iAtlantic Systematic Conservation Planning consultation

Introduction

The information on this page is intended to serve as background and context for a stakeholder consultation on the overarching mission statement and ecological goals proposed to guide the iAtlantic systematic conservation planning exercise, part of our work on supporting sustainable ecosystem management. Respondents to the consultation will need to read the material below and/or in the briefing document (available to download below) in order to provide informed feedback on those proposed goals. We want to be sure that the framework we put in place for this SCP exercise is robust, comprehensive and appropriate, so we welcome feedback and comment from all relevant stakeholder groups.

The information provided on this webpage is distilled from the iAtlantic SCP consultation briefing document, which includes the full table of proposed SCP ecological goals and more detail about the international and regional governance provisions on which they are based. We have also provided some more general background on area-based management and SCP principles for those less familiar with these concepts. After you have read through this documentation, please click the link below to access the online questionnaire where you can provide your views on the draft goals.

What is area-based management?

Ecosystem impacts of climate change and human activities are not evenly distributed across the marine space, so management solutions need to be tailored to suit spatially explicit situations and scenarios. Area-based management refers to the integrated, sustainable, cross-sectoral management of human activities in a particular area. Applied in the context of an ecosystem approach, area-based management has been widely advocated as an effective instrument for protecting and preserving the marine environment while enabling the sustainable use of marine resources. Examples of area-based management tools (ABMTs) include marine spatial planning (MSP), marine protected areas (MPAs), ecological networks, dynamic management measures, and ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ including indigenous, community and privately managed areas. ABMTs can also include sectoral tools, such as closure of certain vulnerable areas to fishing, shipping or mining.

ABMTs can help achieve multiple ecosystem-based management objectives such as the conservation of species, habitats and ecosystem services, increased fisheries yield (e.g. increased abundance, species diversity, and ‘spill-over’ effects), and increased tourism, recreational, and educational opportunities. When taking climate change into consideration, ABMTs become important tools to mitigate the accelerated loss of marine biodiversity vulnerable to global warming and ocean acidification^1,2,3,4

What is systematic conservation planning?

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) is frequently used to support the transparent development of ABMTs and to visualise how to operationalise overall visions for the sustainable development of an area. SCP offers a framework to help meet ecological societal values as described in conservation and sustainable management objectives⁵. Previous efforts using SCP have demonstrated the benefit of a systematic approach to cross-sectoral planning and management^6,7,8. Key benefits of systematic planning relative to sector-specific or ad hoc approaches can include transparency (e.g. defined goals, explicit analyses of data, quantitative objectives), inclusiveness (e.g. engaged stakeholders, consideration of known elements of biodiversity), integration (e.g. complementarity of selected areas and actions, spatial connectivity), and efficiency (e.g. costs to users and implementers are minimized)⁹.

SCP is not a goal in itself, but a tool to address ecological, socioeconomic or cultural goals. Thus, management may have a variety of objectives, and may use a range of tools and stringency of regulation to achieve them.

SCP approaches have been used to inform area-based management and marine spatial planning worldwide, with notable examples in the Gulf of California¹⁰, the Great Barrier Reef⁷, the Coral Triangle¹¹, the Mediterranean Sea¹², and the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem¹³. The H2020 ATLAS project developed SCP approaches at the North Atlantic spatial scale to inform the identification of priority areas for the conservation of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems¹⁴. Several complementary approaches have used SCP approaches to identify priority areas for marine biodiversity conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) at a global scale^15,16,17. These approaches have been used to inform the discourse around the protection of least 30% of marine environment while avoiding areas of high fishing intensity. SCP envisaged in this iAtlantic exercise will build from all these efforts, but most notably from those undertaken as part of the ATLAS Project in the North Atlantic and in the Azores^14,18.

However, SCP approaches come with some caveats that need to be acknowledged and understood:

SCP aims to identify priority areas for achieving specific management and conservation goals (usually grouped into ecological, economy, social or governance goals) that can be spatially explicitly addressed.
SCP usually focuses only on environmental and simplified economic goals and objectives since governance and economic goals need to be addressed with other tools. In the iAtlantic SCP exercise, we focus only on ecological goals.
SCP is a data-driven approach supported by the best available information and science-based evidence. Therefore, it must be acknowledged that data limitations may hamper the evaluation of some desirable goals and objectives.

The why and how of the iAtlantic SCP exercise

The ultimate aim of iAtlantic’s research is to be able to provide the necessary relevant information and tools to support competent authorities in the development of integrated, sustainable management decisions and practices at appropriate scales. To achieve this, site prioritisation techniques will be used to identify zones where different management regimes can be applied, and planning scenarios will be generated to inform sustainable development strategies in the Atlantic. Systematic conservation planning is the first step along this path, but first we need to determine what our overall aim is for this exercise, and what targets or goals we need to set in order to achieve that aim.

To do this, we put together an overview of sustainable management and conservation objectives reflected in existing political commitments, declarations and legal obligations related to the Atlantic marine environment in order to derive a list of potential goals and objectives that will guide the development of iAtlantic’s systematic conservation planning exercise. The CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN BBNJ negotiations (both under development) will also provide an impetus and mechanism for ABMTs in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

It is important to note that in the iAtlantic SCP exercise we focus on only on the environmental and simplified economic goals and objectives, since the governance and economic goals need to be addressed with other tools, and are therefore beyond the scope of this exercise.

