Integrated Ecosystem Management Research Articles

Recent developments in building sustainable marine fisheries in China: Reflections on the 2023 Revision of the Marine Environmental Protection Law

As the ocean provides an environmental carrier for fisheries development, sustainable marine fisheries and marine environmental protection are highly synergistic and consistent. Facing traditional and emerging crises such as marine pollution, overfishing and climate change, China revised the Marine Environmental Protection Law in 2023. This article aims to evaluate whether the newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law effectively responds to crises of sustainable development in marine fisheries and how it contributes to sustainable marine fisheries. The study has found that the 2023 revision enriches and improves China’s legal regimes on marine fisheries from multiple aspects, covering marine environmental supervision, marine ecological protection and the prevention and control of land-based pollution, engineering construction projects pollution, waste dumping pollution, vessel pollution and legal responsibility. The newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law not only refines the institutional norms and intensifies the legal responsibilities of violations but also improves the systemic nature of the legislation, thus providing stronger legal guarantees for sustainable marine fisheries. However, there are also legislative shortcomings such as unclear connotations of the newly established legal regimes and insufficient response to overfishing and climate change. Nevertheless, China’s newly revised Marine Environmental Protection Law applies the methodology of integrated ecosystem management and comprehensively utilized regulatory measures such as command-and-control tools, honor encouragement and economic incentives to enhance its regulatory effect, also providing implications and insights for addressing the challenges of sustainable marine fisheries on a global scale.

Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Prediction of Carbon Storage in Jiuquan City Ecosystem Based on PLUS-InVEST Model

Based on the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal strategies, it is important to explore the impact of land use change on carbon storage and the drivers of spatial variation in carbon storage in the Northwest Arid Zone, which is vital to improve the carbon sink increment of the regional ecosystem and promote the regional carbon breakeven. The arid region of northwest China is an extremely fragile natural ecology, and with the rapid advancement of new urbanization, the rate of land use change has accelerated significantly, which has a certain impact on the carbon storage and fixation capacity of ecosystems. The PLUS-InVEST model was used to simulate the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of carbon storage under natural development, intensive development, water resource constraint, and ecological protection scenarios in Jiuquan City in 2035, and the parameter optimal geographic detector model was used to analyze the spatial divergence drivers of carbon storage. The results showed that:① the area of cultivated land, watershed, and construction land in Jiuquan City showed a significant increasing trend from 1990 to 2020, whereas the area of the remaining land use types showed a decreasing trend. ② The carbon storage in Jiuquan City increased from 7 722 808.1 t to 7 784 371 t from 1990 to 2020, and the conversion of grassland into unused land was the main cause of the loss of regional carbon storage, accounting for 85% of the total loss. ③ All four development scenarios in 2035 showed an increasing trend of carbon storage, among which the ecological protection scenario had the most significant increase, with an increment of 76 989.29 t. ④ The degree of land use, population density, GDP density, and NDVI were the main driving factors of the spatial variation in carbon storage in Jiuquan City, among which the degree of land use had the strongest explanatory power (q value of 0.849), and the interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors enhanced the explanatory power of each factor on the spatial variation in carbon storage. The results of the study can provide a scientific basis and decision basis for the integrated ecosystem management and territorial space optimization in Jiuquan City.

Atlantis Ecosystem Model Summit 2022: Report from a workshop

Ecosystem models can play a supportive and informative role in the implementation of integrated approaches to marine resource management. Atlantis, an end-to-end biogeochemical marine ecosystem model, is capable of exploring a wide range of ecosystem aspects and interactions. To aid the testing and development of Atlantis as a central tool for integrated ecosystem management and advance global partnerships for living marine resource management, the second International Atlantis Ecosystem Modeling Summit gathered 84 participants from 13 countries in May 2022. The main outcomes of the 2022 Atlantis Summit include: fortifying the sense of global community, training 37 participants, disseminating tools currently available and tools needed for processing Atlantis inputs/outputs, and identifying limitations and use-cases for moving forward with research pertaining to climate change, fisheries management, and synergies with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Defining ecological liabilities and structuring ecosystem accounts to support the transition to sustainable societies

