Marine Resource Governance Research Articles

Nature’s values in marine resource governance: an ethnographic case study of rockweed in Norway

This article addresses the shortcomings in the governance of the Norwegian macroscopic brown algae Ascophyllum nodosum (rockweed) that appeared when approaching rockweed as a socio-ecologic object in the Vega archipelago on the Norwegian Helgeland coast. A common seaweed along the Norwegian coast, rockweed constitutes an important species in Norway’s ‘blue forests’. Historically, rockweed harvesting was an important source of income for the local coastal population in Norway. Although not comparable to the newer and expanding kelp industry, rockweed harvesting is still profitable along the coast. Despite revived attention from the seaweed industry, state management of rockweed in 2024 is conspicuously absent. Combined with the lack of scientific knowledge of the consequences of rockweed harvesting on the local coastal ecosystems, the responsibility for ensuring sustainable harvesting of rockweed lies with the industry itself. On Vega, however, where rockweed is a highly valued and contested coastal species with a high economic, ecologic, and cultural significance, rockweed harvesting was a conflicted issue. In approaching rockweed as a socio-ecologic object from ‘below’, the article identifies hegemonic structures and discourses in Norwegian marine governance, suggesting how a narrow definition of ‘value’ comes to matter—not only for rockweed—but for sustainable governance of all marine and coastal ecosystems. This article is also an important contribution to the burgeoning interdisciplinary research on nature’s values, power, and knowledge in environmental management.

Contested Community Participation in the Governance of Marine Resources in the Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania: A Political Chicanery

It is almost two and half decades since the government of Tanzania established the Mafia Island Marine Park. Guided by the principle of participatory resource governance, this significant socio-economic move was expected to promote sustainable marine resource use and conserve ecosystem processes and biodiversity. However, this is contrary to what is befalling today. This qualitative study sought to examine how this cardinal governance rule was applied during the establishment of the park and how the nature of its execution could have a bearing on the current exhaustion and destructive course. The study used focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, life histories, and observations to collect data. Both, manual content analysis and software-aided qualitative data analysis (Nvivo—12) were applied to gain a sense of the data. The findings of the study indicate that the current unsustainable marine resource practices in the park are, in some measure, a result of inconsiderate, poor, and disingenuous participation exercised during and after the inception of the park in 1995. The study recommends a democratically genuine participatory process in which the most affected, collectively or individually, actively decide on the course of action to address their genuine concerns.

COVID-19 Impacts on Whale-Watching Collaboration Networks

Whale-watching tourism generates high-income seasonal livelihoods in coastal communities on the Mexican Pacific Coast; however, this sector is at risk from accelerated global changes. We evaluated the responses of a collaboration of tourism networks regarding the impacts COVID-19 using a longitudinal social network approach. We used a two-wave snowball method to identify potential interviewees and followed geographic and jurisdictional criteria using a face-to-face survey to map collaboration ties between 38 stakeholders involved in whale-watching tourism before and after the second wave of the pandemic. We also asked this group of stakeholders about their perceived impacts of COVID-19. We found slightly higher connectivity and centralization levels in the social networks after the pandemic. Loss of income and reservations, a decrease in both conservations and pollution, and an increase in the reduction in wildlife tourism were the main self-reported impacts. We also detected harmful pandemic legacies, such as whale-watching tours conducted using unregulated private boats. This research directly informs Mexico’s whale-watching tourism policy by showing the management and coordination challenges that stakeholders face in a post-pandemic context. While the social fabric of coastal communities has been resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic, we found indications that the governance of marine resources can easily unravel if rule of law is absent.

