The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management
Notes & News: Arctic governance – Baltic MPAs – Community-based ecosystem approach – Fisheries reform – Oceans conference
Arctic governance needs reform in response to climate change The current regulatory and governance regime for protecting the Arctic marine environment is inadequate and new measures must be adopted, according to a new series of reports from WWF. The reports point out that current Arctic governance is based on assumptions…
EBM Toolbox: Tools for Predicting and Mitigating Coastal Hazard and Climate Change Impacts (Part II of III)
Editor’s note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of tools for facilitating EBM processes. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network, a voluntary alliance of tool users, developers, and training providers. By Sarah Carr Tools for modeling climate change impacts and assessing the…
Toward EBM: Experts Suggest Feasible First Steps that Make a Difference
Ecosystem-based management can be described relatively simply. It is an approach that uses ecosystem science – our knowledge of the connections among living organisms, natural phenomena, and human activities – to guide our uses of the ocean and coast. By doing so, we can ensure that those uses are sustainable…
Tundi’s Take: Big Strides with Baby Steps in San Andrés
By Tundi Agardy, Contributing Editor, MEAM (tundiagardy@earthlink.net) EBM is a journey, not a destination. But even significant journeys can be undertaken by taking small, purposeful steps. In the San Andrés Archipelago of Colombia, resource management has moved deliberately toward EBM via a series of discrete regulatory and policy moves. The…
Lessons for EBM from the Field of Change Management: Getting Institutions to Accept Change
As a field, marine ecosystem-based management is relatively new. But some of the challenges its practitioners face are ones that people have encountered through history. A main challenge, for example, involves getting individuals and groups to change from a set way of doing things (in the oceans' case, managing resources…
EBM Toolbox: Tools for Predicting and Mitigating Coastal Hazard and Climate Change Impacts (Part I of III)
Editor’s note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of tools for facilitating EBM processes. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network, a voluntary alliance of tool users, developers, and training providers. By Sarah Carr Tools for modeling coastal hazard impacts and assessing the…
Notes & News: Scotland – Washington – US Gulf Coast – Economics of EBM – Marine spatial planning – East Asian seas – North America – Sea level rise – Ocean noise – IMCC2
Scotland passes comprehensive marine law In February, the Scottish Parliament passed a comprehensive marine bill that calls for establishment of a national marine plan by the government. It also establishes a simpler licensing system for marine uses and outlines processes by which the government may plan and manage new MPAs….
Examining the Relationship between Marine Spatial Planning and EBM: Views from Three Planners
In the field of marine resource management, two concepts have received particular attention in recent years: ecosystem-based management (EBM) and marine spatial planning (MSP). Examples of these concepts in practice are emerging around the world. However, the distinction between the two often remains unclear to stakeholders, as well as to…
Research Spotlight: Managing the Costs and Benefits of Multinational Conservation
Conservation programs are often carried out at national or sub-national scales, despite the fact that many ecosystems and species cross international boundaries. One reason is that developing conservation plans at the multinational scale can present additional challenges: more meetings, more stakeholders with input, and more cultures to consider in negotiations….
Tundi’s Take: Balancing Centralization and Decentralization in Ocean Governance
By Tundi Agardy, Contributing Editor, MEAM (tundiagardy@earthlink.net) Successful EBM relies on two seemingly contradictory things: Integration of management activities across large geographic scales and between sectors; and Planning that is participatory and responds to the special needs and circumstances of each place. The contradiction is that the first requirement pushes…