Harnessing reliable and relevant information on ecosystems requires focusing and prioritising information acquisition on dimensions of interest. As a boundary object between ecosystem monitoring, research and public decision-making, ecosystem accounting can serve this purpose. We develop an argument in favour of a set of accounts, consistent with the statistical standard part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA-EA), that explicitly links monetary accounts to ecosystem extent and condition accounts. The ecosystem condition account is structured in three categories reflecting the main values motivating integrated ecosystem management targets and notions of «good ecological status». These categories are: (i) the maintenance of their heritage dimensions, (ii) their capacity to sustainably provide ecosystem services and (iii) the maintenance of their overall functionality. We discuss how such ecosystem accounts and associated monitoring can form the basis both for assessing an ecological debt by using a cost-based approach and for designing an action-orientated information system suitable to support the transition towards sustainable societies.

Comprehensive management and regulation method of bay ecosystem based on environmental law.

In order to promote the sustainable development of the gulf ecosystem, a regulation method of the gulf ecosystem based on environmental law was proposed. Taking the coastal bay area of Fujian Province as the research object, based on the analysis of the causes of ecosystem degradation, the energy loss of the area was evaluated from three aspects of climate regulation, waste treatment and interference regulation, and the index weight of integrated ecosystem management was determined to complete the evaluation of the bay ecosystem. The results show that from 2016 to 2020, pollution has increased. The proposed comprehensive management and control methods are adopted to control the pollution index of the region within 0.3, so as to maintain a stable downward trend of pollution.

Integrated ecosystem management and regulation strategies in the South China Sea

In order to improve the coupling degree between ecosystem and environmental security in the South China Sea Gulf and enhance the ecological environment security, the integrated management and regulation strategies of the Gulf ecosystem were proposed. Firstly, the coupling relationship between the safety culture of the South China Sea Gulf and the ecological environment safety is determined. Secondly, the grey correlation analysis method is used to calculate the correlation coefficient between the safety culture of the Gulf in the South China Sea and the ecological environment safety, and the calculation formula of the arithmetic mean value is used to deal with the correlation coefficient, so as to complete the construction of the grey correlation degree model of the ecological environment safety. On the basis of value calculation and SLOPE trend change research method, the variation of rural ecosystem service value was obtained. Finally, through the analysis of the coupling time sequence law of ecological environment security, the regulation strategy of the South China Sea Gulf ecosystem was pointed out. The proposed method has the most obvious decreasing trend in the complexity of the South China Sea Gulf, and the proposed method has a better effect, and the coupling degree of ecological environment safety is closely related.

Natural driving mechanism and trade-off and synergy analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of multiple typical ecosystem services in Northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Research on the natural driving mechanism and trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem services (ES) is a prerequisite for the implementation of scientific integrated ecosystem management, especially in ecologically fragile alpine ecological barrier regions. This study mainly studies the spatiotemporal dynamics and natural driving mechanism of water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), windbreak and sand fixation (WS) and carbon sequestration (CS) in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, identifies the trade-off and synergy features between ES in horizontal space. The results showed that the distribution of four ES presents different geographical spatial patterns, and an obvious increasing trend during the study period. Seven natural factors (precipitation, temperature, windspeed, etc.) can explain 38.1～47.0% of the spatiotemporal dynamics of ES in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Vegetation characteristics and elevation are the main explanatory variables controlling ES spatial pattern with the total contribution rate of 29.3% in 2000 and 26.5% in 2010. Temperature and elevation are the two most critical natural factors affecting ES, with the contribution ratio of 29.9% in 2020. The contribution of single nature factor on each ES pattern is different in the same year, and show interannual changes in different year. The contributions of wind speed, precipitation and slope to SC are uncertain, and the effect of temperature on CS is nonlinear. The trade-off and synergy cluster areas are mostly agglomerated and embedded in the compatibility region, with the characteristics of regional differentiation. The trade-offs and synergies between ES generally present the characteristics of interannual fluctuation, except WY-SC and WS-CS, which show a weakening trend in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Based on the above findings, we further discussed the complex trade-off and synergy relationships of ES, and the results provide scientific support for sustainable development by creating win–win scenarios under future climate change trends.

