Implementation Of Ecosystem-based Management Research Articles

Implementing ecosystem-based fisheries management: from single-species to integrated ecosystem assessment and advice for Baltic Sea fish stocks

Abstract Theory behind ecosystem-based management (EBM) and ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) is now well developed. However, the implementation of EBFM exemplified by fisheries management in Europe is still largely based on single-species assessments and ignores the wider ecosystem context and impact. The reason for the lack or slow implementation of EBM and specifically EBFM is a lack of a coherent strategy. Such a strategy is offered by recently developed integrated ecosystem assessments (IEAs), a formal synthesis tool to quantitatively analyse information on relevant natural and socio-economic factors, in relation to specified management objectives. Here, we focus on implementing the IEA approach for Baltic Sea fish stocks. We combine both tactical and strategic management aspects into a single strategy that supports the present Baltic Sea fish stock advice, conducted by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). We first review the state of the art in the development of IEA within the current management framework. We then outline and discuss an approach that integrates fish stock advice and IEAs for the Baltic Sea. We intentionally focus on the central Baltic Sea and its three major fish stocks cod (Gadus morhua), herring (Clupea harengus), and sprat (Sprattus sprattus), but emphasize that our approach may be applied to other parts and stocks of the Baltic, as well as other ocean areas.

Utilizing science in advancing marine ecosystem-based management

This paper draws upon the findings and key lessons from the ten papers that are featured in this Special Issue in utilizing science to advance ecosystem-based management (EBM) in the context of the East Asian region. The paper highlights the East Asian region's long experience in integrated coastal management (ICM) implementation, which has provided the foundation for advancing geographic and functional scaling up to cover wider geographic and administrative boundaries and ecosystems, respectively. The experiences in China and Japan, although vary in terms of mode of implementation, demonstrated common elements that characterize EBM practice – that is, recognizing the interconnectedness of marine, coastal and terrestrial systems, including human communities; protecting ecosystem structure, function and processes from the perspective of ecosystem services; addressing cumulative impacts and managing for multiple objectives; addressing multiple spatial and temporal scales in the design and implementation; promoting integrated and multi-sectoral planning; advocating for policy and functional integration and coordination and transforming policy into on-the-ground actions. The paper also highlights the application of innovative approaches and science-based tools to understand and monitor ecosystem functioning and changes; the use of scientific information to identify appropriate management policy and interventions at varying scales and offers some key actions for consideration to support a more comprehensive EBM implementation.

The way forward with ecosystem-based management in tropical contexts: Reconciling with existing management systems

This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise when implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) in tropical nations. EBM creates a new series of challenges, problems, and opportunities that must be considered in light of existing governance and management frameworks in a local context. The paper presents five case studies from different parts of the tropical world, including Oceania, insular and continental Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, which illustrate that the implementation of EBM in watershed and marine ecosystems offers a new series of challenges and opportunities for its inclusion with existing forms of environmental governance and management. The paper suggests that EBM is best thought of as an expansion of customary management (CM) and integrated coastal management (ICM), rather than a paradigm shift, and that it has certain benefits that are worth integrating into existing systems when possible. The paper concludes that the cultural and institutional context of CM as well as the experience, technical skills, and legal basis that serve ICM programs are logical platforms from which to build EBM programs. Some guidelines for creating hybrid management regimes are suggested. In sum, declining marine species and ecosystems require urgent action, necessitating utilization of existing paradigms such as ICM and CM as a foundation for building EBM.

Using existing scientific capacity to set targets for ecosystem-based management: A Puget Sound case study

Abstract Human actions have altered the structure and function of coastal ecosystems worldwide. In many locations, the overall portfolio of goods, cultural amenities, and supporting services provided by the marine environment has deteriorated. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) offers significant promise for addressing these issues because it is a comprehensive and integrated approach designed to reconcile conflicts and trade-offs among users of marine resources. A key step in the implementation of EBM is the establishment of target reference levels, or desired states, for indicators that reflect the status of the ecosystem. This paper reviews five approaches, borrowed from a variety of disciplines, to establish target reference levels for EBM. The approaches include the use of existing reference levels, reference directions, and reference levels based on nonlinear functional relationships, baselines, or social norms. Each approach is particularly suitable for EBM because it can be used alone or in combination with others to contextualize status for a diverse suite of ecosystem goals influenced by a wide variety of human activities. Perhaps most importantly, these approaches offer a prospectus for moving forward with EBM by using readily available information, motivating existing scientific capacity, and addressing trade-offs implicit to the setting of targets. This last point is articulated via examples of how each type of reference level might be applied in Puget Sound, WA, USA, where the efforts of scientists, managers, and policy makers have aligned recently in the interest of EBM implementation.

