Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Stewardship (original) (raw)

Marine and Coastal Cultural Ecosystem Services: knowledge gaps and research priorities

One Ecosystem

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) reflect peoples' physical and cognitive interactions with nature and are increasingly recognised for providing non-material benefits to human societies. Whereas coasts, seas, and oceans sustain a great proportion of the human population, CES provided by these ecosystems have remained largely unexplored. Therefore, our aims were (1) to analyse the state of research on marine and coastal CES, (2) to identify knowledge gaps, and (3) to pinpoint research priorities and the way forward. To accomplish these objectives, we did a systematic review of the scientific literature and synthesised a subset of 72 peer-reviewed publications. Results show that research on marine and coastal CES is scarce compared to other ecosystem service categories. It is primarily focused on local and regional sociocultural or economic assessments of coastal ecosystems from Western Europe and North America. Such research bias narrows the understanding of social-ecological interactions to a western cultural setting, undermining the role of other worldviews in the understanding of a wide range of interactions between cultural practices and ecosystems worldwide. Additionally, we have identified clusters of cooccurring drivers of change affecting marine and coastal habitats and their CES. Our systematic review highlights knowledge gaps in: (1) the lack of integrated valuation assessments; (2) linking the contribution of CES benefits to human wellbeing; (3) assessing more subjective and intangible CES classes; (4) identifying the role of openocean and deep-sea areas in providing CES; and (5) understanding the role of non-natural capital in the co-production of marine and coastal CES. Research priorities should be aimed at filling these knowledge gaps. Overcoming such challenges can result in increased appreciation of marine and coastal CES, and more balanced decision-supporting mechanisms that will ultimately contribute to more sustainable interactions between humans and marine ecosystems.

People and Oceans: Managing Marine Areas for Human Well-Being

2011

This booklet demonstrates an awakening within the conservation community that the human relationship with coastal and ocean environments must be evaluated in cultural, social, and economic -- as well as ecological -- dimensions. The major insights from this booklet include:People depend on oceans for food security, recreational opportunities, shoreline protection, climate regulation, and other ecosystem services.Marine resources have tremendous economic value that far exceeds current investments in marine governance, and visitors often are willing to pay far more than existing user fees.MMAs improve human well-being by diversifying livelihoods, enhancing incomes, and improving environmental awareness. They also pose challenges, including loss of access to fishing grounds, inequitable distribution of benefits, dependence on project assistance, and unmet expectations.MMAs are influenced by socioeconomic and governance conditions, including benefits exceeding costs, shared benefits, im...

Ecosystem services and marine conservation

2015

Healthy marine and land ecosystems provide a wide range of benefits to society such as food, materials, recreation, carbon regulation etc. Marine ecosystems are changing fast under increased and increasing pressures and impacts from climate change and increasing human populations with expanding needs. Sea level rise, ocean acidification, eutrophication, change in water temperature and coastal weather patterns directly impact, often negatively, wild fish stocks and aquaculture production, coastal infrastructures generating maintenance, and recreational activities (Ocean and Climate, 2015). Expanding needs of increasing human populations is one of the drivers of unsustainable levels of exploitation of marine ecosystems, and their many fish stock overfished. The ocean supports increasingly diverse needs, with competition for access to marine resources and use of the marine space for recreation and tourism, shipping, deep sea mining, renewable marine energies (e.g., offshore wind turbin...

Safeguarding marine life: conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems

Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 2022

marine environments and a rapidly changing climate. The fundamental challenge for the future is therefore to safeguard marine ecosystem biodiversity, function, and adaptive capacity whilst continuing to provide vital resources for the global population. Here, we use foresighting/hindcasting to consider two plausible futures towards 2030: a business-as-usual trajectory Abstract Marine ecosystems and their associated biodiversity sustain life on Earth and hold intrinsic value. Critical marine ecosystem services include maintenance of global oxygen and carbon cycles, production of food and energy, and sustenance of human wellbeing. However marine ecosystems are swiftly being degraded due to the unsustainable use of

