Marine Governance Research Articles

RETRACTED: Revisiting Indonesia's governance and conservation of cetaceans

Over the past few decades, Indonesia's marine conservation governance has been criticized. This article analyzes the overlaps and gaps in domestic law and policy regimes for cetaceans or marine mammal management and examines issues of institutional arrangements and legal frameworks related to cetacean conservation in Indonesia. The legal framework's progress on cetacean governance shows three distinct phases: 1975-1985 (species-focused governance approach), 1990-2009 (area-based approach), and 2010-present (broader marine governance approach). This study reveals that the main shortcoming of the legal framework is unclear mandates and overlapping jurisdictions. This study suggests several urgent policies that should be accommodated in the current legal regime to strengthen cetacean conservation. In addition, this research also recommends creating a collaboration mechanism between institutions and encouraging Indonesia to join as a full member of the International Whaling Commission and the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals Convention to strengthen cetacean governance and conservation.

The digital turn of marine planning: a global analysis of ocean geoportals

ABSTRACT Recent research highlighted the use and role played by digital technologies supporting marine spatial planning (MSP), especially geoportals. This research seldom considers to study an overview of the role of digital technologies and examines the digitalization of marine governance in planning. Employing a critical cartography framework and assemblage theory, we elaborate on the use of geoportal and public involvement in the digital turn of MSP. We show how the digital turn in marine planning is taking place at different levels depending on: the functionalities present on geoportals, the political support for MSP implementation, the regions of the world, and the level of plan development. According to the three dimensions of digital (marine) governance (Kloppenburg et al., 2022), we reveal that the role of geoportal in MSP is a part of the first dimension by seeing and knowing, sometimes the second dimension by self-engagement and in the most advanced forms of geoportal part of the third dimension by leading actions and interventions. In general, we find that the geoportal is more of a facade than a tool for doing MSP. The digital turn in marine planning is real but does not yet allow the public to be a real stakeholder in the process.

Comparing Public Participation in Coastal and Marine Planning in the Arctic: Lessons from Iceland and Norway

Amid a changing global climate, Northern coastal communities face a variety of challenges to their livelihoods, which are dependent on marine resources. Marine spatial planning (MSP) provides opportunities for cooperation between authorities, stakeholders, and the public to ensure sustainable marine management. Public participation is a crucial element of coastal and marine planning for its long-term democratic legitimacy and sustainability. However, the process of MSP is often wrought with conflict and challenges of involving stakeholders and the public in decisions concerning an often-contested marine space. Whereas coastal zone planning (CZP) is well established in Norway and a reiteration of previous CZP was conducted 2020–23, MSP is new to Iceland, and has only recently been launched with its first pilot plans in 2019. This study investigates how participation in coastal and marine planning processes compare between Iceland and Norway and what lessons can be shared between them. Data were collected from two case studies in the Tromsø region in Norway and the Westfjords of Iceland through analysis of planning documentation, literature review, as well as participant observation in the Westfjords and 11 semi-structured interviews across both case studies. The results show that public participation is formally integral to both processes but, in practice, varies considerably. Both planning processes are driven by the expansion of the aquaculture industry, and a variety of issues faced during the planning process are similar. In Norway, public participation is politically desired and guided by a participation strategy emphasising synergies between expert and local knowledge. In the Tromsø region, meaningful public participation varied across municipalities and issues regarding Indigenous participation remain. In Iceland, there is little evident political expectation of public engagement, and the process is characterised by a passive approach to participation that aims to inform the public but does not include wider sharing of decision-making power. The findings do not only make clear that a revision of current public participation processes is needed in both case studies but also point towards wider issues in marine governance that have consequences for blue justice, such as the exclusion of groups in decision-making, lack of public discussion of marine issues and top–down governance supporting established power hierarchies.

Impact of China's marine governance policies on the marine ecological environment – A case study of the Bohai rim

In 2018, the Chinese government implemented the Action Plan for Comprehensive Management of the Bohai Sea(CMAP-BS) to improve the marine ecological environment in the Bohai rim. This study considered the Bohai rim as the research area to explore the impact of China's marine governance policies on the marine ecological environment and its mechanism of action. To this end, we used panel data of coastal provinces and municipalities from 2010 to 2020 and adopted a Differences-in-Differences model to analyse the impact of CMAP-BS on its marine ecological environment. Results of the baseline regression suggested that CMAP-BS can improve its marine ecological environment. To corroborate our findings, we further conducted a robustness test; the results were consistent. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the policy effect of CMAP-BS is more pronounced in areas with a better level of economic development than in those with less economic development. Further research and analysis showed that the improvement of the marine ecological environment can be achieved by adjusting the model of agricultural development.

