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Abstract

Pursuing development and conservation goals often requires thinking and planning across terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms because many threats and social–ecological processes transcend realm boundaries. Consequently, effective conservation planning must consider the social and ecological links between realms and follow a cross-realm approach to allocate land/water uses and conservation actions to mitigate cross-realm threats and maintain cross-realm ecological processes. Cross-realm planning requires integrating multiple objectives for conservation and development, and assessing the potential co-benefits and trade-offs between them under alternative development scenarios. Despite progress in cross-realm planning theory, few fully-integrated and applied cross-realm plans exist. The gaps between research and implementation are not unique to cross-realm planning, but are accentuated by the complexity of spatial decision-making entailed. Based on a collaborative process including scientists, resource managers and policy-makers, we developed an operational framework for cross-realm planning based on up-to-date thinking in conservation science, but offering practical guidance to operationalise real-world planning. Our approach has a strong theoretical basis while addressing the visions and needs of decision-makers. We discuss the foundations and limitations of current approaches in cross-realm planning, describe key requirements to undertake this approach, and present a real-world application of our framework.

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... Although protected areas remain a cornerstone of conservation strategies to combat ongoing biodiversity loss (Bertzky et al., 2012;Butchart et al., 2010), the impacts of cross-realm threats or otherwise displaced drivers such as climate change can undermine the effectiveness of conservation interventions. Thus, it is critical to design conservation strategies, and in particular protected areas, that take into account connections across multiple realms and include likely change (Adams et al., 2014;Á lvarez-Romero et al., 2015a;Á lvarez-Romero et al., 2011). ...
... Previous research shows that ignoring connections in conservation plans delivers substantially different spatial priorities compared to approaches that are integrated and connected (Makino et al., 2013;Tsang et al., 2019). To date, no study has optimized priorities simultaneously across multiple realms to produce a spatially explicit integrated conservation plan for connected terrestrial and marine conservation priorities given multiple threats including future change (but for a review of existing approaches see Adams et al., 2014;Á lvarez-Romero et al., 2015a). This represents a major gap in conservation planning theory. ...
... Potential reasons for the lack of fully integrated cross-realm conservation plans that account for multiple threats include barriers in data availability or technical capacity in existing optimization approaches (Adams et al., 2014;Á lvarez-Romero et al., 2015a). However, both of these barriers are rapidly diminishing. ...
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There is a growing recognition that conservation strategies should be designed accounting for cross-realm connections, such as freshwater connections to land and sea, to ensure effectiveness of marine spatial protection and minimize perverse outcomes of changing land-use. Yet, examples of integration across realms are relatively scarce, with most targeting priorities in a single realm, such as marine or freshwater, while minimizing threats originating in terrestrial ecosystems. To date, no study has optimized priorities across multiple realms to produce a spatially explicit integrated conservation plan that simultaneously accounts for multiple human activities at a national scale. This represents a major gap in the application of existing cross-realm planning theory. We present a national scale conservation framework for selecting protected areas using a case study of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that integrates multiple systems and ecological connectivity to account for cross-realm benefits and minimize threats of land-use and climate change. The relative importance of both the forests and inshore reef environments to PNG subsistence and commercial livelihoods emphasizes the importance of considering the connections between the land and sea. The plan was commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and identifies a comprehensive set of priorities that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. Our national-scale prioritization framework is useful for agencies and managers looking to implement actions given multiple objectives, including watershed management and biodiversity protection, and ensures actions are efficient and effective across the land and sea.
... By considering the impact of multiple threats, landscape-scale threat management can also help account for potential interactions and complementarity among proposed management actions when prioritizing for implementation (Auerbach, Tulloch, & Possingham, 2014;Chadès et al., 2014;Evans, Possingham, & Wilson, 2011). In particular, considering threats to biodiversity across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms can help account for cross-realm impacts of threats and benefits of actions (Adams et al., 2014;Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015;Giakoumi et al., 2019). Terrestrial land-use activities such as agriculture, forestry, or fire management also affect habitats and species in the freshwater and marine realms (e.g., Carignan & Steedman, 2000;Maina et al., 2013;Yoshimura, 2012), and vice-versa (e.g., Hazlitt, Martin, Sampson, & Arcese, 2010). ...
... Despite wide recognition of the advantages of crossrealm management, most conservation planning still occur within single realms, with some limited consideration of ecological links to other realms (Adams et al., 2014;Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015). Managing threats across large areas can be challenging, particularly when decision-making authority is divided among multiple jurisdictions with different mandates, priorities, and constraints (Ban et al., 2014;Beger et al., 2010;Dallimer & Strange, 2015), and actions may impact multiple stakeholders ( Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015;Dallimer & Strange, 2015;Ruttenberg & Granek, 2011). ...
... Despite wide recognition of the advantages of crossrealm management, most conservation planning still occur within single realms, with some limited consideration of ecological links to other realms (Adams et al., 2014;Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015). Managing threats across large areas can be challenging, particularly when decision-making authority is divided among multiple jurisdictions with different mandates, priorities, and constraints (Ban et al., 2014;Beger et al., 2010;Dallimer & Strange, 2015), and actions may impact multiple stakeholders ( Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015;Dallimer & Strange, 2015;Ruttenberg & Granek, 2011). Careful planning and coordination are needed to support knowledge and resource sharing that will enable strategic investments in more cost-effective conservation actions (Ban et al., 2014;Gordon, Bastin, Langford, Lechner, & Bekessy, 2013;Reuter, Juhn, & Grantham, 2016) and thus offset the potential costs of coordination (Bode, Probert, Turner, Wilson, & Venter, 2011;Gordon et al., 2013). ...
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The need to manage threats to biodiversity, and to do so cost‐effectively, is urgent. Cross‐realm conservation management is recognized as a cost‐effective approach, but it requires collaboration between agencies and jurisdictions, and local knowledge of anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. With its emphasis on stakeholder engagement and use of structured expert elicitation, Priority Threat Management (PTM) facilitates rapid, cross‐realm planning at the regional scale. We used PTM to identify cost‐effective management strategies with the aim of securing nine ecological groups, comprised of 45 species and one ecological community of conservation concern, across terrestrial and freshwater realms within the Wolastoq|Saint John River watershed in Canada. Under business‐as‐usual, four of nine groups are expected to have >50% probability of persistence over the next 25 years. Investment of 141millionover25yearsinthreemanagementstrategiescouldsecuresevengroupsacrossbothrealmswith>50141 million over 25 years in three management strategies could secure seven groups across both realms with >50% probability of persistence. Achieving higher levels of persistence comes at a cost—securing six groups with >60% probability of persistence requires investing 218 million over 25 years in seven strategies. Through a structured, iterative process, whereby stakeholders cooperate to clarify objectives, devise management strategies, and collate data, PTM can support timely and cost‐effective management across multiple realms.
... These declines threaten the functional integrity of coastal and marine ecosystems and the services they provide, such as food supplies, coastal protection, and climate regulation [9][10][11]. Consequently, the conservation of coastal species and ecosystems requires a mixture of both marine and terrestrial conservation actions [12][13][14][15][16]. ...
... 17]. Incorporating exchanges across the land-sea interface is challenging, requiring the integration of data and models across the terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms [12][13][14]20]. Recent advances have allowed the benefits of terrestrial actions on marine ecosystems to be estimated [17][18][19][20][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], but in practice, land-sea conservation planning has rarely explicitly quantified how the management of terrestrial threats impacts marine ecosystems. ...
... habitat increases sediment loads, which reduces water clarity in the adjacent ocean. The resulting decrease in light reaching the seafloor reduces the amount of habitat suitable for lightdependent species [13]. We focus on suspended sediments because they are a key driver of marine ecosystem condition in many inshore areas [2,8,36] but acknowledge the importance of the other components of runoff more broadly, including toxicant and nutrient loads. ...
