I often hear that ecosystem management is held up due to lack of data. There will never be enough data to provide accurate results to fully comprehend ecological patterns. If this was the case, then our environment would not be such a mess! Managers and practitioners are constantly devising ways to collect or predict data that will provide better answers to environmental patterns. Some times the data is there, but managers haven’t asked the proper people.
I explore three methods used by managers to maximize data and resources to increase the effectiveness of managing ecosystems.
Remote Sensing and GIS tools are becoming utilized more often during planning processes for coastal zone management. They have become more than just tools, but the backbones of coastal management projects. Prof. S. Ramachandran explains the uses of geospatial technologies in coastal management in a paper. In particular, he outlines three main applications for coastal management.
As commercial and recreational fisheries are collapsing all around the world, governments, ENGOs, and the fisheries industry are trying to improve management practices to increase the sustainability of fishing. A tool identified in this FAO document recommends that managers use Geographic Information Systems to quantify the spatio-temporal patterns demonstrated by fish in the ocean.
The ability for ocean resource committees to manage the nearshore coasts, and open ocean for that matter, depends upon the data that is provided. The contents of this post is the abstract for a classification scheme based on physiographic features of coastal areas along the Scotian Shelf in Nova Scotia, Canada. The article suggests that physiographic features can be used in the absence of biogeographic features as predictors to preserving biodiversity. I like this article because the methods provide managers with the ability to preserve biodiversity without just looking at data from popular focal species, but data that can provide representative areas (covering many more species) for each physiographic habitat type.
Indigenous people possess traditional knowledge of ecological trends and processes in their region as they occupied their lands for hundreds of years. Their input is not only important in the ocean management process, but it is critical. In many parts of Canada, indigenous people rely on natural resources such as fish and marine mammals as their means to survive; therefore, managing these resources is important to them and the planning process will require their input. Spatial management strategies such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have proven to be a good means of keeping local fishery industries more sustainable than in past years. It is important that the MPAs are designed and managed appropriately for effectiveness.
Why does the international fishing community like Marine Spatial Planning?
As I read about the impacts of the BP oil spill disaster, I wonder if a marine reserve system would help assess and restore some of the habitats destroyed in this catastrophic event. First let me define a reserve system. A marine reserve system is a tool for Ecosystem-Based Management and it contains a number [...]
Protecting ocean and coastal resources has traditionally been about protecting the environment (species, communities, habitats, etc.) and restricting human uses within certain areas. This process is very restrictive and it tells user of the resources in question that they are the bad guys and need to stop using the resources. If I were a users, [...]
President Barack Obama signed and released an executive order creating a national ocean policy that can be used by regional authorities for effective coastal management (Source). The policy would integrate various federal departments and force agencies to work together for one ocean management policy. Several ENGOs are applauding the Presidents efforts in attacking the issue [...]
I took a course in high school called “Science in Society”. I considered it a bird course and never took it seriously. In fact, I don’t really remember what I learned during the course, but the name of the course “Science in Society” always stuck in my head. I never knew why until the past [...]