Hi coral-listers,
\nZone Tropical Coastal Oceans; Manage Them More Like Land
\nI want to draw attention to a new article just published on line at Marine
\nPollution Bulletin. It results from a project funded by the United
\nNations University\u2019s institute for Water, Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH)
\nwith some assistance from the Univ of Queensland Global Change Institute.
\nIt is open access and found at
\nhttp:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0025326X1400366X
\nIn this article a geographically widely dispersed group with diverse
\nexpertise and with many decades of accumulated experience in tropical
\ncoastal and fisheries management makes five key points:
\n1. One fifth of humanity live within 100km of a tropical shore; the
\ncurrent 1.36 billion will swell to 1.95 billion by 2050. Many are
\ndirectly dependent on adjacent coastal waters for food and livelihoods
\n2. Globally, the tropical coastal ocean continues to be degraded by a
\nsuite of human impacts, mostly local but now also global through climate
\nchange and ocean acidification
\n3. Current policies and procedures for improving management of these
\nimportant ecosystems, including their fisheries, almost always fail,
\nalthough there are the inevitable small bright spots that flicker briefly
\nand then usually fade; we spend too much time congratulating ourselves
\nover the brief flickers of good news, while failing to notice that the
\nstresses on these ecosystems grow worse year by year
\n4. Current policies are not failing because we lack the technological
\nexpertise, but because of a complex of issues wrapped up in social
\nstructures, traditions, cultural and religious belief systems,
\nconventional ways of doing things, governmental and legal structures,
\ncorruption, misplaced priorities, and lack of political will. Together
\nthese lead to short-term thinking, planning and implementation,
\nsmall-scale projects, and failure of communities, stakeholders and
\ngovernments to really commit to success.
\n5. Needed is a more holistic, appropriately scaled (in both time and
\nspace) approach, appropriate to the particular socio-political structure
\npresent, to address management failure. This absolutely requires
\ncommitted leadership within the community, but it also requires
\nsignificant changes in how plans to improve management are designed and
\nimplemented
\nAs a way forward we suggest it is time to recognize we need to begin to
\nzone the coastal ocean for competing uses, much as we do the land. We
\nadvocate considerably expanded use of marine spatial planning (MSP) as an
\neffective, objective tool for doing this. We also suggest that MSP can
\nserve as a Trojan horse to build the more integrated, holistic and
\nappropriately scaled approach to management which is essential for real,
\nlasting success. There is a need for serious reflection and changes to
\npolicy by virtually all sectors engaged in helping countries improve their
\nenvironmental management. Otherwise we condemn a large portion of
\nhumanity to ever less quality of life.
\nAs I said, its open access so anyone can get a copy. It\u2019s at
\nhttp:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0025326X1400366X
\nWe hope it will provoke vigorous discussion and real change because more
\nof the same is simply not good enough.<\/p>\n
Peter Sale
\nUNU-INWEH
\nwww.inweh.unu.edu<\/p>\n
+1-705-764-3359
\n+1-705-764-3360 FAX
\nsale@uwindsor.ca @PeterSale3
\nwww.uwindsor.ca\/sale www.petersalebooks.com<\/p>\n
Special thanks to Coral-list at noaa.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi coral-listers, Zone Tropical Coastal Oceans; Manage Them More Like Land I want to draw attention to a new article just published on line at Marine Pollution Bulletin. It results from a project funded by the United Nations University\u2019s institute for Water, Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH) with some assistance from the Univ of Queensland Global … Continue reading Marine Pollution Bulletin: Zone Tropical Coastal Oceans; Manage them More Like Land<\/span>