Decision making for marine environments

Abstract

Although the management of marine environments has been practised in parts of Asia and other traditional societies for millenia (Ruddle & Johannes, 1985), it is a relatively recent and rapidly developing concept in developed countries. In the late 19th century, the concept of needing to manage marine environments belonged to science fiction. Authoritative figures such as T. H. Huxley considered it quite improbable that humans would ever have significant widespread impacts upon marine environments (Cushing, 1988). By the mid 20th century, the first of the United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea started the process of development of a new jurisdictional framework in the face of the limitations of established concepts of territorial seas. At the end of the 20th century, IUCN (the World Conservation Union) had published a guide for planners and managers of Marine Protected Areas (Salm & Clark, 1984) and the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) considered that 'sustainable development, if not survival itself, depends on significant advances in the management of the oceans. Considerable changes will be required in our institutions and policies and more resources will have to be committed to ocean management. Not surprisingly, humans approach the business of making decisions about marine environments on the basis of long traditions and history of regulating terrestrial activities. The object of this paper is to introduce and discuss some of the ways in which decision making for the management of marine environments requires the development of an integrated strategic approach in some ways broader than those developed to address terrestrial issues. The literature is widespread but for this paper the sources cited are, wherever practicable, reviews or texts which provide access and discussion of the broader fields. The Background to Marine Dec i s ion-Making