Table of Some ENABLERS Identified in Turning the Tide and
Defying Oceans End
Prepared by the Steering Committee for Changing Currents: Charting a
Course of Action for the Future of Oceans, February 23-26, 2005, Centre for
Coastal Studies, Simon Fraser University
General
International Approaches
Designate ocean living resources as ‘wildlife’ using
legal and policy frameworks analogous to those
governing terrestrial and avian wildlife
Need a radical solution; incrementalism will deliver
too little too late
Define boundaries by linkages among ecosystem
features and processes rather than by political or
administrative boundaries
A decision-making process based on majority or
super-majority voting, rather than consensus for
prompt international decisions
Harness the cooperation of like-minded States that
are threatened by a similar activity
Cooperation among countries (e.g. offshore
fisheries, pelagic fisheries)
Shift responsibilities for implementation and
enforcement of ocean laws from flag and port States
to an independent, verifiable international process
Build well-documented examples of sustained
efforts in low-income countries
Need high level government commitment to
overcome obstacles
Find new ways to reflect public values in the
development and management of the seas
Shift from reactive approach (fault-based) to
proactive approach (precautionary-based) to oceans
uses
Integrate all of the social dimensions of society’s
interface with the sea
Changes in human behaviour at the societal - rather
than at the individual - scale
Definitions of societal goals and mechanisms for
achieving them
Behavioural changes promoting negotiation as a
major mechanism for conflict resolution
Fisheries Management
Access agreements that restrict fishing to
sustainable levels that respect the environment and
livelihoods of people in developing countries
Fishing controls driven by specific needs and
vagaries of local cultures and politics
Greater statistical power of indicators and
monitoring programs to detect change in response to
management action
Flexible indicators matched to objectives and
progress measured by use of reference points
Techniques for measuring uncertainty
Monitoring programs for estimating the value of
indicators on spatial and temporal scales that are
relevant to managers
Innovative examples of how problems can be
tackled
Restoration is seen as a social and environmental
necessity
Need a strategic vision that places most emphasis on
protecting the ecosystem, both for its own sake and
to sustain the goods and services that flow from it
Appeal to individual responsibility
Everyone be held accountable for their actions
Provide solutions along with threats and problems
Couching the science in socio-economic realities to
identify practical targets and approaches that
support the achievement of outcomes
Track progress via measurable objectives
Bring fishers into a system of regional comanagement
Establish a highly motivated and committed group
of leaders from businesses, environmental
organizations, civil society and government to work
together on common and unambiguous goals
Setting of goals for successful implementation
Systems that monitor and reward incremental levels
of behavioural change
Identify incentives that would motivate various
players to promote marine conservation measures
Community
Local capacity building
A link to the user community that supports rapid
user response to changed conditions and knowledge
Regional conservation will be successful if in
collaboration with local business and political
leaders
Sustained progress toward measurable goals at the
scale of the regional large coastal ecosystem
Sustained effort and adequate funding for sustained
periods
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Institutions and Governance
Communication/Education
Use original thinking to highlight the need for new
mechanisms/frameworks to achieve sustainable and
equitable governance
Balance scope of approach with local/regional
institutional capacity for constituency building and
enforcement of adopted policies
Adaptive management (learn by doing)
Global set of stewardship incubator projects
operating as nested efforts of different sizes
Connect values to messages about recreation and
healthy ocean environments for future generations
Global scale outreach to stimulate a universal ocean
ethic
Communicate in ways that are smart, effective,
measurable and strategic – must happen now and on
a large scale
Position communications at points where people
interact with the ocean
Ensure the authority, funding and other resources
are in place to implement the selected policies and
actions
Commitment to a governance program and
establishment of enabling conditions that ensure
politics, plans and actions can be successfully
implemented
A policy and enforcement infrastructure that can
rapidly alter management practices in response to
new information
Build institutional capacity to undertake integrated
coastal planning and decision making
Use scientists not politicians as primary
spokespersons
Full stakeholder participation (key in developing
management process)
Promote decentralized planning and decisionmaking in support of those goals
Establish greater roles outside central governments
(e.g. local governments, communities, NGOs and
the private sector)
Nurture appropriate existing efforts and encourage
them to adhere to an explicit set of good practices
Provide an open appraisal of where the problems lie
Bottom up approaches built into regulatory
structures
‘Joined up’ government from regional to
international level
Investigate possible synergies between the various
regulatory and marine protection regimes
Monitor change as it relates to goals
Analyzed indicators associated with those goals
Talk about the ocean as a system with life versus
simply water
Communications that combine emotion with
information
Encourage exchange of knowledge
Promote collaborative learning and dissemination of
successful innovations
Highlight specific case studies that are particularly
relevant to target audiences
Highlight solutions and disseminate success stories
to the public
Outreach programs for youth
Networks
Science and Information
Recognition that inadequate science is not the
limiting factor to progress
Cooperative research programs, in which ocean
exploiters and their vessels become an important
link in the information-gathering for adaptive
management
Build scientific and policy capacity especially in
less developed nations
Agile and accessible knowledge management
systems
GIS technology can assist in visualization of
problems by stakeholders
Funding for exploratory expeditions (needs to
include support for post-expedition curating of
specimens and data)
Bring together ministerial responsibilities for
fishing and marine environment
Allocation of resource to reflect new policy
priorities
New forms of collaborative action among
institutions, including State-public partnerships
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Enforcement/compliance
Economic
Better enforcement of existing regulations
Use ‘social math’ to communicate numbers in
accessible and memorable ways
Appropriate provision of resources in the form of
finance and expertise
Find what it takes to get people to change their
behaviours or policies to bring about desired results
and provide necessary enforcement
Ensure that sanctions on those who disregard
formally adopted rules are vigorously applied
Strengthen property rights for fisheries and water
resources
For fisheries
Combine long-term investments with targeted
activities
Funding to compensate communities and provide
positive incentives for protection
Management reform constitutes a potentially
profitable investment opportunity
Research and development targeted at innovative
technologies to monitor and reduce impacts such as
changes in fishing gear, pollutant extraction, and
enforcement surveillance
Labeling and awareness raising schemes
Improve compliance by developing cooperation
with fishing industry in design and implementation
of measures
Move away from crimina
l proceedings, in favour of administrative sanctions
for breaches of fisheries regulations
Role of stakeholders in planning system clearly
defined
Better utilize resources - targeted inspections of
distribution chains and processing of fish species
with threatened stocks
Mandatory full catch reporting with data published
annually
Strengthen arrangement for designated landing ports
and prior notification of catch
Use remote sensing and vessel monitoring systems
On-board observers or video cameras to survey
catch as it is brought aboard
Aerial and satellite surveillance
Fit tamper proof satellite position reporting
terminals to all vessels over 15m
Ecolabelling
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