Spatial boundaries

Understanding the geographic boundaries of the iAtlantic SCP exercise is also important. The spatial planning area considered in the iAtlantic SCP exercise was agreed by the project consortium. It encompasses the whole Atlantic Ocean as described by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), but with some adaptations (Fig. 1). The northern boundary was adjusted to 74°N, which includes a portion of the Arctic Ocean named the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea, while the southern boundary was kept at 60°S. The SE boundary was expanded to 21°E. The spatial planning area includes the Labrador Sea and the Davis Strait in the NW Atlantic, the North Sea, Celtic Sea, and the Bay of Biscay in the NE Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of Guinea in the Central Atlantic, and a portion of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) convention area in the South Atlantic.

Guiding principles

Systematic conservation planning should be guided by a set of general principles that determine the nature and characteristics of the scenarios to be developed, and the criteria, decisions and choices to be adopted. The general principles described here were adapted from published SCP literature ^19,20,21

Science-based principle: The SCP will be based on the best available information gathered from all available sources and supported by the best available science-based evidence.
Precautionary Principle: When information is considered to be inadequate or insufficient to justify a decision, then the safest possible choice must be made.
Adaptive approach principle: The SCP is designed to be improved or redeveloped whenever new information is available. SCP should be a on-going, iterative process that improves and adapts over time.
Ecosystem integrity principle: The SCP will have a primary focus on maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning within the spatial planning area.
Ecosystem-based approach principle: The SCP will be based on an ecosystem approach to ensure sustainable use of marine resources while protecting and preserving the marine environment, safeguarding the variety of marine landscapes, habitats and interactions within an ecosystem, including human activities.
Transparency principle: The process used to develop SCP scenarios aimed to be transparent, objective, and easily understood.

Management and conservation goals

Defining management and conservation goals and objectives is an essential step towards implementation of area-based management tools and should be derived from specific problems or conflicts previously identified20. Having these goals and objectives clearly defined, helps to focus and tailor systematic conservation planning scenarios on achieving such results. For transparency reasons, here we followed the definitions in Ehler & Douvere (2009)¹⁹ and Ehler (2014)²¹:

Goal: a statement of general direction or intent. Goals are high-level statements of the desired outcomes to be achieved;
Objective: a specific statement of desired outcomes that represent the achievement of a goal. Objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant or Realistic, and Time-bound).

Such goals and objectives need to be discussed among all stakeholders, so the purposes for implementing area-based management tools are clear, understood and agreed. These goals and objectives can have multiple dimensions, usually grouped into ecological, economy, social or governance goals¹⁹. In the iAtlantic SCP exercise, we focus only on environmental and simplified economic goals and objectives, since the governance and economic goals need to be addressed with other tools, and are beyond the scope of this exercise.

‘High-level’ mission statement

Based on existing sustainable management and conservation objectives reflected in political commitments, declarations and legal obligations related to the Atlantic marine environment, we compiled a list of their ‘high-level’ mission statements (Supplementary Table A in the SCP briefing document). In general, most high-level statements are very similar and aimed at similar long-term sustainability goals (e.g., UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, UN Fish Stocks Agreement, The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, Strategy of the OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic 2010-2020, the Sargasso Sea Commission, EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030). These high-level statements aim to achieve the following qualitative objectives:

Protect/conserve, maintain, restore/rehabilitate, and value marine ecosystems or biodiversity
Achieve healthy, productive and resilient oceans, maintaining ecosystem services
Sustainably manage, enabling conservation, effective protection, and sustainable use
Avoid significant adverse impacts, prevent pollution, and resilience to climate change
Provide economic, environmental and social benefits
Sustain marine ecosystem health for present and future generations (i.e. long-term conservation and sustainable use, including climate consideration)

In line with this global policy framework we therefore propose the following broad high-level mission statement to guide the iAtlantic systematic conservation planning approach:

Ecological management goals

Based on this high-level mission statement, a series of SCP goals that can be spatially explicitly addressed are proposed – these are shown in Table 1 of the SCP briefing document. These goals reflect the different elements of the high-level mission statement above. All are based on the aspirations of a large proportion of the international and regional political commitments, and also inspired by the SCP framework developed for the Azores deep-sea area¹⁸.

So, what do we want stakeholder feedback on?

We have set up an online survey to gather stakeholder feedback on 1) the high-level mission statement, and 2) the related ecological goals to achieve this mission statement. The survey is set up using the SurveyMonkey online platform, and will take around 15 minutes to complete. Feedback will be analysed and used to strengthen and improve the mission statement and the ecological goals accordingly. In a second, separate step we may assemble a small panel of experts to help advise on more technical aspects of the iAtlantic SCP exercise. If you are interested in joining this panel, please contact Dr Telmo Morato (t.morato[at]gmail.com).

Thanks in advance for your input to the survey!

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Dr Vikki Gunn (vikki.gunn[at]seascapeconsultants.co.uk)

References

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