With a few exceptions, ecosystem based management (EBM) has not successfully been implemented on any large scale. Why? For one, EMB requires a unified effort across multiple spaces and times to be success. It require not only identifiable goals, copious research, persistent coordination, failsafes, adaptation, technology, etc., it requires funding, inertia, and agency most commonly associated with developed nations and wealthy governments. Examples include Australia’s Great Barrier Reef EBM scheme or the US-Canadian Remedial Action Plan that uses spatial planning and EBM approaches to managing The Great Lakes.
While the Remedial Action Plan is a shining example of intergovernmental collaboration, the question arises: how do we successfully manage international territory? Oceanic planning has been a focus of EBM and spatial planning theorization within academia, but academics and government have paid little attention to the changing Arctic as it related to management. The expected recession of ice within the Arctic as a result of projected global temperatures within the next decade has consequences that the European Marine Board states that “we have not fully anticipated.” The board says that receding ice will increase “activities like hydrocarbon exploration, mineral extraction, bioprospecting and pelagic and demersal fisheries”. Hydrocarbon exploration and the possible environmental disasters (like a repeat of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill– pictured below) are topics of particular concern.
Convening for the first time around this issue this month, the European Marine Board, the European Polar Board, and the European Science Foundation are working towards creating an ecosystem based and adaptive approach to the changing Arctic landscape. The European Marine Board states this meeting “provides a platform to address ecosystem-based management in the Arctic Ocean by stimulating dialogue across sectors to aid common understanding, collaborative actions and sustainability targets.” By 2050 they hope to have a plan in place to have a mechanism in place within the Arctic that will address the the environmental, economic, and social needs of the international community.
If successful, this project named “Arctic 2050” may offer an archetype not only for successfully EBM but for a management scheme that will potentially coordinate thousands of interests in international territory.
See the European Marine Board’s announcement
Featured image: http://scitech.au.dk/fileadmin/site_files/formidling/OFN/Oil_Greenland_Photo_Steve_Morgan.jpg
Exxon Oil Spill Picture: http://www.latimes.com/includes/soundslides/oil-spill-history/oilspill11.jpg
Logo: http://www.esf.org/hosting-experts/expert-boards-and-committees/polar-sciences/conferences-and-events.html