A Global Review of Progress in Remote Sensing and Monitoring of Marine Pollution

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, human activities have caused marine pollution in three ways: land source, air source, and sea source, leading to the problem of marine environments. Remote sensing, with its wide coverage and fast and accurate monitoring capability, continues to be an important tool for marine environment monitoring and evaluation research. This paper focuses on the three types of marine pollution, namely marine seawater pollution, marine debris and microplastic pollution, and marine air pollution. We review the application of remote sensing technology methods for monitoring marine pollution and identify the limitations of existing methods. Marine seawater pollution can be effectively monitored by remote sensing technology, especially where traditional monitoring methods are inadequate. For marine debris and microplastic pollution, the monitoring methods are still in the early stages of development and require further research. For marine air pollution, more air pollution parameters are required for accurate monitoring. Future research should focus on developing marine remote sensing with data, technology, and standard sharing for three-dimensional monitoring, combining optical and physical sensors with biosensors, and using multi-source and multi-temporal monitoring data. A marine multi-source monitoring database is necessary to provide an immediately available basis for coastal and marine governance, improve marine spatial planning, and help coastal and marine protection.

Grand challenges in marine governance for ocean sustainability in the twenty-first century

The twenty-first century is seeing multiple and accelerating anthropogenic threats to the Ocean which jeopardize the planetary system and human well-being. Given the urgency of this planetary emergency, ensuring Ocean sustainability and an equitable and just future for humanity and the planet requires unprecedented acceleration and innovation in the theory and practice of marine governance. This Perspective provides an overview of recent trends and emerging issues facing the Ocean. It outlines a number of Grand Challenges, or important areas to advance for scholars and practitioners of marine governance, namely the bridging of sectors and scales, connecting people and the seas, consideration of inclusivity, equity and justice, and innovating knowledge generation and the interface of science, society and policy. This will allow to address questions of how to achieve just, equitable and sustainable use of and interaction with the Ocean in the twenty-first century.

The evolution of China’s policies on marine and coastal ecosystems in climate change adaptation

Marine and coastal ecosystems play a crucial role in adjusting the process of climate change. Mitigation and adaptation activities involve interdependent carbon and water cycles. Excessive carbon emissions burden the carbon storage capacity of the ocean and then affect the balance and stability of marine ecosystems, leading to global ocean issues such as ocean acidification and the calcification of marine life. While many studies have been conducted on this issue, there is a lack of policy analysis on how countries deal with climate change, particularly in the area of marine and coastal ecosystems’ policies. In 1992, China ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and China actively participated in the governance of marine and coastal ecosystems adapting to climate change. This article reviews and textually analyses China’s policies related to the adaptation of marine and coastal ecosystems to climate change in 1992–2023. It adopts policy-oriented jurisprudence to illustrate natural and social factors which drive the evolution of China’s policies on marine and coastal ecosystems in climate change adaptation. To achieve the optimal policy results, this article recommends further enhancing the mechanism of policy implementation and management, innovating the system of policy incentives and supervision, and optimizing the framework of policy effectiveness evaluation on the basis of further policy goals.

Bali Strait Optimization: Joint Decree on Marine Management

The Bali Strait has advantages in meeting points such as meetings of local and foreign fishermen, water quality and fish quality, as well as being the busiest strait in Indonesia which involves stakeholders, business, fishermen, military, state agencies, and tourism. This article aims to optimize the management of the Bali Strait through a Joint Decree (SKB). A descriptive qualitative research method to generate in-depth descriptions. Well managed results involving the provinces of Bali and East Java. Many sectors are involved, by him a Joint Decree was made so that it is managed properly, professionally and proportionally. The SKB is an instrument for coordinating and maximizing marine governance in the aspects of fishing, security and control over lemuru fishing and is relevant to the Minapolitan area program by integrating the roles of all elements of fisheries management

Policies for potentially inundated island nations for the retention of marine resources and rights of associated under-water features and exclusive economic zones

Sea level rise is one of the primary drivers of global ecosystem change, with significant and far-reaching consequences for the social and natural environments of islands. The emphasis on maintaining marine resources, and the rights associated with underwater features and exclusive economic zones, has notably intensified for Small Island Developing States (SIDSs). Despite these states possessing legally secured rights to maritime zones, their inadequate capacity for marine governance could render them susceptible to rampant illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as the tangible loss of these resources. Consequently, such approaches thus lack effectiveness to promote SIDSs’ adaptation to climate targets and the retention of marine resources. Therefore, this paper uses the coevolutionary framework to analyse the synergies among policies in SIDSs, from the perspective of institutional diversity. It summarises 107 policies into the categories of engineering, economy, cooperation, and education. Based on the results of this categorisation, the challenges and key trends underlying the implementation of such policies in SIDSs are explored. Two corresponding recommendations are developed, which include building island resilience based on acknowledging the diversity of environmental and social issues among SIDSs and promoting “learning-by-doing” in those SIDSs.

