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What is Ecosystem-based Management?

Wolcott Henry/Marine Photobank

With anthropogenic pressures increasing in coastal cities such as Cancun (above), adopting ecosystem-based management frameworks that minimize impacts to marine environments while allowing for sustainable development is critical.

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is a place-based approach to natural resource use that aims to restore and protect the health, function and resilience of entire ecosystems for the benefit of all organisms.

How does it work?

Ecosystem-based management is a framework for developing effective management plans based on an accepted set of guiding principles. An ecosystem-based management plan should:

• Emphasize the health of the whole ecosystem ahead of the concerns of special interests;
• Be focused on a particular place, with boundaries that are scientifically defined;
• Account for the ways in which things or actions in that place affect each other;
• Consider the way things or actions in this place can influence or be influenced by things or actions on land (like dams or fertilizers in the watershed), in the air (like air pollution), or in different parts of the ocean (like fishing or oil spills); and
• Integrate the concerns of the environment, society, the economy and our institutions.

These guiding principles and some of the underlying structure of this Web site are based on the 2005 Scientific Consensus Statement on Marine Ecosystem-based Management and updated peer-reviewed publications.

How is ecosystem-based management different?

Ecosystem-based management is a long-term, integrated approach that recognizes humans are part of and have significant influences on their environments. It is a shift away from conventional management paradigms that are often jurisdictional, short term and consider humans to be independent of nature. An ecosystem-based management plan includes adaptive management strategies and trade-offs, whether between ecosystem services, management strategies or other components of the plan, that are made as explicitly as possible.

Why is ecosystem-based management important?

James Shelton/Marine Photobank

The threat of rising sea levels with consequent salt-water intrusions should prompt increased protection of sensitive estuarine habitats, such as Alligator River, a freshwater marsh in the North Carolina Sounds. An ecosystem-based management plan would account for the effects of climate change on species and habitat loss.

A healthy ocean is critical to our economy, health and way of life. The ocean is an important source of the food we eat and an essential link in the cycle of the air we breathe and the water we drink. It helps to drive and regulate the world’s climate. It builds and maintains the clean and healthy beaches we love and anchors the world’s thriving coastal economies. Only a healthy, resilient environment can continue to provide the benefits that humans and all species across the globe want and need.

Scientific experts and ocean conservationists are no longer alone in their concerns about the current state of our ocean. According to research SeaWeb recently conducted, most Americans agree that the ocean's health is in decline and the percentage of adults who believe the ocean is in trouble has increased since 1999.

Despite the growing recognition of the importance of a healthy ocean and increased efforts to protect marine environments, many of the ocean’s most valuable benefits show evidence of decline. Trash litters our favorite beaches. Harmful algal blooms and high concentrations of bacteria like E. coli in our coastal waters threaten surfers and swimmers. Pollution, overfishing and the loss of marine mammals can be detrimental to coastal economies that depend on clean beaches, commercial and recreational fisheries or ecotourism.

The many benefits people derive from the ocean are called ecosystem services and are essential to human welfare. Some of these benefits to humans, such as fish, oxygen and rain, are well known and highly valued, while others, like nutrient cycling and habitat maintenance, are not readily recognized. Some of these services can be quantified in terms of their monetary value, but others are priceless and fundamental to our well being in immeasurable ways.

Many scientists and conservationists agree that an ecosystem approach that integrates governance and management across sectors, species and political boundaries is the best way to improve ocean health and maintain the services on which we rely. Ecosystem-based management plans can vary in design, and they can be implemented in areas that range from the relatively small to very large. For example, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, stretching 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers), is currently managed under an ecosystem framework. In contrast, the Morro Bay Estuary, watersheds and coastal areas from Cape San Martin to Point Conception in California are managed with an ecosystem approach, yet this area is only a small fraction of the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

Each ecosystem-based management plan uses a related set of management tools, but the tools best suited for each place and the ways in which they are applied can vary quite a bit. There is a growing list of related ocean management concepts, widely acknowledged actions associated with ecosystem-based management and an ever-increasing number of software tools, made available through the EBM Tools Network, that assist managers, stakeholders, scientists and decision-makers.