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Coastal marine ecosystems can be managed by actions undertaken both on the land and in the ocean. Quantifying and comparing the costs and benefits of actions in both realms is therefore necessary for efficient management. Here, we quantify the link between terrestrial sediment runoff and a downstream coastal marine ecosystem and contrast the cost-effectiveness of marine- and land-based conservation actions. We use a dynamic land- and sea-scape model to determine whether limited funds should be directed to 1 of 4 alternative conservation actions—protection on land, protection in the ocean, restoration on land, or restoration in the ocean—to maximise the extent of light-dependent marine benthic habitats across decadal timescales. We apply the model to a case study for a seagrass meadow in Australia. We find that marine restoration is the most cost-effective action over decadal timescales in this system, based on a conservative estimate of the rate at which seagrass can expand into a new habitat. The optimal decision will vary in different social–ecological contexts, but some basic information can guide optimal investments to counteract land- and ocean-based stressors: (1) marine restoration should be prioritised if the rates of marine ecosystem decline and expansion are similar and low; (2) marine protection should take precedence if the rate of marine ecosystem decline is high or if the adjacent catchment is relatively intact and has a low rate of vegetation decline; (3) land-based actions are optimal when the ratio of marine ecosystem expansion to decline is greater than 1:1.4, with terrestrial restoration typically the most cost-effective action; and (4) land protection should be prioritised if the catchment is relatively intact but the rate of vegetation decline is high. These rules of thumb illustrate how cost-effective conservation outcomes for connected land–ocean systems can proceed without complex modelling.
... Given the inherently spatial nature of climate adaptation and the significant investment required to support successful implementation, spatial planning approaches are necessary to support the three broad strategies outlined above Heller and Zavaleta, 2009). Spatial planning, in which spatial priorities for action are identified, is a subset of wider planning processes used to guide the allocation of management actions and resources to: (a) achieve explicit environmental and socio-economic objectives, and (b) evaluate potential tradeoffs among competing objectives (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015;Morán-Ordóñez et al., 2017;Pressey et al., 2007). Common approaches to spatial planning aiming to optimize the allocation of actions and land uses to achieve environmental and socio-economic objectives include systematic conservation planning (e.g., Adams et al., 2016), integrated landscape planning (e.g., Bohnet et al., 2011), and ranking of management actions and environmental values, e.g. ...
... Extending spatial planning approaches to consider climate change requires expanding objectives to explicitly consider climate change implications, integrating models of future climates, and accounting for associated uncertainties (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015). Advances in spatial planning processes relevant to climate adaptation include considerations of dynamic processes that incorporate a temporal dimension (Alagador et al., 2014), such as scheduling of actions in relation to the occurrence of threats (Visconti et al., 2010), anticipating climate change effects and making adaptation decisions (Waterhouse et al., 2016), or enabling flexible management responses (Rayfield et al., 2008) to deal with incomplete or new information. ...
... The interviews were designed to capture the extent to which the NRM planning processes were successfully developing regional-scale plans, the evolution of the planning processes over time, and the extent to which climate adaptation goals were integrated into the current planning processes. The interviews were structured around the 22 components of the operational planning framework presented by Álvarez-Romero et al. (2015) (see Supplementary materials 2 for interview guide). The framework expands upon the core planning stages of systematic conservation planning (Pressey and Bottrill, 2009) and includes additional stages relevant to spatial planning across realms (e.g. ...
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Climate change is driving shifts in social-ecological systems globally. In response, humans must adapt to altered climatic and environmental conditions. While climate change adaptation is a pressing issue in many sectors and regions, the adaptation of environmental management strategies is particularly urgent because of the severity and extent of risks associated with projected impacts. Robust adaptation of environmental management requires effective spatial and temporal implementation of interventions, with explicit consideration of trade-offs between different socio-economic and environmental objectives. We investigate the critical interface between regional governance systems and spatial planning for climate adaptation by exploring the case of Australia’s Natural Resource Management (NRM) bodies. Australia’s NRM bodies provide an ideal case study for two reasons. First, Australia faces significant threats from current and future climate changes. Second, Australian NRM bodies have recently undertaken a major program of spatial planning and research to explicitly address the need for climate adaptation. We explore the interface between regional governance systems and spatial planning by: 1) reviewing the historical development of institutional arrangements in relation to spatial planning by Australia’s regional NRM bodies; 2) documenting current planning processes with regard to climate adaptation and more generally; and 3) identifying strengths and weaknesses of the existing governance system at various scales with respect to its ability to foster effective spatial planning. We find that the institutional and resource capacity of the Australian regional NRM bodies is currently being eroded and that the national governance system is broadly failing to deliver on the intended outcomes of climate-ready NRM plans. We make recommendations for governance reform and institutional adaptation to improve spatial planning for climate adaptation in Australia and discuss the broader implications of our findings.
... Many management institutions focus either on terrestrial, freshwater or marine realms, but do not typically cross the land-sea boundary (Lebel 2012). However, the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine areas often requires these realms to be managed in a coordinated and integrated manner (Ruttenberg & Granek 2011;Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015) while accounting for the needs of various people within each realm (Mora & Sale 2011). When terrestrial, freshwater and marine management programs are implemented independently there can be an increased risk of failure (Silvestri & Kershaw 2010). ...
... The concept of ILSM has been discussed extensively (Crist et al. 2009;Ruttenberg & Granek 2011;Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015) as an effective strategy for conservation (Corson et al. 2014). The simultaneous conservation of land and sea can increase the success of conservation programs (Klein et al. 2012). ...
... While there have been reviews of integrated land-sea conservation (e.g. Álvarez-Romero et al. 2011, Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015, we are not aware of any systematic reviews of ILSM approaches. We conducted a review of the literature to increase understanding of ILSM programming, the objectives being to: (1) examine characteristics of ILSM programs profiled in the literature (program descriptions; factors prompting the use of ILSM; frameworks/strategies used); (2) assess recommendations made by theoretical/review papers regarding the planning, implementation and management of land-sea programs; (3) summarize how land-sea programming has actually been planned, implemented and managed in the field; and (4) provide recommendations on how to implement different stages of the ILSM process. ...
Article
Marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems face increasing anthropogenic threats that are exacerbated by the ecological connectivity between realms; integrated land-sea management (ILSM) is a framework that can help address this connectivity. However, gaps in our knowledge regarding ILSM remain. This study reviewed 108 relevant studies to understand how ILSM is being utilized. Summarized are: (1) characteristics of integrated land-sea programs; (2) recommendations made from the literature for program planning, implementation and management; (3) how applied programs have been planned, implemented and managed; and (4) recommendations for undertaking ILSM. It was found that applied programs did not often adhere to the strategies recommended by theoretical papers. Applied programs were less likely than theoretical papers to specifically name the land-sea connection, over 50% did not apply a framework or governance approach, many did not include key stakeholders, and over 80% listed at least one conflict or hurdle that decreased program success. This study highlighted the difficulties of undertaking ILSM given the high number of stakeholders, government agencies and experts involved. Based on the findings, recommendations for future ILSM programs are provided.
... Consequently, low spatial congruence of parts of catchments important for different objectives (e.g., biodiversity, carbon sequestration, production, water flow regulation) can present managers with difficult trade-offs when allocating land uses and management actions [27][28][29][30]. An important step to determine the cost-effectiveness of different management strategies is thus to map the value of parts of catchments for multiple objectives, and use this information to guide the spatial allocation of land uses and actions that maximise the co-benefits and minimise the trade-offs among objectives [25,29,31,32]. However, understanding the spatial congruence between local and downstream values of catchments is incipient [33,34], and further research is needed to develop methods that can help planners to identify and navigate potential trade-offs arising from competing management objectives [29,35]. ...