Editorial: New frontiers of marine governance in the ocean decade

Editorial: New frontiers of marine governance in the ocean decade

The impact of COVID-19 on the value of coastal recreational resource from the perspective of recreational behaviour change: Evident from China

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak took a heavy toll on the global tourism industry in 2020, and affected the value realization of coastal recreational ecosystem service. From the micro perspective, this paper combines travel cost method with contingent behaviour method to obtain residents' actual behaviour and contingent behaviour data, and discusses the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on the value realization of coastal recreational resources from the perspective of the change in residents' recreational behaviour in Qingdao, China. Residents are observed to significantly reduce their outdoor activities in response to the COVID-19. The number of visits to the beach decreases by 25.2% when there is an outbreak, and decreases by 0.064% for every 1% increase in the number of confirmed cases, which is used to represent the severity of the epidemic. The asymmetries effects of epidemic situation on residents' recreational behaviour show that the improvements lead to larger and more significant impacts than the deteriorations. The disappearance of the pandemic crisis will provide considerable welfare for the citizens in Qingdao, which reaches to 1.9323 billion CNY/year. If the number of confirmed cases deteriorates to 900, the environmental welfare loss will be 0.3366 billion CNY/year. Additionally, we test the effects of residents' cognitive variables, and find that risk perception can strengthen the negative impacts of COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, the deteriorations in the environmental attributes are found to have stronger impacts on the number of visits than the improvements. This paper provides empirical-support results about the change of coastal recreational value through the evaluation of recreational behaviours in the post-epidemic period, which will give important implications for government's marine ecosystem restoration and coastal management work.

Transitioning from blue growth to the sustainable blue economy: A review of Ireland’s new marine governance in the aquaculture sector

This paper reviews the evolution of marine governance in Ireland in response to EU policy requirements in relation to the development of a sustainable blue economy in coherence with the United Nations Ocean Decade (2021-2030). In response to these EU requirements, Ireland has introduced the National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) and Maritime Area Planning Act, 2021 (MAPA) in 2021 to deliver this sustainable blue economy. This new marine and coastal governance framework in Ireland reforms the consenting regime for key blue economy sectors such as Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) and sets new policy requirements for the integration of aquaculture within the MSP framework. However, the exclusion of aquaculture from the new consenting regime may hinder the full integration of the sector into MSP and impede compliance with environmental goals established by EU Directives (e.g., WFD, MSFD, MSPD). This review identifies policy and legal gaps which may impede the integration of aquaculture into the new Irish marine governance and national MSP process. Furthermore, this paper analyses aquaculture licensing cases to assess the integration of environmental criteria into planning decisions to gather insight into the readiness of the sector’s transition towards a sustainable model. The analysis from this paper indicates that the legal framework underpinning MSP in Ireland may have a limited impact on the integration of aquaculture and hinder the delivery of sustainability across all marine sectors.

The development of ocean governance for marine environment protection: Current legal system in Taiwan

Taiwan establishes Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) in 2018. Ocean governance has reached a new milestone. In 2019, the Ocean Basic Act was enacted. In 2020, the National Ocean Policy White Paper was published, meaning that Taiwan has specialized ocean authorities, regulations, enforcement units, and relevant mechanisms and policies. The Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) is also responsible for marine environmental protection and conservation. To ensure good ocean governance, maintain marine resources, and protect the environment, the OCA has recently drafted the Marine Conservation Act for sustainable development. This article mainly reviews, analyzes, and compares Taiwan’s current marine-related laws and regulations and refers to the laws, policies, and mechanisms of other countries to provide suggestions on marine governance and the ongoing draft of the Marine Conservation Act.