Living without herbicides in Québec (Canada): historical context, current strategy, research and challenges in forest vegetation management

Vegetation management is crucial to meeting the objectives of forest plantations. Following public hearing processes, chemical herbicides were banned on Crown forest lands in Quebec (Canada) in 2001. Release now mainly relies on mechanical treatments. Our objectives are to review the historical context and the research conducted over the past 15 years that has led to the province’s current vegetation management strategy and to identify the major challenges of vegetation management being faced in Quebec in the context of intensive silviculture and ecosystem-based management. Research has led to an integrated management model without herbicides, adapted to the ecological characteristics of reforestation sites. The Quebec experience illustrates how, on most sites, vegetation management that is based on early reforestation, the use of tall planting stock and intensive mechanical release brings crop trees to the free-to-grow stage without the use of herbicides and without resulting in major effects on vegetation diversity. This vegetation management strategy is an asset in the implementation of ecosystem-based management. However, research demonstrates that mechanical release alone does not promote optimal crop-tree growth, due to rapid resprouting or suckering of competitors and competition from herbaceous species. Therefore, the current strategy poses important challenges in the management of plantations where the objective is to maximise wood production.

Ecosystem-based management institutional design: Balance between federal, state, and local governments within the Gulf of Mexico Alliance

Abstract We present a case study of the organizational framework of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA), which was implemented to promote the use of ecosystem-based management (EBM) at a regional level. GOMA is a state-led initiative formed to protect and restore coastal and marine resources of the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives of the US Gulf States, together with their federal partners, clearly defined ecological, social, and economic short- and long-term objectives to be reached through regional collaborations. The aim of this paper is to show how GOMA, and particularly the Ecosystem Integration and Assessment Priority Issue Team, in its attempt to apply ecosystem approaches to manage marine resources, modified the common organizational scheme by implementing partnerships at various governmental (federal, state, local) and nongovernmental levels. We address the following major points considered to be of importance for EBM implementation: (1) multilevel cooperation, (2) stakeholders’ involvement, (3) sharing of information, (4) bridging science and policy, and (5) consensus-based decision making.

Forecasting the limits of resilience: integrating empirical research with theory

Despite the increasing evidence of drastic and profound changes in many ecosystems, often referred to as regime shifts, we have little ability to understand the processes that provide insurance against such change (resilience). Modelling studies have suggested that increased variance may foreshadow a regime shift, but this requires long-term data and knowledge of the functional links between key processes. Field-based research and ground-truthing is an essential part of the heuristic that marries theoretical and empirical research, but experimental studies of resilience are lagging behind theory, management and policy requirements. Empirically, ecological resilience must be understood in terms of community dynamics and the potential for small shifts in environmental forcing to break the feedbacks that support resilience. Here, we integrate recent theory and empirical data to identify ways we might define and understand potential thresholds in the resilience of nature, and thus the potential for regime shifts, by focusing on the roles of strong and weak interactions, linkages in meta-communities, and positive feedbacks between these and environmental drivers. The challenge to theoretical and field ecologists is to make the shift from hindsight to a more predictive science that is able to assist in the implementation of ecosystem-based management.

Clayoquot Sound: Lessons in ecosystem-based management implementation from an industry perspective

In 1995, the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel submitted a report with 170 recommendations that fundamentally changed forest management as it had been traditionally practiced in the Sound. The Scientific Panel's report represents an early case study of ecosystem-based management (EBM) implementation. The recommendations were adopted by industry, government, and other participants with hopes that this would end the vociferous conflicts that had come to characterize Clayoquot Sound. British Columbia's Provincial government was committed to working with industry, First Nations, forest workers, and local communities to make the changes happen. However, the implementation was not accomplished easily or cheaply, and it was not an unmitigated success, at least from the perspective of industry. In addition to summarizing the history of the process, this article discusses outcomes of EBM implementation in Clayoquot Sound in terms of planning for environmental values before timber, using ecological rather than administrative boundaries, and engaging participants early and throughout the planning process. With emphasis on implications from an industry perspective, the authors recommend approaches that balance the strengths and challenges inherent in ecosystem-based management in British Columbia.