Long-term ecological trajectories of a disturbed Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Biguglia lagoon): Ecosystem-based approach and considering its resilience for conservation?

Coastal lagoons are subjected to ever-increasing direct or indirect anthropic pressures and are inexorably deteriorating with serious issues regarding their resilience. In this paper, we assessed the functioning and evolution of the highly disturbed Biguglia coastal lagoon (Mediterranean Sea, Corsica) through an ecosystem-based approach (EBA), using multiple biotic and abiotic proxies (hydro-climatic context and eutrophication), considering its connectivity to sea and watershed and biological compartments (macrophytes, phytoplankton, and invasive species) and taking into account human influence (management actions and fishing activities). The aim of this work is firstly to provide a comprehensive analysis of its long-term (2000–2021) ecological evolution trajectory and then, based on these results, to anticipate management strategies for supporting its conservation and restoration, and the maintenance of ecosystem services it offers. Results revealed that while the lagoon showed these days a good capacity to recover after disturbance and absorb change, it recently exhibited considerable changes in its phytoplankton community composition, developed an increased susceptibility to biological invasion, and experienced a drastic reduction in fish stocks. The major interannual variations of the mean salinity, strongly dependent on management interventions beyond natural climatic variability, summarized this instability. In the future, the lagoon may no longer be able to cope with even small disturbances, which could then be sufficient to reach a breakpoint and tip the system permanently into undesired/degraded states. We demonstrated that local and punctual management actions are not always beneficial for the entire ecosystem or even detrimental in some instances. Such a retrospective ecosystem-based approach is fundamental for producing the holistic insights required to implement efficient integrated ecosystem management. This further helps enhance lagoon resilience and hence preserve its ecosystem services in the context of increasing global changes. Such lessons are useful anywhere for comparable ecosystems.

Pathways between Climate, Fish, Fisheries, and Management: A Conceptual Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach

The abundance and distribution of marine fishes is influenced by environmental conditions, predator–prey relationships, multispecies interactions, and direct human impacts, such as fishing. The adaptive response of the system depends on its structure and the pathways that link environmental factors to the taxon in question. The “Star Diagram” is a socio-ecological model of marine ecosystems that depicts the general pathways between climate, fish, and fisheries, and their intersection with climate policy and resource management. We illustrate its use by identifying the key factors, pathways and drivers that influence walleye pollock, crab, and sockeye salmon, under a warming scenario on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. This approach predicts that all three species will see reduced populations under a long-term warming scenario. Going forward, the challenge to managers is to balance the magnitude of the effect of harvest and the adaptability of their management system, with the scale and degree of resilience and the behavioral, physiological, or evolutionary adaptation of the ecosystem and its constituents. The Star Diagram provides a novel conceptual construct that managers can use to visualize and integrate the various aspects of the system into a holistic, socio-ecological management framework.

Expert-Based Assessment and Mapping of Ecosystem Services Potential in the Nemunas Delta and Curonian Lagoon Region, Lithuania

The Curonian Lagoon (SE Baltic Sea) and the coastal wetland system play a vital role in maintaining the overall cultural, economic and ecological health of the region. However, its value is still largely underestimated and there is a lack of integrated ecosystem management based on multiple ecosystem services assessment. In this study, 34 ecosystem services (ES) were identified, assessed and mapped following the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). Using expert opinion, 35 land cover classes were scored for their ES potential, these being 15 CORINE land cover classes (CLC) and 20 Natura 2000 areas of conservation (habitat types, i.e., Sites of Community Importance). The total ES potential was calculated by averaging the opinions of experts, using self-confidence scoring as weights, and the ES relative importance index was derived from a questionnaire. As a result, three maps corresponding to each ES potential category (provisioning, regulation and maintenance and cultural) were calculated and further used for hot- and coldspot analyses. Regulation and maintenance and cultural ES were highly interrelated and had the highest potential in the studied area. Forested areas had the highest total ES potential and contributed significantly to the land cover of the ES hotspots.