... Methods to target catchment management have advanced rapidly in the past decade [15,17,36,37], but integration of these into marine conservation planning is more recent [24,31,38]. Over the past 25 years, systematic conservation planning has developed principles, methods, and tools to guide conservation interventions that maximise benefits for biodiversity, while minimising the costs [39,40]. ...
... Despite the marked differences between our scenarios (and associated trade-offs between management objectives), there are spatial options to manage areas to achieve local and downstream objectives simultaneously (i.e., management co-benefits: [25]). This is a promising result, and indicates that integrated land-sea planning can help to integrate and accommodate multiple objectives with benefits for both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, while reducing the overall cost of interventions [31]. ...
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Human-induced changes to river loads of nutrients and sediments pose a significant threat to marine ecosystems. Ongoing land-use change can further increase these loads, and amplify the impacts of land-based threats on vulnerable marine ecosystems. Consequently, there is a need to assess these threats and prioritise actions to mitigate their impacts. A key question regarding prioritisation is whether actions in catchments to maintain coastal-marine water quality can be spatially congruent with actions for other management objectives, such as conserving terrestrial biodiversity. In selected catchments draining into the Gulf of California, Mexico, we employed Land Change Modeller to assess the vulnerability of areas with native vegetation to conversion into crops, pasture, and urban areas. We then used SedNet, a catchment modelling tool, to map the sources and estimate pollutant loads delivered to the Gulf by these catchments. Following these analyses, we used modelled river plumes to identify marine areas likely influenced by land-based pollutants. Finally, we prioritised areas for catchment management based on objectives for conservation of terrestrial biodiversity and objectives for water quality that recognised links between pollutant sources and affected marine areas. Our objectives for coastal-marine water quality were to reduce sediment and nutrient discharges from anthropic areas, and minimise future increases in coastal sedimentation and eutrophication. Our objectives for protection of terrestrial biodiversity covered species of vertebrates. We used Marxan, a conservation planning tool, to prioritise interventions and explore spatial differences in priorities for both objectives. Notable differences in the distributions of land values for terrestrial biodiversity and coastal-marine water quality indicated the likely need for trade-offs between catchment management objectives. However, there were priority areas that contributed to both sets of objectives. Our study demonstrates a practical approach to integrating models of catchments, land-use change, and river plumes with conservation planning software to inform prioritisation of catchment management.
... The effects of such changes may be negative or positive; in parts of temperate Australia and New Zealand, for instance, enhanced sediment erosion and deposition is leading to mangrove expansion and the decline of estuarine sandflats (Stokes et al. 2010;Lundquist et al. 2014). Due to the large number of threats (Bugnot et al. 2019) and social-ecological processes that transcend boundaries between realms, cross-realm approaches are increasingly needed for effective environmental management (Beger et al. 2010;Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015). This is particularly relevant in coastal cities, where the three realms are highly connected, and therefore where impacts from multiple stressors are likely to have cross-boundary effects (Figure 1). ...
... Although the importance of cross-realm connectivity has long been recognized (eg Polis et al. 1997;Beger et al. 2010), most impacts of urbanization continue to be considered within realms, or within narrow sections along the boundary between realms that do not address stressors associated with a larger urban catchment or that propagate from farther upstream (eg the New South Wales [NSW] Coastal Management Act 2016 and State Environmental Planning Policy-Coastal Management-2018 in Australia explicitly seek to manage the "coastal boundary"). Planning and conservation actions across two or more realms that encompass larger spatial scales remain relatively rare (Beger et al. 2010;Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015). ...
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Urbanization and its resulting environmental stressors are often managed within terrestrial, freshwater, or marine realms separately. This is problematic for the many cities situated at the intersection between these realms, because stressors and associated management actions can affect multiple realms simultaneously and impacts may be compounded at boundaries. Here, we describe management approaches operating within and across realms, and identify impediments to cross‐realm urban management. We find that management that fails to consider connectivity either within or between realms at best delivers only small‐scale benefits and at worst can produce large‐scale unintended negative outcomes. In contrast, management that explicitly considers inter‐realm connectivity can generate large benefits relative to the cost of interventions. Successful cross‐realm management requires consideration of connectivity, scale (temporal and spatial), and ecological processes across more than two realms, and is underpinned by an integrated and collaborative approach that provides multiple benefits.
... where agency jurisdiction, expertise, and management techniques are highly segregated between the freshwater and terrestrial realms (Beger et al. 2010). Technical barriers also exist, such as poor availability of data on cross-realm processes, the need to modify existing decision-support tools geared toward a single realm, and uncertainty about effects of actions that influence multiple realms (Alvarez-Romero et al. 2015). Progress has been made towards addressing these challenges in recent years, and several conceptual frameworks for cross-realm conservation planning have been proposed (Amis et al. 2009;Beger et al. 2010;Adams et al. 2014;Alvarez-Romero et al. 2015). ...
... Technical barriers also exist, such as poor availability of data on cross-realm processes, the need to modify existing decision-support tools geared toward a single realm, and uncertainty about effects of actions that influence multiple realms (Alvarez-Romero et al. 2015). Progress has been made towards addressing these challenges in recent years, and several conceptual frameworks for cross-realm conservation planning have been proposed (Amis et al. 2009;Beger et al. 2010;Adams et al. 2014;Alvarez-Romero et al. 2015). However, examples of successful applications of these frameworks remain rare. ...
Article
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Both terrestrial and freshwater aquatic management practices contribute to maintaining a healthy, connected landscape, yet these two ecological realms are often managed independently rather than as intertwined components of a single system. Cross-realm management, which explicitly considers the connections between terrestrial and aquatic realms, is a promising new direction in natural resource management that has great potential to benefit ecosystem functions that are not realm-specific, such as connectivity, and to inform more efficient management decisions by identifying co-benefits: management actions that benefit both the terrestrial and aquatic realms. However, examples of successful applications of cross-realm management frameworks remain rare. This prioritization tool and user guide are the products of a project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support, integrate, and build on existing efforts towards terrestrial and freshwater management in the Missouri Headwaters Basin (MHB) of southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. The objectives of the project were to (1) examine how joint actions can be prioritized and applied on the ground, and (2) pilot a repeatable approach that can be applied to other areas.
... Demand on conservation professionals to find effective and durable responses has never been greater. To address this complexity, conservation is becoming more integrative, interactive and inclusive (Colloff et al., 2017;Duckett et al., 2016), with trends towards social awareness, transdisciplinarity and the co-production of knowledge and solutions (Beier et al., 2016;Nel et al., 2016), and a greater consideration of social, political and economic trade-offs associated with conservation actions (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015;McShane et al., 2011). However, as the framing of conservation evolves (Mace, 2014), so too do ideas about what constitutes the necessary skills and abilities of modern conservation professionals. ...
... Thus contemporary conservation issues are often complex and contested, and it is often impossible to find technical solutions that can be readily translated into policy and practice with win-win outcomes (Adams and Sandbrook, 2013;Beier et al., 2016;Mauser et al., 2013). There is increasing awareness that conservation science needs to innovate and engage with societal actors in order to realise positive environmental outcomes (Colloff et al., 2017;Nel et al., 2016;Reyers et al., 2010;Toomey et al., 2016), and conservation practice needs to more effectively engage with trade-offs (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015;McShane et al., 2011). ...
... Recent reviews (e.g. Álvarez-Romero et al. 2011; Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015; Reuter et al. 2016) highlight several hurdles to achieving effective ILSM outcomes in both continental and island systems. Barriers to effective ILSM planning and implementation include: (1) lack of mechanisms to coordinate institutions with different mandates and area jurisdictions across levels of government and between public and private sectors (Cicin-Sain & Belfiore 2005; Lane 2008); ...
