Unravelling the Relationship between Ecosystem-Based Management, Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Marine Spatial Planning

Martin Le Tissier

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-45843-0_20

Abstract

Coastal zones are among the most productive areas in the world, offering a wide variety of valuable habitats and ecosystems services that have attracted humans and human activities over millennia. But equally coastal zones are also among the most vulnerable areas to climate change, natural hazards and other anthropogenic perturbations. The impacts of coastal change are far reaching and are already changing the wellbeing of coastal communities. It is essential to make use of long-term management tools to enhance the conservation of coastal resources whilst increasing the sustainability of their uses. Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) are both tools that attempt to override traditional sectoral approaches that lead to disconnected decisions and missed opportunities for more sustainable coastal development. Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) describes the comprehensive integrated management of human activities based on the best available scientific knowledge to achieving sustainable use of ecosystem goods and services and maintenance of ecosystem integrity. However, there is a degree of contradiction regarding the juxtaposition of EBM to ICM and MSP—does it underpin and coordinate the implementation of them or does ICM and MSP coordinate the application of EBM principles to management practices and goals or does the difference in terminology detract from the real challenge of achieving sustainability of the world’s coastal and marine areas? This chapter provides insights into the juxtaposition of these concepts and suggests a promising future approach founded on Biodiversity Portfolio Analysis (BPA).

Highlights

Scientific and policy communities have increasingly recognised that complex environmental problems are an existential threat to humanity that require integrative, interdisciplinary approaches to understand and manage the interaction between social and ecological systems (Binder et al 2015; Defries and Nagendra 2017)
The Ecosystem Approach (EA) is a strategy that underpins the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity as “a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way” (CBD 2000), and is widely referred to as Ecosystem-based Management or Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) (Long et al 2015)
EA is embedded in the concept of sustainable development, which requires that the needs of future generations are not compromised by the actions of people today, and puts emphasis on a management regime that maintains the health of the ecosystem alongside appropriate human use of the marine environment, for the benefit of current and future generations (ICES 2005; Defries and Nagendra 2017)

Summary

Le Tissier

There is a need to recognise the coastal and marine environment as a portfolio of constituent elements that need to be managed as a cohesive whole. Principles and processes of EBM need to be juxtaposed with other methods and tools for understanding environmental challenges faced by society and in the future. Stronger inculcation of societal elements and their explicit inclusion in EBM principles and processes is a necessary requirement. Developing a coherent approach to link EBM with existing policy processes and outcomes is important

Introduction

Current Coastal and Marine Management Regimes

The Future