Integrated landscape approaches to building resilience and multifunctionality in the Kailash Sacred Landscape, China

Climate warming-induced rangeland degradation in arid and semiarid steppe imposes substantial threats to the livelihoods of people. But this dilemma can be solved by combining all sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry and tourism through their complementarity, i.e. by adopting integrated landscape ecosystem-based approaches. A number of experiences and lessons have been achieved in a specific sector for its successful development, but not in the multiple social, economic, and ecological systems. In this study, we uses the perspective of integrated ecosystem management to strengthen crop-livestock integration and innovative livelihoods, and propose a multifunctional Kailash Landscape to activate the inter-linkage among agriculture, animal husbandry, and heritage pilgrimage/tourism in order to achieve multifunction of the socio-ecological system. A case study of Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative in China was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by land use and land cover change and its consequence on multiple ecosystem services. Integrated landscape management was found to be effective in building resilience of socio-ecosystems by reducing the vulnerability of traditional agriculture in terms of improving crop production and animal husbandry. A multifunctional landscape is expected to be integrated and build a resilient sector complementarity including farming, pastorism, environmental and socioeconomic function. The analyses show that integrated landscape approaches provide an effective perspective for sustainable socio-economic development in this sacred landscape. The findings highlight the importance of landscape-scale ecosystem-based adaptation to environment change.

The Importance of Being Political: Emergence of a Multi-stakeholder Forum at the Lake Malili Complex, South Sulawesi

Multi-stakeholder forums are considered an essential element of landscape approaches for sustainable development and integrated ecosystem management. Such forums are widely adopted in environmental management policies and introduced as precursors for novel institutional arrangements for collective action in complex landscapes. However, while they are often held up as a mechanism for greater inclusion and representation, they can also further marginalize less powerful stakeholders. In this respect, the importance of politics in shaping the success of a multi-stakeholder forum is often overlooked. This article examines different multi-stakeholder mechanisms for governing the Lake Malili Complex in Sulawesi, Indonesia —a landscape characterized by competing land use interests and the presence of threatened endemic species. The case highlights a successful bottom-up multi-stakeholder approach that became a model for collaboration, and which was subsequently scaled up to cover the broader Lake Malili Complex area.. The research is based on longstanding participation in the politics of decision-making processes at the Lake Malili Complex, complemented by in-depth examination of the establishment of the multi-stakeholder forum. The findings show that strong, locally-based initiatives provide an avenue for generating greater participation in achieving mutual goals for conserving the Lake Malili Complex. However, participation in the multi-stakeholder platform is not enough to push for decision making at the district level, where more powerful management decisions take place. We therefore note that outcomes of community-based resource management are limited when they are not backed by more political approaches to influence decision making

Measuring the spatiotemporal variations of vegetation net primary productivity in Inner Mongolia using spatial autocorrelation

Abstract Monitoring variations in vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) contributes greatly to the evaluation of terrestrial ecosystem structure and function. Current research has focused on the trend changes of vegetation productivity but has largely ignored spatial correlation. This study selected MOD17A3 NPP data in Inner Mongolia to explore the spatiotemporal variations of NPP using spatial autocorrelation indices (Global Moran’s I, Getis-Ord General G, Getis-Ord Gi*, and Anselin Local Moran’s I). This is helpful to examine whether NPP in Inner Mongolia has exhibited significant spatial cluster based on temporal variations and spatial patterns. NPP in Inner Mongolia has shown significant spatial cluster in high-value areas from 2000 to 2014 and demonstrated a polarized distribution. Although the east part of the study area generally showed a high NPP pattern, the northeast turned to low NPP pattern in 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2010 and the southeast turned to low NPP pattern in 2009 and 2013. The former variations were primarily affected by precipitation, while the latter variations were affected by both hydrothermal conditions and human activities. These results are useful to analyze spatial correlations and local abnormalities of NPP and provide references for integrated ecosystem management in Inner Mongolia.