... (2) conflict arising due to poor involvement of the full range of stakeholders with interests across the land and sea divide (Reuter et al. 2016); (3) an inability to address potentially conflicting objectives and mandates across agencies (e.g. conservation through sustainable use versus economic gain from commercial extraction) (Álvarez-Romero et al. 2011); (4) a lack of adequate data on ecosystem responses to management measures in order to appropriately prioritize actions, particularly with regards to multi-objective project goals (Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015); (5) uncertainty about the effects of management actions across connected realms (Adams et al. 2014); and (6) the labour, time and complexity of analyses required to develop and/or adapt models and decision support systems that deal with the above issues (ÁlvarezRomero et al. 2011). ILSM project implementation may be further hampered by the inability of responsible agencies and institutions to simultaneously schedule management actions in linked terrestrial and marine realms in order to comprehensively address threats at appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Álvarez-Romero et al. 2011). ...
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Despite a growing body of literature on integrated land–sea management (ILSM), very little critical assessment has been conducted in order to evaluate ILSM in practice on island systems. Here we develop indicators for assessing 10 integrated island management principles and evaluate the performance of planning and implementation in four island ILSM projects from the tropical Pacific across different governance structures. We find that where customary governance is still strongly respected and enabled through national legislation, ILSM in practice can be very effective at restricting access and use according to fluctuations in resource availability. However, decision-making under customary governance systems may be vulnerable to mismanagement. Government-led ILSM processes have the potential to design management actions that address the spatial scale of ecosystem processes and threats within the context of national policy and legislation, but may not fully capture broad stakeholder interests, and implementation may be poorly coordinated across highly dispersed island archipelagos. Private sector partnerships offer unique opportunities for resourcing island ILSM, although these are highly likely to be geared towards private sector interests that may change in the future and no longer align with community and/or national objectives. We identify consistent challenges that arise during island ILSM planning and implementation and offer recommendations for improvement.
... in suboptimal or perverse outcomes (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015a). Although guidelines for sustainable oil palm certification have been developed (OPIC, see http://www.rspo.org), the extent these guidelines mitigate the risks to marine biodiversity from increased runoff associated with new plantations is unknown, as cross-system impacts are not explicitly considered in the criteria for sustainability assessment. ...
... Conservation planning for connected ecosystems at the land-sea interface is inherently difficult because planning requires linking processes for land-use change, run-off, dispersal of pollutants in the ocean and the impacts of pollutants on marine habitats (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015a). This study linked ridge to reef processes to develop an approach for making decisions on the conservation of coral reef and seagrass ecosystems potentially threatened by expansion of oil palm plantations in a data poor region. ...
Article
Clearing forests for oil palm plantations is a major threat to tropical terrestrial biodiversity, and may potentially have large impacts on downstream marine ecosystems (e.g., coral reefs). However, little is known about the impacts of runoff from oil palm plantations, so it is not clear how oil palm development should be modified to minimize the risk of degrading marine ecosystems, or how marine conservation plans should be modified to account for the impacts of oil palm development. We coupled terrestrial and marine biophysical models to simulate changes in sediment/nutrient composition on reefs as a result of oil palm development in Papua New Guinea, and predicted the response of coral and seagrass ecosystems to different land-use scenarios. The condition of almost 60% of coastal ecosystems were predicted to be substantially degraded (more than a 50% decline from their initial state) after 5 years if all suitable land was converted to oil palm, with only 4% of coastal ecosystems improving in condition as trees matured. We evaluated marine ecosystem condition if the oil palm developments were consistent with global sustainability guidelines and found that there were only slight improvements in ecosystems condition compared to the scenario with complete conversion of forest to oil palm. Substantially reducing the impact of oil palm development on marine ecosystems required limiting new plantings to hill slopes below 15°, a more stringent restriction than currently allowed for in the sustainability guidelines. We evaluated priority marine conservation areas given current land-use and found reef ecosystems in these areas will likely be heavily degraded in the future from runoff. We find that marine conservation plans should be modified to prioritize turbid areas where coral communities may be more tolerant of increased suspended sediment in the water. The approach developed here provides guidelines for modifying marine conservation priorities in areas with oil palm development. Importantly, oil palm development guidelines cannot be truly ecologically sustainable unless they are modified to account for the impacts of oil palm on coastal marine ecosystems.
... Although this approach leaves out many of the sea-land interactions. Alvarez Romero (2015) [41] defines an operational framework for Sea-Earth spatial planning in which he defines a series of critical components that need to be considered at the same time in both planning: communities involved, governance analysis, mapping of the different uses, establishment of objectives, characteristics and threats of the model and evaluation of a benefits and compensation system. Tallis Ferdana and Gray (2008) [42] classify three levels of integration: concurrency, simultaneity, and integration. ...
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On February 28th, 2023, Spanish Royal Decree 150/2023 as published, approving the plans for the management of the maritime space of the five Spanish marine demarcations. This Royal Decree Law inaugurates the Planning of the Maritime Space in Spain. Terrestrial Space Planning is very advanced, both in the legislation and in the instruments that are enabled to organize this space, from the national scale to the municipal scale, passing through the regional, provincial, and supra-municipal scales. Naturally, both Planning must converge and thus speak of an Integrated Space Planning. In some of the countries that we can take as global references, this convergence in the form of integration is taking place. On the other hand, and within the context of climate change, coastal cities will be the most affected, both by the potential rise in sea level and by the increasingly continuous and greater extreme events. Integrated Space Planning is postulated as the most effective tool to carry out adequate territorial and urban planning of our coastal cities, as well as to analyse the influence and possible corrective measures to apply against the effects produced by climate change.
... Terrestrial studies by far dominated the scientific literature, whereas freshwater and cross-realm planning approaches, e.g. those that consider terrestrial as well as freshwater and/or marine systems [21,35,37], have rarely been conducted ( figure 1). This constitutes a problematic issue, as there is increasing evidence that drivers behind biodiversity pressures are interlinked across realms [59]. ...
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Expanding and managing current habitat and species protection measures is at the heart of the European biodiversity strategy. A structured approach is needed to gain insights into such issues is systematic conservation planning, which uses techniques from decision theory to identify places and actions that contribute most effectively to policy objectives given a set of constraints. Yet culturally and historically determined European landscapes make the implementation of any conservation plans challenging, requiring an analysis of synergies and trade-offs before implementation. In this work, we review the scientific literature for evidence of previous conservation planning approaches, highlighting recent advances and success stories. We find that the conceptual characteristics of European conservation planning studies likely reduced their potential in contributing to better-informed decisions. We outline pathways towards improving the uptake of decision theory and multi-criteria conservation planning at various scales, particularly highlighting the need for (a) open data and intuitive tools, (b) the integration of biodiversity-focused conservation planning with multiple objectives, (c) accounting of dynamic ecological processes and functions, and (d) better facilitation of entry-points and co-design practices of conservation planning scenarios with stakeholders. By adopting and improving these practices, European conservation planning might become more actionable and adaptable towards implementable policy outcomes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere’.
... The concept of sustainability in regional development, especially local productivity, which is becoming a current trend, also encourages an increase in the standard of living of the community [1]. The concept of economic development is redeveloped into an endogenous theory [2] that regional development at a high level is a bottom-up process, initiated and implemented by local and regional actors, influenced and shaped by regional institutions and policies or what is currently being carried out in Indonesia in the form of decentralization or regional autonomy. Starting with strengthening the territory through development by optimizing the location between industries, markets and raw materials [3], to a centralized development concept or central place Christaller on Fujita, M., & Thisse, (1996). ...
