Integrated Marine Management in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories

Emily Hardman,Rhys Hobbs,Paul Whomersley,Hannah L Thomas,Elizabeth Clingham,Tammy Stamford,Diane Baum,Ness Smith

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.643729

Abstract

Like many small island communities, the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are directly dependent on their marine resources for a range of ecosystem services, such as income generation, subsistence, leisure, recreation and wellbeing. Healthy marine ecosystems also play a broader role in climate regulation, coastal resilience and habitat provision. With Blue Belt Programme assistance, the UKOTs are developing enhanced protection and sustainable management strategies for their marine environments, using an Integrated Marine Management (IMM) approach. This coordinates cross-sectoral planning and management to carefully balance marine conservation and sustainable use of resources in order to minimize socio-cultural and economic impacts to the local community. We describe the IMM approach taken in two UKOT case studies. In Ascension Island, a conservation planning and resource management process was initiated with an objective to protect at least 50% of Ascension’s waters from commercial fishing, resulting in the designation of one of the largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Southern Atlantic. In St Helena, a new licensing framework for marine developments was developed within an existing sustainable use MPA. From these two approaches, we highlight aspects of the process, lessons learned and recommendations that may be useful for other small islands planning to implement IMM, particularly regarding the importance of effective stakeholder engagement, coordination across different governance scales, and long-term financial resources.

Highlights

Integrated Marine Management (IMM)1 is a broad, overarching approach that coordinates planning and management across sectors to better understand and address the range of pressures on the ecosystem by rationalizing management of marine uses for long-term ocean health (Stephenson et al, 2019)
IMM must bring decision-makers and stakeholders together from across multiple sectors to ensure that the cumulative impacts of human activities and the links between environment and society are understood and holistically managed (Atkins et al, 2011; de Jonge et al, 2012; Elliott, 2013; Elliott et al, 2017)
IMM approaches are usually attempted within existing governance regimes without consideration for their complexity and fragmented nature (Vince, 2015; Kelly et al, 2018; Stephenson et al, 2019), and without clarity over the long-term availability of resources (e.g., Kelly et al, 2019)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The associated licensing process for marine developments has been designed to integrate within the terrestrial planning policy and legislative framework to allow effective coordination between the Planning and Building Control and the Environmental Management Divisions within the Environment, Natural Resources and Planning (ENRP) Directorate of SHG This will ensure that activities in the terrestrial and marine environments can be managed in a coherent manner, recognizing the interconnection of the two systems, especially on a small island. An effective monitoring regime will support adaptive management and allow flexibility to adapt to changing conditions This will take place through regular reviews of marine development licenses (frequency dependent on the licensable activity and available evidence) to ensure that the license conditions are fit for purpose and that the process is achieving the policy’s environmental, cultural and socio-economic objectives. The Blue Belt Programme will continue to work with SHG to ensure that the full suite of appropriate resources, capacity and tools are available for effective policy implementation

DISCUSSION

Findings

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT