Ecosystem-based management, or EBM, is an approach that goes beyond examining single issues, species, or ecosystem functions in isolation. Instead it recognizes our coasts and oceans for what they are: a rich mix of elements that interact with each other in important ways. A single commercially valuable fish species, for example, may depend on a range of habitats over its life, depending on if it is young or adult, feeding or spawning. It needs access to each habitat at the right time, as well as ample food, clean water and shelter. Because humans depend on an array of ocean functions for our well-being — including the fish for food — EBM recognizes that our welfare and the health of the environment are linked. Put another way, marine and coastal systems provide valuable natural services — or “ecosystem services” — for human communities. To ensure our own health, therefore, we need to make sure ocean functions are sustained and protected. This means managing them in a way that acknowledges the complexity of marine ecosystems, the connections among them, and their links with land and freshwater as well. One of the most important aspects of EBM is that it is fundamentally a place-based approach. That is, it aims to restore and protect the health, function and resilience of an entire ecosystem and the benefits it provides. This means managing ocean uses on scales that encompass marine ecosystem function, rather than on scales defined by jurisdictional boundaries. EBM does not require managing all aspects of a system at once. Instead, an EBM initiative is founded on good knowledge and understanding of the system, allowing for thoughtful prioritization of the most important management actions and activities.
CORE CONCEPTS of an Ecosystem-based management (EBM) process 1. Recognizing connections across the ecosystem
2. Utilizing an ecosystem services perspective 3. Addressing cumulative impacts
4. Managing for multiple objectives
5. Embracing change, learning and adapting
Taken together, these core concepts set EBM apart from traditional management.
Core Element 1: Recognizing connections across the ecosystem
When any part of an ecosystem changes — the presence of a particular species, the structure of a habitat, the occurrence of natural processes — it can directly or indirectly affect many other aspects of the ecosystem. It is especially important to consider linkages between marine, coastal and
different sectors, which often do not communicate with one another. This disconnect can significantly undermine progress toward conservation goals. EBM practitioners should assess ecological linkages from the start, build sectoral integration and communication, and continue to learn and update knowledge through scientific advice and monitoring.
Core Element 2: Utilizing an ecosystem services perspective
Ecosystem services are critical to the functioning of coastal and marine systems and also contribute significantly to human well-being. Substantial positive economic values can be attached to many of these services, which include providing food, maintaining hydrological balance, storing carbon, buffering land from storms, offering recreational opportunities, and providing space for shipping. Developing an ecosystem services perspective allows planners and managers to establish priorities for management. Priorities can be determined by focusing on the areas and habitats that deliver the greatest amount of ecosystem services, or the ecosystem services of highest value. Alternatively, priorities can be based on the most critical threats to the delivery of ecosystem services or to highly valuable areas.
Core Element 3: Understanding and addressing cumulative impacts
The human activities taking place within an ecosystem often overlap, and their impacts can be intensified as a result. Examining cumulative impacts makes it possible to assess the total effects of disparate actions on an ecosystem and its ability to sustain the delivery of desired services. It is often necessary to make trade-offs between conflicting uses. Practitioners often use spatial analysis to predict overlapping threats and a better understanding of the effects and interactions of multiple stressors. To account for cumulative impacts, practitioners need to begin to build regulatory mechanisms that encourage or require goal-setting and evaluation across sectors.
Core Element 4: Managing for multiple objectives
EBM focuses on the diverse benefits provided by marine systems, rather than on single ecosystem services. Such benefits or services include vibrant commercial and recreational fisheries, biodiversity conservation, renewable energy from wind or waves, coastal protection, and recreation. Fundamentally, the primary goal of any EBM project is to secure the long-term delivery of a diversity of ecosystem services that support human well-being by sustaining critical ecosystem structures, functions, and processes. EBM must not only determine what individual objectives are desirable – a tricky task when objectives are viewed as potentially incompatible. It must also figure out a harmonized management system that can guarantee those objectives
are met over time. Managers will have to accept that progress toward objectives will not be uniform, and meeting some objectives may take time.
Core Element 5: Embracing change, learning, and adapting
Neither ecological nor social knowledge will be complete at the start of any EBM initiative, and change is constantly occurring within any ecosystem. Therefore, it is essential that practitioners continuously collect information and monitor the effects of management decisions, and that they encourage communities to engage in the processes of information collection, learning, and sharing. At regular intervals, strategies should be evaluated and adapted to new learning and new conditions. Experimentation, innovation, learning, and change should be an accepted aspect of any EBM initiative. The mechanisms for making management as responsive to changing conditions as possible will vary from place to place. Nonetheless it will be important to establish those mechanisms formally as an ecosystem approach is adopted. In other words, it is not enough to say that management will be revised as time goes on. The processes by which information is gathered, fed into the management appraisal process, and used to amend management must be articulated – preferably with a clear timetable.