Anglers' support for an offshore wind farm: Fishing effects or clean energy symbolism

Rapid expansion of offshore wind energy will have impacts on existing users of marine space, including recreational angling. Because angling has significant economic and cultural significance in ocean and coastal areas, and managers increasingly employ new approaches to manage conflicts between fishing and other uses, it is critical to understand the perspectives of this interest group regarding development of offshore wind energy. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the attitudes of anglers towards the Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind energy development constructed in the United States. Supported by qualitative interviews, a quantitative survey of 199 anglers from Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts reveals moderate support for the wind farm. Experience fishing at the wind farm is associated with more positive beliefs regarding the development’s effects on catch-related aspects of fishing; however, beliefs about catch-related effects are not as strong predictors of support as non-catch factors (specifically, visual impacts). Moreover, belief that the wind farm is “symbolic of progress towards clean energy” has the greatest total impact on support and effects of the wind farm, indicating that underlying values and ideologies may have greater influence on angler’s attitudes towards offshore wind projects than effects on the fishing experience. Greater research is needed to understand how general characteristics of anglers affect their attitudes towards offshore renewable energy and other marine governance decisions. Managers must also facilitate greater participation of anglers in offshore wind energy decision-making.

Spatiotemporal characteristic and evolution of China's marine economic resilience

Resilience has become an essential aspect of the high-quality development of the marine economy. This study considered multiple combinations of dimensions, including politics, economy, culture, society, ecology, and security, in developing marine economy resilience. Based on the adaptability theory, this study measures the resilience of China's marine economy by constructing an evaluation index system using the three resilience sub-dimensions of resistance, adaptability, and evolution from 2000 to 2020 in 11 Chinese coastal provinces. The evaluation index system also considers social factors such as institution, culture, and history. The new technical methods such as remote sensing interpretation and text analysis are used to obtain one-hand data. We use a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) model to calculate the comprehensive evaluation index and determine the weight of each index using the entropy weight method, analytic hierarchy process, and the least square decision model. Furthermore, based on the Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) time path and spatiotemporal transition probability matrix, we analyze the spatiotemporal characteristic evolution characteristics of marine economic resilience. The results reveal that (1) the resilience, resistance, adaptability, and evolution of the marine economy in 11 coastal provinces show an upward trend from 2000 to 2020. (2) The development speed of the resilience level differs in terms of resistance, adaptability, and evolution, but the overall level shows adaptability > evolution > resistance. (3) The analysis of the spatiotemporal interaction characteristics of resilience shows that the overall spatial characteristic of resilience is relatively stable. Therefore, some measurements are suggested to improve marine economic resilience. For example, government formulates marine plans, sea-related enterprises assume social responsibilities, and individuals actively participate in marine governance. The evaluation model of marine economic resilience applies to other complex systems with multiple factors.

Strategic agency and learning in sustainability initiatives driving transformation: the symphony tool for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning

Ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning (MSP) represent novel approaches intended to transform marine governance and improve ecosystems. The transformation can be supported by sustainability initiatives such as decision-support tools, which inform changes in management strategies and practices. This study illustrates the potential and challenges of such sustainability initiatives to promote deliberative transformative change in marine governance systems. Specifically, it focuses on the amplification processes of the Symphony tool for ecosystem-based MSP in Sweden. Our findings suggest that the amplification of sustainability initiatives is driven by informal networks, coalition forming, resource mobilization skills, a shared vision, trust, experimentation, and social learning. Our results also highlight that in the face of institutional challenges such as sparse financial resources, uncertain institutional support, and divided ownership, a strategic way forward is to simultaneously work on parallel amplification processes, as they may enable each other. Further, we find that a key challenge in amplification across governance scales is the need for significant adjustments of the original innovation, to meet differing needs and competences. This highlights the broader challenge of achieving transformative change across scales in heterogenous and fragmented multilevel governance systems. Co-production of knowledge and early stakeholder interaction to ensure accessibility and availability can improve the chances of successful amplification. To move beyond a mechanistic understanding of steps and processes, future research on sustainability initiatives should consider the interplay between strategic agency, social learning, and institutional context in driving amplification processes.

Geological environment in the South China Sea

The South China Sea (SCS), situated in southern China, at the junction of the Pacific Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the Indian Ocean Plate, is a northeast-southwest trending semi-enclosed sea. It spans an area of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers and has an average water depth of about 1 200 m, its deepest point reaching 5 559 m. In 2021, a scientific expedition (called as U1 voyage) in the South China Sea was organized by the Innovation Research Team of Guangdong Special Key Program from March to April, this marks the first comprehensive scientific research voyage to the southern U-boundary corridor. Consisting of a total of 30 papers, this special issue is to share a portion of the research findings from this scientific expedition U1 voyage, covering six aspects: 1) characteristics of the marine ecosystem in the SCS and its response to marine dynamic processes; 2) multi-scale marine dynamic processes, sea-air interactions, and forecasting techniques in the SCS; 3) geomorphology and geological structure; 4) sedimentary processes and resource potential in the SCS; 5) geostrategy, rights and interests maintenance and strategic countermeasures in the SCS; 6) marine scientific instruments. By integrating the scientific research with the study of history, jurisprudence and international strategies, this issue presents new insights into the formation history and scope evolution of the SCS, and it also seeks to establish a new scientific framework based on the marine governance and development of the SCS.