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Economic growth in Central Java Province is currently being driven by the rapid acceleration of investment, leading to the development of cities and districts. However, the measurement of regional competitiveness is currently limited to analysing regional capabilities in development. This condition creates a situation where regencies and cities compete with each other without considering the functions and roles of interconnected regions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand and utilize regional competitiveness within the framework of the regional system in order to support the policies of the Central Java Province. This study adopts a quantitative approach to analyse the stages of regional development, which are identified based on competitiveness starting from basic requirements as a factor-driven, efficiency-driven, and innovation factor. Using this approach, we aim to classify the functions and roles of cities and districts within the regional system in Central Java. The data for this study was obtained through the distribution of questionnaires in 35 districts and cities in Central Java Province, as well as interviews with stakeholders from both the regions and the provinces. The findings of this study reveal that cities and regencies have different stages of competitiveness, with some focusing on driving innovation and strengthening driving factors, while neglecting efficiency. Spatially, cities exhibit a higher level of competitiveness; however, most urban districts have not incorporated the role of the region in the planning of a sustainable regional system.
... Critically, integrated policy needs to be developed based on a good understanding of the connections among systems so that evidence-based predictions and decisions can be made about how any interventions may influence outcomes in multiple sectors (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015). It is essential to consider any potential trade-off scenarios wherein mutual benefits are not shared between sectors, or one sector may even be exposed to more harm. ...
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Tropical coastal ecosystems are in decline worldwide due to an increasing suite of human activities, which threaten the biodiversity and human wellbeing that these ecosystems support. One of the major drivers of decline is poor water quality from land-based activities. This review summarises the evidence of impacts to coastal ecosystems, particularly coral reefs, from sediments, nutrients, chemicals and pathogens entering coastal zones through surface and groundwater. We also assess how these pollutants affect the health of coastal human populations through: (1) enhanced transmission of infectious diseases; (2) reduced food availability and nutritional deficit from decline of fisheries associated with degraded habitat; and (3) food poisoning from consumption of contaminated seafood. We use this information to identify opportunities for holistic approaches to integrated watershed management (IWM) that target overlapping drivers of ill-health in downstream coastal ecosystems and people. We demonstrate that appropriate management requires taking a multi-sector, systems approach that accounts for socio-ecological feedbacks, with collaboration required across environmental, agricultural, public health, and water, sanitation and hygiene sectors, as well as across the land–sea interface. Finally, we provide recommendations of key actions for IWM that can help achieve multiple sustainable development goals for both nature and people on coasts.
... This model could be embedded or linked to more comprehensive system models describing the relationships among key entities of the catchment (including spiritual entities) and extended into the marine zone (e.g. Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015;. ...
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In Western‐democratic countries, it is widely accepted that affected communities should be involved in natural resource planning and decisions. This is especially so when the well‐being of diverse communities is directly involved, and where alternative future options are being considered. Although there is an agreement that ‘values’ and ‘well‐being’, in some form, guide decisions, there is no consensus on the well‐being framework(s) that might be used in participatory planning. To assist a multicultural group in assessing alternative future development scenarios for the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) in Western Australia, we developed a well‐being framework that culturally diverse communities could share and use to discuss and assess scenarios. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the well‐being framework used to assess the potential impacts of scenarios by (i) analysing how effectively participants used the well‐being framework; (ii) verifying whether the well‐being framework was sensitive to the cultural diversity of participants and (iii) direct evaluation by workshop participants. Our analysis shows that participants effectively applied most well‐being categories, and the framework was sensitive to the cross‐cultural context of the application by capturing Aboriginal cultural elements. However, the approach can be improved by including principles of behaviour; producing a more complete system model; and reviewing and amending the well‐being categories in more extensive community consultation. We conclude that the interaction among different worldviews generated valuable knowledge and that, with further adaptation, the framework shows promise for applications involving similar tasks in culturally diverse contexts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
... In this case, areas are separated by physical and jurisdictional boundaries (e.g., land and coastal managers) and potentially social boundaries (different communities or social networks). Here, we propose a framework for cross-realm management, which builds on previous frameworks for conservation and management across realms [17,19,91,92], but with a specific focus on light pollution (Fig. 3). ...
Article
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Terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide range of organisms and habitats and impact multiple realms. Despite this, current management practices for light pollution rarely consider connectivity between realms. Here we discuss the ways in which ALAN can have cross-realm impacts and provide case studies for each example discussed. We identified three main ways in which ALAN can affect two or more realms: 1) impacts on species that have life cycles and/or stages in two or more realms, such as diadromous fish that cross realms during ontogenetic migrations and many terrestrial insects that have juvenile phases of the life cycle in aquatic realms; 2) impacts on species interactions that occur across realm boundaries, and 3) impacts on transition zones or ecosystems such as mangroves and estuaries. We then propose a framework for cross-realm management of light pollution and discuss current challenges and potential solutions to increase the uptake of a cross-realm approach for ALAN management. We argue that the strengthening and formalisation of professional networks that involve academics, lighting practitioners, environmental managers and regulators that work in multiple realms is essential to provide an integrated approach to light pollution. Networks that have a strong multi-realm and multi-disciplinary focus are important as they enable a holistic understanding of issues related to ALAN.
... In this case, areas are separated by physical and jurisdictional boundaries (e.g., land and coastal managers) and potentially social boundaries (different communities or social networks). Here, we propose a framework for cross-realm management, which builds on previous frameworks for conservation and management across realms [17,19,91,92], but with a specific focus on light pollution (Fig. 3). ...
Preprint
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Terrestrial, marine, and freshwater realms are inherently linked through ecological, biogeochemical and/or physical processes. An understanding of these connections is critical to optimise management strategies and ensure the ongoing resilience of ecosystems. Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global stressor that can profoundly affect a wide range of organisms and habitats and impact multiple realms. Despite this, current management practices for light pollution rarely consider connectivity between realms. Here we discuss the ways in which ALAN can have cross-realm impacts and provide case studies for each example discussed. We identified three main ways in which ALAN can affect two or more realms: 1) impacts on species that have life cycles and/or stages on two or more realms, such as diadromous fish that cross realms during ontogenetic migrations and many terrestrial insects that have juvenile phases of the lifecycle in aquatic realms; 2) impacts on species interactions that occur across realm boundaries, and 3) impacts on transition zones or ecosystems such as mangroves and estuaries. We then propose a framework for cross-realm management of light pollution and discuss current challenges and potential solutions to increase the uptake of a cross-realm approach for ALAN management. We argue that the strengthening and formalisation of professional networks that involve academics, lighting practitioners, environmental managers and regulators that work in multiple realms is essential to provide an integrated approach to light pollution. Networks that have a strong multi-realm and multi-disciplinary focus are important as they enable a holistic understanding of issues related to ALAN.
... Concepts such as marine spatial planning have assisted with this (Flannery et al. 2016). For example, coastal ecosystems such as wetland mangroves rely on coastal and terrestrial dynamics to function (Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015). Integrating catchments and estuaries have, therefore become the unit of management, restoration-conservation and use arrangements (Álvarez-Romero et al. 2011, Reuter Juhn andGrantham 2016). ...