Spotlighting Women-Led Fisheries Livelihoods Toward Sustainable Coastal Governance: The Estuarine and Mangrove Ecosystem Shellfisheries of West Africa

The governance of coastal and marine resources remains a complex socio-ecological endeavor in many African countries, but women are leading the way and demonstrating a pathway for food fish security through rights-based co-management of shellfisheries in estuarine and mangrove ecosystems in West Africa. We report comprehensively, for the first time, the scale of estuarine and mangrove ecosystem-based shellfisheries across the West African coast (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), the gender dynamics, and implications for the sustainable management of this small-scale fishery. We find an extensive geographical coverage of active shellfisheries within these ecosystems with close to 571,000 household beneficiaries and over 50,000 harvesters, mainly women, being the primary resource users. An annual shellfish harvest of over 300,000 MT valued at USD 336 million is potentially undocumented across the region. Harvested shellfish species of economic importance comprised 18 species of mollusks, 11 species of crustaceans, and a few unidentified groups of gastropods, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The West African mangrove oyster, periwinkle, bloody cockle, whelk, and razor clam were, in that order, the most harvested estuarine shellfish. The bivalve and gastropod value chains are dominated by women harvesters at all nodes whereas women play significant roles in the processing and marketing of crustacean and cephalopod fisheries. Formal laws specific to the regulation of estuarine shellfisheries are generally nonexistent, however, the organized women shellfish harvester groups of the Tanbi wetlands (The Gambia) and Densu Delta (Ghana) have championed sustainable governance actions resulting in successful women resource user-led fisheries co-management. The elements of success and opportunities for scaling up these examples are discussed. The presence of such groups in several locations offers an entry point for replicating a similar co-management approach across the West African coast.

Ocean Governance in the Coral Triangle: A Multi-Level Regulatory Governance Structure

The current mode of ocean governance in the biogeographically defined space of the Coral Triangle emerged due to the framing of marine degradation as a de-bounded risk with a transboundary nature. This framing justified the rescaling of the issue’s governance from the national to the regional. This article will explore how ocean governance in the form of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF) is an example of a regional multi-level regulatory governance arrangement based on disaggregated, regulatory forms of statehood. These new kinds of regional regulatory governance are defined by the dominance of policy and technical expertise. As such, non-state actors work closely with national and supranational actors in the development, implementation, and regulatory functions of the CTI-CFF. The organizational structure of the CTI-CFF’s governance framework provides an example of how regional regulatory systems are networked into existing national government structures. The CTI-CFF’s Regional Plan of Action and corresponding mechanisms serve as a model for each member country’s National Plan of Action and domestic programs. These plans of action promote the transformation and rescaling of national governance to be consistent with regional standards of marine resource governance. To summarize, CTI-CFF is a multi-level governance structure constructed to strengthen regulatory regionalism.

Unravelling the perpetuated marginalization of customary livelihoods on the coast by plural and multi-level conservation governance systems

In various parts of the world, rural and indigenous coastal communities who have a long history of relying on land and coastal resources that predates colonial times are threatened by an ever-expanding conservation estate. In South Africa, such communities have been “conserving” resources for a long time through customary systems of governance. However, these systems of resource use have been undermined by state-led multi-scalar and plural conservation governance interventions. State-driven conservation in South Africa tends to focus primarily on biodiversity and ignores the rights and needs of rural people, with conservation governance in rural areas failing to recognize bona fide customary governance systems. Instead, the institutions of traditional authorities, which are not always representative of the needs and views of wider rural populations, are regarded as allies in promoting exclusionary and oppressive forms of conservation. Using a case study research approach, this study uses the case of Kosi Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa as a lens to demonstrate that plural conservation governance systems that ignore local customary systems of marine resource governance result in conservation governance perpetuating the disenfranchisement of coastal communities.