Integrated Ecosystem Sustainability Approach: Toward a Holistic System of Thinking of Managing Arid Ecosystems

Ecosystems in arid regions play a pivotal role in providing services to vulnerable environments with considerable challenges including extreme temperatures, low precipitation, variable climate change, and infertile soil. The countries of the arid regions are facing more challenges due to land degradation, biodiversity loss, the scarcity of water and food resources, and protecting their inhabitant’s public health. In many cases, policymakers in these countries are aware of the challenges, but they are seeking through scientific communities to develop clear sustainability and resiliency plans. Due to the complexity associated with arid ecosystem services, the scientist communities are still focusing on the development of integrated ecosystem management approaches. Within this line of commitment to our future generation, the paper in hand presents a framework for an Integrated Ecosystem Sustainability Approach (IESA). The core of this nexus approach is to understand and quantify the interlinkages between the ecosystem components, internal and external stresses, and society needs. The paper also identifies the key gaps to be considered when applying the IESA approach to arid ecosystem management plans.

Modelling the Impacts of Aquaculture in Wetland Ecosystems for Sustainable Aquaculture Management: An Integrated Ecosystem Approach

This research integrates information from both environmental and social sciences to inform effective management of the wetlands. A three-stage research framework was developed for modelling the drivers and pressures imposed on the wetlands and their impacts to the ecosystem and the local communities. Firstly, a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was used to predict the probability of anthropogenic activities affecting the delivery of different key wetland ecosystem services under different management scenarios. Secondly, Choice Experiment (CE) was used to quantify the relative preferences which key wetland stakeholder group (aquaculturists) held for delivery of different levels of these key ecosystem services. Thirdly, a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was applied to produce an ordinal ranking of the alternative management scenarios accounting for their impacts upon ecosystem service delivery as perceived through the preferences of the aquaculturists. This integrated ecosystem management approach was applied to a wetland ecosystem in Setiu, Terengganu, Malaysia which currently supports a significant level of aquaculture activities. This research has produced clear guidelines to inform policy makers considering alternative wetland management scenarios: Intensive Aquaculture, Conservation or Ecotourism, in addition to the Status Quo. The findings of this research are as follows. The BBN revealed that current aquaculture activity is likely to have significant impacts on water column nutrient enrichment, but trivial impacts on caged fish biomass, especially under the Intensive Aquaculture scenario. Secondly, the best fitting CE models identified several stakeholder sub-groups for aquaculturists, each with distinct sets of preferences for the delivery of key ecosystem services. Thirdly the MCDA identified Conservation as the most desirable scenario overall based on ordinal ranking in the eyes of most of the stakeholder sub-groups. Ecotourism and Status Quo scenarios were the next most preferred and Intensive Aquaculture was the least desirable scenario. The methodologies developed through this research provide an opportunity for improving planning and decision making processes that aim to deliver sustainable management of wetland ecosystems in Malaysia.

Reindeer Herders Without Reindeer. The Challenges of Joint Knowledge Production on Kolguev Island in the Russian Arctic

Kolguev Island in the Russian Arctic has a unique tundra ecosystem and an indigenous Nenets population whose livelihood is traditionally based on reindeer herding. The Nenets faced a major crisis in 2013–2014 when the reindeer population collapsed. Widely different explanations for this collapse were put forward. This lack of a shared perspective points at the failure of genuine joint knowledge production (JKP) in the island’s UNEP–GEF’s ECORA project (2004–2009). The ECORA project aimed to achieve integrated ecosystem management by stimulating dialog and mutual learning among indigenous people, state agencies, and scientists. This paper analyses the failure of ECORA’s JKP, using a recently developed framework of conditions for successful JKP. The results suggest that ECORA met none of these conditions. It failed at bringing the scientific and indigenous knowledge systems together, and the produced knowledge did not resonate with indigenous people’s perception of living in Kolguev.

Mapping the conservation priority of migratory shorebird habitat on a dynamic deltaic coast