Thesis
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Ecosystem-based management is a management approach developed to address the unwarranted degradation crisis facing ecosystems such as coasts, harbours and estuaries. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) remains primarily situated within Western-Eurocentric ontologies and epistemologies, employing language, understandings, and tools of science to define ecosystem challenges and (technical) solutions. Practitioners and many Governments hold it up as an inclusive, holistic and localised (place) approach to managing ecosystems rather than a single species. However, through a critical lens EBM upholds Eurocentric notions of nature where nature is reduced to a resource to dominate, control and ascribe dollar value. The present research believes EBM is worthy but what is lacking, particularly in settler-colonial nations such as Aotearoa, Australia, Canada and the United States, is that knowledge production should have more than a singular (objective) dimension, but rather a multi-dimensional conception of the metaphysical, spiritual and relations with nonhuman nature. I used a critical Indigenous and ecofeminist analytical framework to explore this gap in knowledge informing EBM. This research pushes EBM attributes of inclusivity and (w)holism further to include the intangible (nonhuman) matter that matters to the lives of Indigenous peoples and cultures, women and those being 'Other' and different. With EBM at risk of perpetuating the marginalisation of Indigenous peoples and those socially different in gender, ethnicity, class and sex in the equal access to resources and participation in management, this research aims to provide a timely and novel approach to the discourse. I argue and suggest ways that critical analysis of the role of knowledge and power at the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and nature across space and time helps to problematise ecosystem challenges and use. To understand strategies and restoration practices to be employed. In doing so, social heterogeneous dynamics are (or should be) an integral part of EBM. To privilege the relational and metaphysical aspects of Indigenous cultures, my methodological strategy required alternative modes and practices so that such aspects could be performed, storied, and written about. Developed in collaboration, the 'Thinking with Kaipara' methodological strategy contributes to this call to explore problems and solutions differently through the agency of place and the nonhuman, supported by the intersections of gender, ethnicity and time. The approach illuminates the richness and multiplicities of difference. Nuanced human-nonhuman (co)stories of nature, spirituality, ecosystem degradation, and ourselves (as individuals, members of families, communities, and ecosystems) were shared and laid bare. Through using this intersectional lens, I examined sediment(ation) pollution. Findings revealed how pollution manifests differently across intimate (body, local) scales thereby demonstrating the far-reaching effects of settler-colonialism violence. A relational vision of sediment(ation) is presented based on the geo-creative narratives of four Māori women, who offered their lived experiences and realities of intimate sediment(ation) pollution geographies using methods familiar to and chosen by them. The richness of these narratives enables nuanced and political stories of sediment(ation) to be recalled in relational and affective terms. Such knowledge is absent from dominant accounts of sediment(ation) pollution in ecosystem-based management discourse and practice. The implications of this knowledge impoverishment, based on my research, is that marginalisation of social difference remains. Moreover, normative colonising behaviours and norms of nature-culture relations continue. Thinking with a relational ontology embraces multiple dimensions — affect, spirituality, wairua, ethics, justice — freeing EBM from the power and knowledge production structures of settler-colonialism. Keywords: decolonisation, Indigenous Māori, gender, ecosystem-based management, storytelling, creative practice, nature-cultures, knowledge production, intersectionality, violence
... Our results confirm that no single ABMT can be used to reach all of the SDG 14 targets, but that a combination of tools, especially those regulating multiple sectors, will probably be necessary for achieving this goal. When multiple ABMTs are used synergistically, multiple and more-diverse outcomes may occur, potentially making stronger contributions to SDG 14. Placing ABMTs into the wider picture of integrated land-sea management, including both spatial and non-spatial approaches, will be important for achieving ocean conservation and sustainability goals 43,44 . This is especially true for SDG 14 targets that may not be met using ABMTs, including SDG 14.1 to reduce marine pollution and SDG 14.3 to reduce ocean acidification as our results indicate. ...
Article
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Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 provides a vision for the world’s oceans; however, the management interventions that are needed to achieve SDG 14 remain less clear. We assessed the potential contributions of seven key area-based management tools (such as fisheries closures) to SDG 14 targets. We conducted a rapid systematic review of 177 studies and an expert opinion survey to identify evidence of the ecological, social and economic outcomes from each type of tool. We used these data to assess the level of confidence in the outcomes delivered by each tool and qualitatively scored how each tool contributes to each target. We demonstrate that a combination of tools with diverse objectives and management approaches will be necessary to achieve all of the SDG 14 targets. We highlight that some tools, including fully and partially protected areas and locally managed marine areas, may make stronger contributions to SDG 14 compared with other tools. We identified gaps in the suitability of these tools to some targets, particularly targets related to pollution and acidification, as well as evidence gaps for social and economic outcomes. Our findings provide operational guidance to support progress toward SDG 14.
... Despite progress made in the theory of cross-realm planning, more knowledge is necessary to better understand the co-benefits and tradeoffs across realms, and how socio-economic interactions can be integrated into planning (Álvarez-Romero, Adams, et al., 2015). In the future, more on-the-ground applications are needed to demonstrate the theoretical advancements and to provide practical guidance. ...
Article
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• Freshwater ecosystems are under a constant risk of being irreversibly damaged by human pressures that threaten their biodiversity, the sustainability of ecosystem services (ESs), and human well‐being. Despite the implementation of various environmental regulations, the challenges of safeguarding freshwater assets have so far not been tackled successfully. • A promising way forward to stop the loss of freshwater biodiversity and to sustain freshwater‐based ESs is by implementing ecosystem‐based management (EBM), an environmental planning and adaptive management approach that jointly considers social and ecological needs. Responsible for considerable recent success in sustainably managing and conserving marine ecosystems, EBM has not yet been championed for fresh waters. • A major reason for the delayed uptake of EBM in fresh waters is likely to be its complexity, requiring planners to be familiar with the latest developments in a range of different research areas. EBM would therefore benefit from becoming more tangible to receive attention on the ground. • To facilitate uptake, eight core research areas for EBM and their innovations are introduced, and the way in which they feed into the workflow that guides the EBM planning stage is explained. • The workflow links biodiversity distributions with ES supply‐and‐demand modelling and SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) target planning, including scenario‐ and cross‐realm perspectives, the prioritization of management alternatives, spatial prioritization of biodiversity conservation and ES areas, and the quantification of uncertainties. Given the extensive resources, time, and technical capacity required to implement the full workflow, a light and an ultralight version of the workflow are also provided. • Applied in concert, the eight well‐known research areas allow for better planning and operationalizing, and eventually for implementing EBM in freshwater ecosystems. EBM has great potential to increase public acceptance by introducing the consideration of human needs and aspirations into typically biodiversity‐driven conservation and management approaches. This will ultimately improve the integrity of freshwater ecosystems.
... At present, the spatial planning of coastal areas and small islands are separated, because there is no integration between land (terrestrial) and sea/coastal planning. The purpose of integrated spatial planning is to maintain vital ecological processes that connect between land and sea/coastal, limiting cross-regional threats, balancing the benefits and trade-offs generated from the use of land resources and coastal waters of small islands [6]. Predicted by the IPCC in 2007, shows that an average increase in sea level is 2.5 mm per year and is estimated to reach 31 mm in the next decade [7]. ...
Article
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The vulnerability is a sequence of conditions that determine whether a hazard will lead to disaster or not. Small islands easily affected by climate change, which promotes extreme waves, sea level rise, rob floods, and other disasters. The limited area of the small islands requires integrated and sustainable management. Harapan and Kelapa Islands are some of the vulnerable islands that susceptible to climate change. The problem in this research is the lack of spatial arrangement of small islands region based on climate change adaptation. This study aims to create a model of land use for spatial arrangement of small islands, especially the land area in terms of changes in land use. The methods used in this study were analysis of land use change, analysis of climate change impacts on social, economic, and environmental conditions, and predict future land use scenarios using spatial modeling. The results showed that with increasing population growth, rising sea levels, rising temperatures and salinity, and erratic rainfall patterns, land requirements for settlements increased. The conclusion of this study is the additional area in Harapan and Kelapa islands should restrict, so the mitigation and adaptation due to the impact of climate change can be done well and the risk of disasters becomes small.
... Cross-realm integration at local level is best sought through the design of complementary management goals and objectives between land, coastal and catchment plans, and the alignment of their action plans. While policies and regulations provide broad guidelines, coherence between plans could support cross-realm strategies to maintain ecological processes and address threats compromising all targets [98]. -Ecosystems need be managed within the limits of their functioning, placing necessary limitations on demand levels. ...