Inuit Food Insecurity as a Consequence of Fragmented Marine Resource Management Policies? Emerging Lessons from Nunatsiavut

Historically, Inuit communities of the Arctic have relied significantly on the living marine resources of their coastal waters for nutrition, underpinning community cohesion and enhancing individual and collective well-being. Inadequate understanding of the conditions of coastal marine stocks and their dynamics, along with failed past fisheries management practices, now threatens secure access to these resources for food and nutrition. We examine the degree of integration of modern Canadian federal food and marine resource management policies, which heretofore have been unable to lessen food insecurity in the Arctic, suggesting that causes rather than symptoms need to be treated. Using evidence from Nunatsiavut, northern Labrador, we assess the limits to marine resource governance affecting access to traditionally important food sources. We explore the potential for both increased subsistence harvests and enhanced access to commercial fisheries in mitigating Inuit food insecurity, arguing for the relevance of expanded marine resource assessments, more focused fisheries management, and integration with policies designed to mitigate food insecurity. Crucially, the absence of methods for tracking changes in locally harvested marine resources threatens not only individual and household nutrition but also the social, economic, and cultural integrity of Inuit communities. We further describe the needs for monitoring and propose the use of indicators that capture the contributions of locally harvested marine resources to increased food security along with a framework that allows for utilizing local knowledge and observations. Relying on emerging lessons from research in Nunatsiavut, we build a foundation for a better understanding of both the political and institutional legacies that contribute to Labrador Inuit food insecurity and discuss how the deeper integration of food and marine resource management policies could help mitigate it.

Managing stakeholder perception and engagement for marine energy transitions in a decarbonising world

There is a growing body of scholarship on the enabling conditions for energy transitions in various energy contexts globally. Transition measures need to address the concerns of communities that will host renewable energy infrastructure. Despite this, the consequences of energy transitions at the community level and in coastal environments have not received adequate attention. The case of the Corrib Gas field development in Ireland provides valuable insights into stakeholder issues surrounding strategic infrastructure developments. Material from case study work with over 70 stakeholders in a rural coastal region in Ireland's West is used to identify the cause of disputes in energy governance.The study shows that economic development is strongly linked to the cultural fabric, not just of the country, but of the locality. Here, a lack of trust of those in power had an influence on the conflict. The appointment of a mediator as an honest broker was a tipping point towards diffusion of tension and an adaptive response by all parties. The establishment of a body with a mandate to evaluate the application of ethical rules, based on good governance principles, is suggested as an option for a refined governance model.The insights are relevant for the energy transition in jurisdictions around the world. Given the urgent need for decarbonisation and the potential for marine renewable energy, lessons from the past, as documented in this paper, can help to inform better governance of common pool marine resources. This is increasingly important for the industrialisation of marine renewable energy and the need to reconcile the interests of government, industry and civil society.

In a network of lines that intersect: The socio-economic development impact of marine resource management and conservation in Southeast Asia

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are rapidly spreading to meet global conservation targets, but new governance arrangements can have unintended impacts on socio-economic development that can undermine and counteract their intended outcomes. We use an exploratory mixed-method research design to understand these development impacts and their underlying mechanisms, guided by an innovative activity space framework that situates marine resource management and conservation in a network of relationships between communities, human services, and nature. Qualitative research – based on 22 interviews in Koh Sdach Archipelago, Cambodia – demonstrates how the local community experienced improving relationships with the state and a slowing deterioration of marine resources, but also social division, heightened livelihood anxiety, and potentially a false sense of economic security. We hypothesise on this basis that marine conservation could impede socio-economic development, for which we find support in our quantitative analysis across Cambodia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste: MPAs materialised in better-off communities but were associated with slower and partly regressive socio-economic development, in particular decreasing wealth and increasing child mortality. These findings suggest that the rapid global expansion of MPA coverage in its current, environmental-conservation-focused form is problematic as it disregards local social realities. Livelihood adaptation support should complement the implementation of marine resource governance mechanisms to mitigate unintended negative consequences.