World in Transition. Governing the Marine Heritage

2013

Rethinking the oceans For a long time humanity thought of the sea as some- thing inexhaustible. Given the sheer size of the oceans, it seemed inconceivable that humans might be able to exert any appreciable influence on the ‘blue continent’. Changes caused by humans take place gradually, and even today they are very difficult to detect or measure. It therefore took a long time before it was discovered that the impact of humankind on the sea grew ever stronger as our society became more industrialized, finally reach- ing disturbing dimensions: marine fish stocks are in a poor state due to overfishing, so that almost two-thirds of stocks need time to recover; a fifth of the species-rich coral reefs have already disappeared and three-quarters are at risk; and not least, our societies use the oceans as a rubbish dump, threatening species and ecosystems with nutrients, toxins and plastic. Man-made hazards also include CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, which are increasingly acidifying the oceans and thus endangering marine ecosystems. The acid concentration has already risen by almost a third since industrialization began, and this can have considerable effects on marine ecosystems and fishery. Further examples of humanity’s huge impact include cases of large-scale pollution (like after the disastrous accident involving the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010), the sudden collapse in the early 1990s of the once seemingly inexhaustible stocks of cod off Newfound- land, and the rising temperature of the world’s oceans, which has already led to a dramatic reduction in the size of the Arctic sea ice. Overall, the oceans are in an unsat- isfactory state. This largely still undiscovered ‘blue con- tinent’ is proving to be fragile, and in parts it is already irreversibly damaged. For these reasons, the oceans – their treasures and the threats they face – repeatedly find themselves at the focus of public attention. Human influence grows with technological develop- ment. Today, new ways of using the seas promise great opportunities, but they can also put new pressure on the oceans and their ecosystems. Using the huge potential of offshore wind power can contribute to a climate-friendly energy supply. On the other hand, unprecedented and unquantifiable risks are involved in the extraction of fossil oil and gas resources from the deep sea and the Arctic, and in mining methane hydrates – all of which are now becoming technically feasible. Similarly, the increas- ingly effective methods being used to detect and catch fish in remote areas of the high seas and at ever-greater depths are increasing pressure on fish stocks and marine ecosystems. Humankind is dependent on the seas, their ecosys- tem services and their biological diversity – for food, energy generation, medical products, tourism, climate- regulating functions and the oceans’ absorption of CO2. Against the background of humanity’s influence on the seas – which is already big today and could potentially become much larger in the future – and in view of the seas’ key importance for our societies, the WBGU asks how humanity might best go about the task of develop- ing a sustainable stewardship of the oceans. What condition will the oceans be in when we hand them over to coming generations in the middle of this century? Are we now going to take on responsibility and embark on the path of sustainability in the real world and not merely on paper? Much will depend on how marine conservation and ocean uses are organized, in other words on ocean governance. This report there- fore focuses on the global, regional and national rules governing the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, and above all on how we can ensure that these rules are implemented, which has been a huge problem in the past. The WBGU puts the debate on the seas into the context of the ‘Great Transformation’ towards a low-carbon, sustainable society – the subject of its 2011 flagship report ‘A Social Contract for Sustainability’. Here,the WBGU argued that if greenhouse-gas emissions continued growing unabated, the Earth system would breach planetary guard rails within a few decades and enter domains that would be incompatible with sustainable development. The WBGU is convinced that nothing short of a new industrial revolution can prevent this. For that to happen, the world will have to phase out not only fossil power generation, but also energy-intensive urbanization and emissions-intensive land use within the next few decades. The WBGU believes the seas should be fully incorporated into this transformation towards a low-carbon, sustainable society, in particular because of the irreversibility of some of the processes involved. The oceans have the potential to give the transformation massive support; in turn, the transformation is necessary for the long-term conservation of the marine ecosystems. The WBGU already focused on the seas in its 2006 special report ‘The Future Oceans – Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour’. In particular it took a closer look at the interface between greenhouse-gas emissions and the oceans (e.g. warming, sea-level rise, ocean acidi- fication). In the present report the WBGU examines the examples of food and energy, which were already at the centre of its 2011 flagship report on transfor- mation. It studies the sustainable management of fish stocks, sustainable aquaculture and the development of marine renewable-energy systems. It also shows how the oceans can make a substantial contribution to the transformation. At the same time, the seas and their ecosystems are threatened by the effects of climate change and ocean acidification. The WBGU shows that the conservation and sustain- able use of the oceans are urgently necessary, that a transformation towards low-carbon, sustainable devel- opment is possible including the oceans, and that it can yield substantial advantages worldwide for sustainable energy supplies and food security.