Article
Sandy beaches are unique ecosystems increasingly exposed to human-induced pressures. Consistent with emerging frameworks promoting this holistic approach towards beach management, is the need to improve the integration of social data into management practices. This paper aims to increase understanding of links between demographics and community values and preferred beach activities, as key components of the social dimension of the beach environment. A mixed method approach was adopted to elucidate users' opinions on beach preferences and community values through a survey carried out in Manly Local Government Area in Sydney Harbour, Australia. A proposed conceptual model was used to frame demographic models (using age, education, employment, household income and residence status) as predictors of these two community responses. All possible regression-model combinations were compared using Akaike's information criterion. Best models were then used to calculate quantitative likelihoods of the responses, presented as heat maps. Findings concur with international research indicating the relevance of social and restful activities as important social links between the community and the beach environment. Participant's age was a significant variable in the four predictive models. The use of predictive models informed by demographics could potentially increase our understanding of interactions between the social and ecological systems of the beach environment, as a prelude to integrated beach management approaches. The research represents a practical demonstration of how demographic predictive models could support proactive approaches to beach management.
... Cross-realm integration at local level is best sought through the design of complementary management goals and objectives between land, coastal and catchment plans, and the alignment of their action plans. While policies and regulations provide broad guidelines, coherence between plans could support cross-realm strategies to maintain ecological processes and address threats compromising all targets [98]. -Ecosystems need be managed within the limits of their functioning, placing necessary limitations on demand levels. ...
Article
Planning frameworks such as Ecosystem-Based Marine Spatial Planning are based on socio-ecological systems and require effective design of management goals and objectives, a task often overlooked in conservation and resource planning. This paper discusses research undertaken in a coastal council of Australia, to assess the significance of well-defined goals and objectives as drivers of management plans. SMART criteria and Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation approaches were integrated into a framework to examine management scope of existing plans; assess the quality of stated goals and objectives; analyse the use of natural and socio-economic targets; and provide recommendations for the development of future plans. Findings provided no indication of organizational learning through revision of previous plans, revealing an ongoing planning cycle with ad-hoc reviews frequently driven by policy changes. Main weaknesses identified included linguistics ambiguity; unclear planning hierarchy; lack of clear time-frames; and adoption of highly ambitious plans. The absence of measurable and time-bounded goals and objectives was noted. Additionally, poor definition of targets resulted in goals not meeting the impact-oriented criteria, and objectives were not outcome-oriented. Recommendations drawn in support of mainstreaming the Ecosystem Based Approach in future coastal and marine plans include: explicit definition of societal values; developing complementary cross-realm management goals and objectives; increasing commitment to produce ‘on-the-ground’ outcomes progressively within each planning period; a greater use of pro-active management measures; and providing an economic context to the plans, fostering alignment of financial resources and future investments with the vision developed by the council.
... A novel part of this study includes the integrative nature of terrestrial and aquatic planning units in a sequential optimization that accounts for loosely-coupled, cross-realm connectivity. There has been an increasing call for cross-realm integration as spatial decision-making becomes more common in real-world planning 7,66 . Our methods may be useful to other large-landscape planning efforts that need to incorporate the interacting effects of climate and land use change on viable populations and biodiversity over time. ...
Article
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Systematic conservation planning has been used extensively throughout the world to identify important areas for maintaining biodiversity and functional ecosystems, and is well suited to address large-scale biodiversity conservation challenges of the twenty-first century. Systematic planning is necessary to bridge implementation, scale, and data gaps in a collaborative effort that recognizes competing land uses. Here, we developed a conservation planning process to identify and unify conservation priorities around the central and southern Appalachian Mountains as part of the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (App LCC). Through a participatory framework and sequential, cross-realm integration in spatial optimization modeling we highlight lands and waters that together achieve joint conservation goals from LCC partners for the least cost. This process was driven by a synthesis of 26 multi-scaled conservation targets and optimized for simultaneous representation inside the program Marxan to account for roughly 25% of the LCC geography. We identify five conservation design elements covering critical ecological processes and patterns including interconnected regions as well as the broad landscapes between them. Elements were then subjected to a cumulative threats index for possible prioritization. The evaluation of these elements supports multi-scaled decision making within the LCC planning community through a participatory, dynamic, and iterative process.
... The third category of tools focuses on decision analysis and support. Integrating terrestrial and marine management can have socially beneficial outcomes, as the potential is greater to optimally allocate resource use and management actions across land and marine stressors (Tallis et al. 2008;Klein et al. 2012Klein et al. , 2014Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015). The integrated scope of coastal management requires decision makers from multiple stakeholder groups and agencies to coordinate efforts, collaboratively defining the problem, setting common goals / outcomes, generating a set of possible alternative measures that attack the problem from all angles, predicting outcomes, choosing a course of action to implement that balances objectives and carefully monitoring eventual response to enable adaptive response. ...
Chapter
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Patterns and processes on land influence coastal seas. Although coastal ecosystems have evolved to thrive in various conditions, modifications to landscapes by human activities have led to excessive loads of minerals, nutrients, and toxins in coastal waters, sometimes with degrading impacts. Understanding the connectivity between land and sea is critical to managing coastal resources, yet major knowledge gaps exist that hinder efforts to cost-effectively mitigate impacts. Landscape ecology provides an appropriate conceptual and analytical framework for understanding the causes and consequences of spatial patterning across the land-sea interface. In this chapter, we explore how landscape ecology concepts and techniques can improve our understanding of how patterning on land affects seascapes. We use case studies in tropical coastal systems to illustrate science gaps, available spatially explicit tools, and the implications for management. Priority areas for future research are provided to guide the next steps in this rapidly emerging area of applied interdisciplinary seascape ecology.
... Conservation planning and governance are often restricted to single ecological systems [1] due to governance and technical constraints [2]. Recognizing that a failure to identify and understand the ecological and socioeconomic linkages transcending ecological boundaries undermines efforts to manage threats to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater systems, recently proposed theoretical frameworks have advanced similar approaches for bridging this gap including integrated cross-realm planning [3], land-sea conservation planning [4], and integrated land-sea management [5]. Cross-ecosystem linkages include natural flows, anthropogenic threats, and socio-economic interactions [1]. ...
Article
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Anthropogenic threats to natural systems can be exacerbated due to connectivity between marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, complicating the already daunting task of governance across the land-sea interface. Globalization, including new access to markets, can change social-ecological, land-sea linkages via livelihood responses and adaptations by local people. As a first step in understanding these trans-ecosystem effects, we examined exit and entry decisions of artisanal fishers and smallholder farmers on the rapidly globalizing Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. We found that exit and entry decisions demonstrated clear temporal and spatial patterns and that these decisions differed by livelihood. In addition to household characteristics, livelihood exit and entry decisions were strongly affected by new access to regional and global markets. The natural resource implications of these livelihood decisions are potentially profound as they provide novel linkages and spatially-explicit feedbacks between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Our findings support the need for more scientific inquiry in understanding trans-ecosystem tradeoffs due to linked-livelihood transitions as well as the need for a trans-ecosystem approach to natural resource management and development policy in rapidly changing coastal regions.
... Institutional and structural barriers, such as a lack of commitment to ICM by decision-makers, limited time and resources, ineffective communication at the science-policy interface and poor internal collaboration need to be tackled to allow successful ICM. Research should aim for greater integration across political and scientific scales, such as integrating catchment and marine objectives [138], but also across national borders to facilitate the best possible outcomes [58]. There is also scope for more studies to integrate local stakeholders into the research process, from design to implementation, by co-producing ICM strategies. ...
Article
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Ensuring water, food and energy security for a growing world population represents a 21st century catchment management challenge. Failure to recognise the complexity of interactions across ecosystem service provision can risk the loss of other key environmental and socioeconomic benefits from the natural capital of catchment systems. In particular, the ability of soil and water to meet human needs is undermined by uncertainties around climate change effects, ecosystem service interactions and conflicting stakeholder interests across catchments. This critical review draws from an extensive literature to discuss the benefits and challenges of utilising an ecosystem service approach for integrated catchment management (ICM). State-of-the-art research on ecosystem service assessment, mapping and participatory approaches is evaluated and a roadmap of the key short-and longer-term research needs for maximising landscape-scale ecosystem service provision from catchments is proposed.