Transparency in fisheries conservation and management measures

The adoption of effective fisheries conservation and management measures (‘CMM’) represents a critical stage in the process of sustainably managing global fishing stocks. It represents the point at which scientific data is integrated with law and policy considerations to generate concrete rules designed to constrain the behaviour of fishers and other stakeholders in order to promote desired conservation goals within a fishery. This paper will examine the fisheries CMM process within the broader framework of international law and policy for marine resource governance. It will consider transparency aspects at key stages of the CMM process including the gathering and sharing of data upon which measures are based, the tabling and negotiation of new measures in RFMO meetings, through to the monitoring and enforcement of CMM to ensure their implementation. At each stage, the paper will seek to explore the potential for transparency initiatives to improve the effectiveness of fisheries CMM in promoting desired conservation and management goals within a fishery.

A tiered approach to the marine genetic resource governance framework under the proposed UNCLOS agreement for biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ)

Developing a governance framework for Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs) is a crucial element of the proposed treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Negotiating countries' positions on MGRs, including questions on the sharing of benefits from their use, range from no regulation to elaborate infrastructure for access and benefit sharing (ABS) of all MGRs. This article proposes a Tiered Approach to MGR governance that finds a middle ground between negotiating countries' positions on ABS and aims to foster scientific research on samples and data, protect traditional and local knowledge, promote consistency with existing ABS frameworks within national jurisdiction and address conservation gaps including the absence of a biosafety framework. This practical activities approach to MGR governance provides an alternative to the ‘one size fits all’ approach to ABS currently under negotiation with range of governance options more suited to ABNJ's unique environmental and geo-political conditions. These include an ABNJ Activity Notification and Monitoring System, a Facilitated Information and Sample Sharing Hub, an ABNJ Benefit Sharing System and an End-user Due Diligence approach to monitoring and benefit sharing. This article concludes that MGR governance should implement the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea's vision for an ‘equitable and efficient’ utilisation of resources and protection of the marine environment, offering a range of tools and approaches that complement ABS, but that are more diverse and flexible than the ABS concept alone.

Co-Management of Fisheries Through a Negotiation Lens: The Case of Prud’homies

While the European Union’s fishing policy is mainly based on maximum sustainable yield, at the local fishing community level, fishers’ main incentive to sustain fish stocks appears to be maintenance of social relationships. Divergence of the stakeholders’ objectives on the management of marine resources creates conflicts of interest that can be overcome through a process of negotiation. The formulation of the solution is embedded in the perspective of the stakeholders. In this paper we analyze the negotiation mechanisms between the French Mediterranean local fishing communities and the European Union common fishery policy. Inspired by interactive governance theory, the performance of Prud’homies, a local governance entity in the French Mediterranean, has been analyzed through their capacity to cooperate and represent the fishers’ voice in formal institutes. We are witnessing a declining representation of this local institute among the official decision-makers of the marine resource governance.

Geopolitics and Marine Conservation: Synergies and Conflicts

Transboundary conservation has an important, yet often undervalued, role in the international conservation regime. When applied to the legally ambiguous and interconnected marine environment this is magnified. The lack of clear guidance for transboundary marine conservation from the international conservation community exacerbates this problem, leaving individual initiatives to develop their own governance arrangements. Yet, well-managed transboundary marine protected areas (MPAs) have the potential to contribute significantly to global conservation aims. Conversely, in a period where there is increasing interest in marine resources and space from all sectors, the designation of MPAs can create or amplify a regional conflict. In some instances, states have used MPAs to extend rights over disputed marine resources, restrict the freedom of others and establish sovereignty over maritime space. Six case studies were taken from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East to illustrate how states have interpreted and utilised different legislative mechanisms to either come together or diverge over the governance of marine resources or maritime space. Each of the case studies illustrates how different actors have used the same legislative tools, but with different interpretations and applications, to justify their claims. It is clear that the role of science combined with a deeper engagement with stakeholders can play a critical role in tempering conflict between states. Where states are willing to cooperate, the absence of clear guidelines at the global level means that often ad hoc measures are put into place, with the international frameworks then playing catch up. Balancing different jurisdictional claims with the conservation of the marine environment, whilst considering the increasing special economic interests will become increasingly difficult. Developing a transboundary conservation tool, such as the simple conservation caveats found in the Barcelona Convention and Antarctic Convention, which allow for the establishment of intergovernmental cooperation without prejudicing any outstanding jurisdictional issue, would provide a framework for the development of individual transboundary MPAs.

