How do MEBM Projects Get Started?

Ecological Crisis

• Significant declines in water quality from excessive amounts of nutrients entering the watershed led to the creation of the Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program.
• An outbreak of the crown-of-thorns starfish led to the creation of the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which sought to understand the outbreak and prevent it from happening again.
• Ship groundings helped spur creation of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The incidents generated broad political support for protections that had been resisted on a local scale.

Economic Hardship or Impact

• New England fishermen formed the Georges Bank Cod Hook Sector to create an alternative fishery management mechanism that would benefit the resource and reverse an economic collapse.
• The Philippines FISH Project was embraced by local fishermen whose livelihoods were threatened by declining catches.
• An international partnership created the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve on a Colombian protectorate to encourage sustainable development practices and fight poverty in a community experiencing high unemployment.

Threat of Development or Overuse

• The threat of oil drilling led to the creation of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.
• The threat of land development in southern Massachusetts led to the creation of the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve through the actions of citizens and state officials.
• Responding to threats of overuse of marine resources and potential conflicts with new uses, including ocean energy facilities, state leaders created the Massachusetts Ocean Management Initiative, a marine planning project.

Increased Awareness and Understanding

• Creation of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary came after divers took stunning photographs of the underwater bank. The photographs were reproduced in newspapers across the country.
• Research by college faculty in British Columbia, Canada, raised awareness of the value of what became the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.
• Reports authored by the U.S. Oceans Commission and the Pew Foundation highlighting the declining health of the oceans prompted the governors of California, Oregon and Washington to sign a West Coast Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Health.

Strategic Opportunities

• The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was started in part as a way to attract federal restoration funding comparable to that received for restoration efforts in South Florida and the California Bay Delta.
• Other places, such as Morro Bay, California, were able to secure significant funding from the Packard Foundation’s Marine EBM science program. San Luis Obispo Science and Ecosystem Alliance (SLOSEA) used Packard funding to develop scientific information, create pilot programs, and engage people within the region.  The funding provided an incentive for collaboration among organizations that previously had not worked closely together.

Policy Directive

• A 1999 National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan issued by the federal government prioritized establishment of a network of marine protected areas in the Bahamas.
• Australian national policy launched an ambitious Marine Bioregional Planning effort to create a national network of marine protected areas.
• Canada’s Oceans Act of 1997 and its subsequent policy framework, Canada’s Oceans Strategy, prompted establishment of the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Initiative collaborative management process, and sparked development of a marine reserve network, beginning with a focus on the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area.

Community

• Two local residents, the wife of a fisherman and a graduate student, formed the Port Orford Ocean Resources Team in Oregon, and generated support in their community to create a marine stewardship area.
• In New England, a small group of fishermen and fishing community advocates formed the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and reached out to conservationists and other stakeholders.
• In the San Juan Islands of Washington state, a county council member and other community leaders created the San Juan Initiative, which was successful because of its local ties.

Agency Leaders

• The long-standing Gulf of Maine Council was initiated and nurtured by officials in agencies in several Northeastern states and two Canadian provinces.

High-level Political Officials

• Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas declared the intention to create a Bahamas Marine Reserve Network to preserve 20 percent of near-shore resources.
• In the United States, the governors of five Gulf coast states formed the Gulf of Mexico Alliance to develop a common strategy and vision for the gulf.
• In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators formed the California Ocean Protection Council to improve coastal management.

Nongovernmental Organizations

• The Mafia Island Marine Park, off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa, was established with the advocacy of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
• WWF also played a role in providing advice and assistance to the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to create a shared understanding for governance of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion.
• The Galapagos Marine Reserve emerged after advocacy by NGOs that included The Charles Darwin Foundation, which helped engage fishermen and stakeholders.

Foundations or Aid Organizations

• The David and Louise Packard Foundation funded many efforts, including the Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative in the Republic of Palau, and the Vatu-i-Ra and Cakau Levu Reefs Seascape Project in Fiji.
• Investment from a fund managed by the World Bank and assistance from the United Nations Development Programme allowed China and South Korea to set goals and establish commitments to improve the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem.  

Conducted Education and Outreach

• The Downeast Groundfish Initiative reached out to fishermen and scientists to build an understanding of the fishery and a constituency for improved stewardship of the fishery.
• A grassroots organization in New Zealand began creating the Fiordland Marine Conservation Strategy by raising awareness of the national system’s importance and fostering public pride.

Sought Assistance from NGOs, Foundations or Agencies

• The Port Orford Ocean Resource Team partnered with Ecotrust, the Surfrider Foundation and other NGOs, foundations and consulting groups to develop baseline data, engage the community, and develop maps of ecologically and economically important fishing grounds.
• The government of Belize sought conservation assessment tools and policy-related advice from the Wildlife Conservation Society to inform management strategies of the Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve.  

Established an Informal Forum for Interaction

• The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, off the coast of southwestern Africa, is the site of an evolving MEBM effort involving South Africa, Namibia and Angola. A workshop on fisheries dynamics provided for the assembly of officials from across the region, who agreed on the need for new management structures.
• A series of workshops initiated by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance enabled development of a consensus-based, goal-oriented vision for the New England groundfishing fleet and established connections among stakeholder groups.
• The Gulf of Maine Council provided a place where agency-level environmental managers from Canada and the United States could share concerns and discuss harmonizing and coordinating ecosystem protection strategies.

Leveraged Existing Policies or Programs

• The existence of the National Estuary Program allowed Delaware to request protection of its Inland Bays region.
• Similarly, the National Marine Sanctuaries Act allowed advocates to press for the creation of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
• In Canada, the Ecological Reserve Act provided a mechanism for advocates to seek the creation of the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.  

Created Pilot Projects or Demonstration Programs

• A small grant program by the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project implemented community-level pollution reduction efforts in China and South Korea, helping to support the creation of an agreement establishing national-level goals.
• Numerous small projects were created by the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve of Colombia to demonstrate how to improve sanitation, waste disposal and construction practices in the archipelago’s shantytowns, and experiment with the recycling of certain materials.

• The Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve partnered with other organizations on habitat restoration projects to remove nutrients from the bay and improve the flow of freshwater from the watershed.

Conducted Monitoring –

• An ecosystem monitoring program created by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources provided scientific information into a consensus-based process that informed regulations on fisheries in the Southern Ocean.
• Data collected jointly by fishermen and scientists in Puerto Penasco, Mexico informed a decision to close a fishery and create marine protected areas.

Avoided Major Conflicts by Limiting the Scope of the Initiative

• Founding members of the Gulf of Maine Council avoided discussing fishery regulations, long a source of division between interests in the United States and Canada and that were already being managed through existing regulatory structures.
• Reflecting its geography, the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Initiative avoided a focus on the western portion of the Scotian Shelf, an area of greater fishing intensity that might have drawn the initiative into more complex transboundary issues with the United States.