Shorebird habitat degradation and loss due to high-intensity disturbances from human activities and the negative effects of global climate change in coastal deltas have led to the need to identify and designate priority areas for conservation with different levels of protection. We have proposed an integrated framework and model for the management of priority shorebird habitats in dynamic coastal delta zones (MPH-DC) based on a fuzzy spatial assessment model that incorporates habitat importance and disturbance analyses. By evaluating the relationships between shorebird populations and key ecological habitats, 19 structural factors, including land cover type, vegetation structure, terrain, potential human influence and natural interference, were derived from multi-temporal optical and radar remotely sensed imagery and incorporated into the index system to evaluate habitat conservation priority levels for Charadriidae and Anatidae in the Changjiang estuary, a typical coastal habitat that currently faces enormous challenges but is not yet under dynamic conservation priority management at a large spatial-temporal scale. The use of the MPH-DC framework proved to be effective for evaluating the spatial distribution and conservation priority of habitats in dynamic coastal deltas and for rapidly identifying regions where restoration and priority adjustment are needed, thus enriching broad-scale integrated ecosystem management solutions for coastal deltaic zones.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Ecosystem Management With Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Practice

Integrated ecosystem management is challenging due to many, often conflicting, targets and limited resources to allocate. A valuable and straightforward approach is to integrate an ecosystem services assessment in a cost-effectiveness analysis as method to evaluate and compare the cost-effectiveness of several management scenarios to reach one or more objectives and take into account the potential effects on other ecosystem functions and services. Nevertheless, this method is not commonly used in ecosystem management evaluation but can provide an alternative for the frequently used but often contested cost-benefit analysis (which requires the step of assigning a monetary value to each benefit). The aim of this study is to apply the cost-effectiveness analysis in combination with an ecosystem services assessment on a real case-study (comparing alternative management strategies for estuaries) to derive lessons learned to go from theory to practice. The application of this method for the case-study reveals many remaining challenges such as data availability and knowledge to assess ecosystem effects of management measures. Nevertheless, the analysis demonstrates that this method can be used for making a more integrated evaluation and supporting better-informed management decisions.

Large-scale river restoration pays off: A case study of ecosystem service valuation for the Emscher restoration generation project

Though the Ecosystem Service (ESS) approach is considered promising for integrated ecosystem management, its operationalisation is hampered by the lack of agreed evaluation instruments. To demonstrate the suitability of a structured ESS evaluation, we conducted a case study estimating the impact of the restoration of the Emscher River and its tributaries on the provision, use and benefit of ESS. The Emscher restoration is a large-scale project with immense temporal and financial efforts. To assess the values generated by this restoration, we applied an ESS evaluation framework and quantified the regulation and maintenance ESS ‘self-purification capacity’, ‘maintaining nursery populations and habitats’ and ‘flood protection’ as well as cultural ESS such as aesthetic, recreational, educational and existence values. Final ESS were monetized using economic methods, e.g. ‘damage costs avoided’, ‘contingent valuation’ and ‘benefit transfer’. We estimated a market value/direct economic impact of 21,441,572 € per year as a result of the restoration. Furthermore, a non-market value for people who care about the local environment of 109,121,217 € per year was determined, representing the benefit with ‘non-use value’ from the Emscher restoration. Our case study demonstrated the successful application of the structured evaluation framework in practice. Its implications and limitations are discussed.

Recommendations for developing and applying genetic tools to assess and manage biological invasions in marine ecosystems

The European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims to adopt integrated ecosystem management approaches to achieve or maintain “Good Environmental Status” for marine waters, habitats and resources, including mitigation of the negative effects of non-indigenous species (NIS). The Directive further seeks to promote broadly standardized monitoring efforts and assessment of temporal trends in marine ecosystem condition, incorporating metrics describing the distribution and impacts of NIS. Accomplishing these goals will require application of advanced tools for NIS surveillance and risk assessment, particularly given known challenges associated with surveying and monitoring with traditional methods. In the past decade, a host of methods based on nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) analysis have been developed or advanced that promise to dramatically enhance capacity in assessing and managing NIS. However, ensuring that these rapidly evolving approaches remain accessible and responsive to the needs of resource managers remains a challenge. This paper provides recommendations for future development of these genetic tools for assessment and management of NIS in marine systems, within the context of the explicit requirements of the MSFD. Issues considered include technological innovation, methodological standardization, data sharing and collaboration, and the critical importance of shared foundational resources, particularly integrated taxonomic expertise. Though the recommendations offered here are not exhaustive, they provide a basis for future intentional (and international) collaborative development of a genetic toolkit for NIS research, capable of fulfilling the immediate and long term goals of marine ecosystem and resource conservation.