Being well-governed: Including inspectors in a systems approach to fisheries management.

Based on 18-months of ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa's Western Cape province, we suggest ways in which marine resource law enforcement activities can be evaluated at the level of individual fisheries compliance inspectors, to gain a more accurate understanding of the state of marine resource law enforcement. We show that these individual assessments can be scaled up to speak about specific compliance stations, and further, that these local-level assessments can be scaled up to the regional and provincial levels, withoutlosing sight of the needs and value of the individual inspector. This paper contributes to the broader conversation on compliance in marine resource governance, as well as opening a new avenue of discussion: how to incorporate inspector-focussed social indicators. We show that this can be done in ways that take the overlap of the ecological, economic and social dimensions into account, while still being practical in terms of application and evaluation.

Cohort Description of the Madagascar Health and Environmental Research-Antongil (MAHERY-Antongil) Study in Madagascar.

The Madagascar Health and Environmental Research-Antongil (MAHERY-Antongil) study cohort was set up in September 2015 to assess the nutritional value of seafood for the coastal Malagasy population living along Antongil Bay in northeastern Madagascar. Over 28 months of surveillance, we aimed to understand the relationships among different marine resource governance models, local people's fish catch, the consumption of seafood, and nutritional status. In the Antongil Bay, fisheries governance takes three general forms: traditional management, marine national parks, and co-management. Traditional management involves little to no involvement by the national government or non-governmental organizations, and focuses on culturally accepted Malagasy community practices. Co-management and marine national parks involve management support from either an non-govermental organization (NGO) or the national government. Five communities of varying governance strategies were enrolled into the study including 225 households and 1031 individuals whose diets, resource acquisition strategies, fisheries and agricultural practices, and other social, demographic and economic indicators were measured over the span of 3 years. Clinical visits with each individual were conducted at two points during the study to measure disease and nutritional status. By analyzing differences in fish catch arising from variation in governance (in addition to intra-annual seasonal changes and minor inter-annual changes), the project will allow us to calculate the public health value of sustainable fisheries management approaches for local populations. There is hope that coastal zones that are managed sustainably can increase the productivity of fisheries, increasing the catch of seafood products for poor, undernourished populations.

Managing coastal protection through multi-scale governance structures in Romania

The coastal zone offers many goods and services ranging from production to recreation and protection. During the last half century, human interventions on the Romanian Black Sea coast have abruptly changed the natural trends of coastal evolution, increasing erosion rates on many coastal sectors and transforming the natural landscape with major impact on coastal ecosystems. This required decision makers to develop effective coastal and marine conservation regulations and programs. This paper uses Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT) as a conceptual framework to examine the currently emerging governance issues, due to the growing pressure from increasingly diverse human activities coupled with climate change impacts, that threaten the functional integrity of the coastal ecosystems. A proper evaluation and understanding of the policy framework helped us to identify the prerequisites for participative management. Results indicate that the legislation is sectorial, the competences are overlapping and the responsibilities are scattered. The analysis shows that policies related to governance of coastal and marine resources are not well synchronized and they signal an important gap in policy. Input from stakeholders helps us to understand some of the failures that are not present in the literature, since most of them occur at the local level.

Governance mapping: A framework for assessing the adaptive capacity of marine resource governance to environmental change

Marine social-ecological systems are influenced by the way humans interact with their environment, and external forces, which change and re-shape the environment. In many regions, exploitation of marine resources and climate change are two of the primary drivers shifting the abundance and distribution of marine living resources, with negative effects on marine-dependent communities. Governance systems determine ‘who’ makes decisions, ‘what’ are their powers and responsibilities, and ‘how’ they are exercised. Understanding the connections between the actors comprising governance systems and influences between governance and the environment is therefore critical to support successful transitions to novel forms of governance required to deal with environmental changes. The paper provides an analytical framework with a practical example from Vanuatu, for mapping and assessment of the governance system providing for management of coral reef fish resources. The framework enables a rapid analysis of governance systems to identify factors that can encourage, or hinder, the adaptation of communities to changes in abundance or availability of marine resources.