Ecotourism in Marine Protected Areas as a tool to valuate natural capital and enhance good marine governance: A review

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are essential to reach the UN Ocean’s Decade challenges and the Sustainable Development Goal 14 (life bellow water – conserve coastal and marine areas), and their crucial role for the health of the planet was highlighted in the United Nations Ocean Conference. However, often these MPA’s are no more than Paper Parks, with poor financial and human resources, thus lacking effectiveness. Moreover, they frequently trigger conflicts with local communities, by imposing restrictions to their activities with no alternative or compensations, causing serious governance inefficiencies. Thus, within the UN Oceans Decade, MPA’s must face simultaneously three of the challenges: Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity (Challenge 2); Develop a sustainable and equitable ocean economy (Challenge 4) and Change humanity’s relationship with the ocean (Challenge 10). To address those challenges, it becomes clear that management models of MPA’s had to find ways to value natural capital and, at the same time, involve local communities and stakeholders in the governance processes. The conservation of biodiversity has both direct and indirect economic benefits for many sectors of the economy, namely tourism, being ecotourism considered one of the segments particularly adequate to value natural capital. Ecotourism, defined as “environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas”, to enjoy and appreciate nature, is often used to enhance the natural capital, while protecting and promoting protected areas. Several studies have been carried out about ecotourism in MPA’s all over the world, particularly in the 21stcentury. In this article, we analyzed several case studies focusing ecotourism in MPAs, to better understand the connection between the development of this industry, the development of sustainable blue economy, and the efforts for ocean conservation. From the analysis conducted, we conclude that ecotourism development and community participation are of paramount importance in achieving sustainable development in MPAs, although there is still room to new advances improving good marine governance.

A two way process – Social capacity as a driver and outcome of equitable marine spatial planning

Although stakeholder engagement is one of the founding principles of marine spatial planning (MSP), meaningful representation of people and their connections to marine resources within marine governance is still lacking. A broad understanding of how concepts surrounding social capital and capacity is translated into MSP practice is missing. With this article, we describe detailed case studies in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa to build a better understanding of the ways in which MSP and other ocean governance initiatives operationalise the concepts of social capital and capacity. Drawing on insights from the cases, we call for a rethinking of capacitation as a two-way process. In particular, trust-building, social learning and efforts to build social capacity should be elaborated without imposing a hierarchy between people ‘who know’ and people ‘who don’t’. Innovative approaches to relationship building, knowledge development, and collaboration highlighted in the case studies highlight ways to build social capacity both among stakeholders and planners, as is necessary for more equitable and sustainable MSP development and implementation.

The path of transboundary marine plastic waste management in China, Japan, and South Korea from the perspective of the blue economy

Marine plastic waste is one of the most difficult global ocean governance issues at present, and is also the focus of marine waste governance in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea region surrounded by China, Japan, and Republic of Korea (ROK). China, Japan, and Republic of Korea (ROK)are now aware of the importance of this issue to their surrounding waters and their country’s development. However,the poor implementation of marine governance gives rise to the unsatisfactory effect of marine plastic waste governance in the sea area. Based on the concept of blue economy and the data of plastic pollution in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, this paper discusses the feasibility of establishing binding legal norms and policies to promote the progress of marine plastic waste treatment in China, Japan and Republic of Korea. By using research methods of text analysis and status survey, this paper analyzes the differences and common demands of China, Japan and Republic of Korea for marine plastic pollution control. It is concluded that three countries have common demands in the management of the whole life cycle of marine plastic pollution, the establishment of flexible legal instruments, and the participation of stakeholders. Finally, through the case experience of the blue cycle model of marine plastic waste in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China, this paper proposes that this model can also be used in the management of marine plastic waste in China, Japan and Republic of Korea. Three countries can gradually promote the cooperation of marine plastic waste laws and regulations by starting with the treatment of\ fishery plastic waste, and innovate the blue cycle model, so as to finally promote the conclusion of the regional marine waste treatment agreement.