systems and provide a transparent, replicable framework to prioritize management actions and strengthen adaptive governance in oceanic island ecosystems facing cumulative human pressures.
Suhett et al. (2026) studied this question.