Exploring the prospects for adaptive governance in marine transboundary conservation in East Africa

This article explores the prospects for adaptive governance in a proposed marine transboundary conservation initiative in East Africa. Adaptive governance that involves interdependent state and non-state actors learning and taking action on joint environmental problems is suggested for effective transboundary resource governance. Using the concept of adaptive co-management, the current multi-stakeholder marine governance systems in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania are compared to illuminate opportunities and constraints for adaptive marine transboundary conservation governance between Kenya and Tanzania. The concept of networks and the formal method of social network analysis (SNA) are applied as the main methodological device. Using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, social network data of 70 organizations (local resources users, government agencies and NGOs) was generated from Kenya (n = 33) and Tanzania (n = 37). Results show the existence of strong collaboration networks for marine resource governance in both Kenya and Tanzania. Social proximity is the common driver of network formation. Collaboration networks in Kenya and Tanzania have contributed to enhanced learning among marine resource managers. Conclusions point to the need to focus on common challenges relating to low levels of rule-compliance, limited access to information on the state of resources and poor integration of science into marine management decisions. Finally, differences in views regarding the state of marine ecosystems need to be addressed to improve prospects for joint problem-solving in marine transboundary conservation.

Governing the Southern Ocean: The science-policy interface as thorny issue

The Southern Ocean is a unique ecosystem with highly coveted marine resources. It includes the largest marine protected area anywhere, with management spread across national jurisdictions and a number of international bodies and cooperative arrangements. The area has local, national and international stakeholders with interests in an array of activities, such as fishing, tourism and scientific research. This article sheds light on the linkages between climate change and governance of Southern Ocean marine territories. It unravels the complexity of governing this marine region, in the process looking at biodiversity conservation, exploitation of resources and military activities. Using socio-historic analysis and ethnographic observation, it examines multiple decision-making areas, institutions, groups and actors. Issues examined in this artice include marine protected areas, fisheries management and environmental impacts of melting Antarctic ice and French subantarctic territories. These issues are viewed through the prisms of knowledge and policy – a knowledge-policy interface. Case studies highlight the interactions between human activities and climate change in Southern Ocean ecosystems. Real-world examples illustrate the governance of marine ecosystems and resources and demonstrate adaptations to environmental changes already affecting sub-Antarctic societies.

Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources.

Who owns ocean biodiversity? This is an increasingly relevant question, given the legal uncertainties associated with the use of genetic resources from areas beyond national jurisdiction, which cover half of the Earth's surface. We accessed 38 million records of genetic sequences associated with patents and created a database of 12,998 sequences extracted from 862 marine species. We identified >1600 sequences from 91 species associated with deep-sea and hydrothermal vent systems, reflecting commercial interest in organisms from remote ocean areas, as well as a capacity to collect and use the genes of such species. A single corporation registered 47% of all marine sequences included in gene patents, exceeding the combined share of 220 other companies (37%). Universities and their commercialization partners registered 12%. Actors located or headquartered in 10 countries registered 98% of all patent sequences, and 165 countries were unrepresented. Our findings highlight the importance of inclusive participation by all states in international negotiations and the urgency of clarifying the legal regime around access and benefit sharing of marine genetic resources. We identify a need for greater transparency regarding species provenance, transfer of patent ownership, and activities of corporations with a disproportionate influence over the patenting of marine biodiversity. We suggest that identifying these key actors is a critical step toward encouraging innovation, fostering greater equity, and promoting better ocean stewardship.