Tropical Marine EBM Feasibility: A Synthesis of Case Studies and Comparative Analyses

This overview compares and synthesizes the articles of this theme issue. It highlights that progress has been made toward the goals of marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) in tropical regions. Four key findings are presented: (1) Tailoring EBM to specific contexts ultimately determines success. (2) Employment of a wide variety of marine management tools is necessary and complementary to spatial management through marine protected areas (MPAs). (3) Although EBM approaches may be usefully defined using oceanographic and ecological principles, the design and implementation of feasible EBM will require, at least, equal consideration of governance and social conditions. (4) Interest in EBM has grown rapidly; however, this approach only improves ocean resource management if sustained by commitments from, at least, policymakers, resource users, and donors. Practical program design principles stressing the importance of leadership development, awareness raising, institutional reform, conflict resolution, adaptation, and evaluation are derived from these case studies and comparative analyses. A suite of empirically based EBM evaluative criteria, which can be adapted to local contexts, are suggested to fostered learning and progress.

Marine ecosystem-based management in the Southern Cone of South America: Stakeholder perceptions and lessons for implementation

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has recently received considerable attention. However, examples of empirical approaches to marine EBM are scarce. Therefore, empirical information on the presence of EBM elements within existing policies and the way they may provide settings and lessons for EBM implementation is timely. This study analyses stakeholders’ perceptions on the existence of EBM principles in current marine management practices and policies, and how they determine perceptions for success and satisfaction regarding coastal management within selected case studies drawn from four developing countries in the Southern Cone of South America. Patterns of response across study sites show that although EBM principles as such are not explicitly included in management/conservation plans, there are policies (mainly local), which generate conditions for more explicit inclusion of them. These are based on participatory bottom-up planning, place-based management and consensus reaching: all elements included within the theoretical literature on EBM implementation.

Marine ecosystem-based management: from characterization to implementation

Over the past decade, policy makers, management agencies, and academic scientists have shown increasing interest in ecosystem-based management (EBM). Yet, the extent that EBM principles, deemed important by scientists, are adopted by managers is still uncertain. Here, we review scientific definitions of EBM and management plans for eight marine and coastal ecosystems to determine if management agencies and academics are approaching EBM in a similar manner. Although the scientific literature outlines specific ecological and social principles of EBM, we find that these details are only loosely incorporated into management plans and actions. Our results indicate that some principles of EBM are being put into practice, but the gap between the scientific literature and management plans suggests that these concepts need to be more effectively translated. Our results also reveal a need for operational tools to make scientific principles easier to put into practice, to further the implementation of EBM.

Observations on the implementation of ecosystem-based management: Experiences on Canada's east and west coasts

The proclamation of the Canada's Ocean Act in 1997 announced Canada's intention to adopt a holistic approach to the management of its aquatic ecosystems, one in which the impacts of the activities of diverse oceans industries would be considered as part of an integrated framework. Since then, there have been a number of initiatives undertaken to explore the structure and function of this new approach. These include not only the objectives of management, both at the conceptual and operational levels, but also issues relating to assessment, regulations and governance. They thus span the full complexity of what is termed ‘integrated management’. The progress made and the lessons learned that are summarized in this paper will be of general interest to those engaged in the management of ocean activities.

Implementing Ecosystem-basedManagement: Lessons from the Great Lakes

Under the US-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) Program was formalized to identify and implement actions needed to restore beneficial uses in the most polluted areas of the Great Lakes (i.e. Areas of Concern). It was further required that individual RAPs embody a systematic and comprehensive ecosystem approach (i.e. an approach which accounts for interrelationships among land, air, water and all living things, including humans, and involves user groups in comprehensive management). Careful review and analysis of the RAP Program offers an opportunity to gain a better understanding of ecosystem-based management for other watersheds, and to identify important principles and elements which contribute to effective implementation. Principles which are considered essential for effective implementation of ecosystem-based management include: (1) broad-based stakeholder involvement; (2) commitment of top leaders; (3) agreement on information needs and interpretation; (4) action planning within a strategic framework; (5) human resource development; (6) results and indicators to measure progress; (7) systematic review and feedback; and (8) stakeholder satisfaction. The Great Lakes RAP experience with ecosystem-based management also demonstrates the need for a transition from a traditional,command-and-control,regulatory approach of governmentalagencies toward a more co-operative,value-added,support-basedrole. Review of RAPs in all 42 Areas of Concern provides compelling evidence that successful application of ecosystem-based management is dependent on broad-based stakeholder involvement in decision making, along with strong partnerships which encourage collaboration, co-operation and adaptability in management actions.