... The Daly River Catchment is one of three catchments to coast projects in northern Australia (http:// conservationplanning.org/research/catchment-to-coastplanning/), and is earmarked for further agricultural development due to its arable soils and reliable water supply. To understand possible future states of the catchment and the impacts of expanded agriculture on diverse local and regional stakeholders, researchers have used a combination of scenario planning (SF), spatial planning tools (SCP) and a variety of SDM tools (e.g., expert elicitation, multiobjective evaluation criteria) to shape choices for local groups engaged in resource management in this 52,000 km 2 region (Alvarez-Romero et al. 2015). These efforts culminated in a Daly River Management Advisory Committee plan (http://www.nespnorthern.edu.au/ ...
Article
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The practice of conservation occurs within complex socioecological systems fraught with challenges that require transparent, defensible, and often socially engaged project planning and management. Planning and decision support frameworks are designed to help conservation practitioners increase planning rigor, project accountability, stakeholder participation, transparency in decisions, and learning. We describe and contrast five common frameworks within the context of six fundamental questions (why, who, what, where, when, how) at each of three planning stages of adaptive management (project scoping, operational planning, learning). We demonstrate that decision support frameworks provide varied and extensive tools for conservation planning and management. However, using any framework in isolation risks diminishing potential benefits since no one framework covers the full spectrum of potential conservation planning and decision challenges. We describe two case studies that have effectively deployed tools from across conservation frameworks to improve conservation actions and outcomes. Attention to the critical questions for conservation project planning should allow practitioners to operate within any framework and adapt tools to suit their specific management context. We call on conservation researchers and practitioners to regularly use decision support tools as standard practice for framing both practice and research.
... One practical implication of whether intertidal ecosystems are characterized marine or terrestrial is whether threat mitigation is the responsibility of marine or terrestrial protected areas. This distinction is vital for the effective protection and management because protection for native (terrestrial) vegetation versus the marine environment differs in emphasis, and often in management practices (Adams et al., 2014;Boon and Beger, 2016) and conservation values ( Alvarez-Romero et al., 2015). For example, the most significant threat to the marine environment, over-fishing (Halpern et al., 2008), is not the greatest threat to intertidal ecosystems, such as saltmarsh and mangroves, which are most vulnerable to clearing for coastal development (Giri et al., 2011). ...
Article
The protection of intertidal ecosystems is complex because they straddle both marine and terrestrial realms. This leads to inconsistent characterisation as marine and/or terrestrial systems, or neither. Vegetated intertidal ecosystems are especially complex to classify because they can have an unclear border with terrestrial vegetation, causing confusion around taxonomy (e.g., mangrove-like plants). This confusion and inconsistency in classification can impact these systems through poor governance and incomplete protection. Using Australian mangrove ecosystems as a case study, we explore the complexity of how land and sea boundaries are defined among jurisdictions and different types of legislation, and how these correspond to ecosystem boundaries. We demonstrate that capturing vegetated intertidal ecosystems under native vegetation laws and prioritizing the mitigation of threats with a terrestrial origin offers the greatest protection to these systems. We also show the impact of inconsistent boundaries on the inclusion of intertidal ecosystems within protected areas. The evidence presented here highlights problems within the Australian context, but most of these issues are also challenges for the management of intertidal ecosystems around the world. Our study demonstrates the urgent need for a global review of legislation governing the boundaries of land and sea to determine whether the suggestions we offer may provide global solutions to ensuring these critical systems do not fall through the cracks in ecosystem protection and management.
... We extend previous research by providing a set of questions to guide the application of the ecosystem-services framework in a way that engages with the idea of critical pluralism (table 2; Raymond et al. 2010, Chan et al. 2012b, Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015. We suggest that diverse sociocultural phenomena be considered in three phases: ...
Article
Ecosystem-services scholarship has largely focused on monetary valuation and the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. Increasingly, research is calling for a deeper understanding of how less tangible, nonmaterial values shape management and stakeholder decisions. We propose a framework that characterizes a suite of sociocultural phenomena rooted in key social science disciplines that are currently underrepresented in the ecosystem-services literature. The results from three example studies are presented to demonstrate how the tenets of this conceptual model can be applied in practice. We consider the findings from these studies in light of three priorities for future research: (1) complexities in individual and social functioning, (2) the salience and specificity of the perceived benefits of nature, and (3) distinctions among value concepts. We also pose a series of questions to stimulate reflection on how ecosystem-services research can adopt more pluralistic viewpoints that accommodate different forms of knowledge and its acquisition.
... We extend previous research by providing a set of questions to guide the application of the ecosystem-services framework in a way that engages with the idea of critical pluralism (table 2; Raymond et al. 2010, Chan et al. 2012b, Álvarez-Romero et al. 2015. We suggest that diverse sociocultural phenomena be considered in three phases: ...
Article
Full-text available
Ecosystem-services scholarship has largely focused on monetary valuation and the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. Increasingly, research is calling for a deeper understanding of how less tangible, nonmaterial values shape management and stakeholder decisions. We propose a framework that characterizes a suite of sociocultural phenomena rooted in key social science disciplines that are currently underrepresented in the ecosystem-services literature. The results from three example studies are presented to demonstrate how the tenets of this conceptual model can be applied in practice. We consider the findings from these studies in light of three priorities for future research: (1) complexities in individual and social functioning, (2) the salience and specificity of the perceived benefits of nature, and (3) distinctions among value concepts. We also pose a series of questions to stimulate reflection on how ecosystem-services research can adopt more pluralistic viewpoints that accommodate different forms of knowledge and its acquisition.
... Some of 373 these tools are quantitative and pre-packaged for widespread use, but still require some local data 374 inputs, such as the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model (Nelson et 375 al., 2009). As mentioned previously, other qualitative tools have been developed to explore 376 management options for "cross-system" threats such as human-caused terrestrial runoff to the 377 coastal oceans (Álvarez- Romero et al., 2011Romero et al., , 2015. To our knowledge, this decision tree is the 378 first tool to provide guidance on whether or not to consider land-sea planning at all. ...
Article
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Excess sediment and nutrient runoff from land-based human activities are considered serious threats to coastal and marine ecosystems by most conservation practitioners, resource managers, fishers, and other “downstream” resource users. Deleterious consequences of coastal runoff, including eutrophication and hypoxia, have been observed worldwide. Literature on integrated coastal management offers numerous methods to address land-based activities that generate runoff, but many of these approaches are time- and resource-intensive. Often, high-level conservation managers have few tools to aid in decisions about whether land-based threats that generate runoff are of sufficient concern to warrant further investment in planning and management interventions. To address this decision-making process, we present a decision tree that uses geophysical and ecological characteristics to sort any marine coastal ecosystem into a category of high, moderate, low, or minimal risk from the land-based threats of nutrient and sediment runoff. By identifying situations where runoff could influence biodiversity or ecosystem services, the decision tree assists managers in making informed, and standardized decisions about when and where to invest further efforts in integrated land-sea planning. We ground-truth the decision tree by evaluating it in five very different regions and conclude the tree classifies regions similarly to the existing literature that is available, but based on less information. Recognizing that the decision tree only encompasses environmental variables, we also discuss approaches for interpreting the decision tree's outputs in local social and economic contexts. The tree provides a tool for conservation managers to decide whether the scope of their work should include land-sea planning.
... Recommendations to draw on social-ecological systems approaches for governance at the land-sea interface reflect similar conceptual developments in related problem contexts, such as marine conservation and protected areas (Ban et al., 2013; Charles, 2012). 2.) The ability of governance to match scale and context hinges upon the available capacities to (a) engage diverse actors to access and bridge multiple forms of knowledge; (b) coordinate management of ecological resources across social boundaries; and (c) collaborate across organizational scales or jurisdictions in relation to biogeochemical and ecological interactions (Álvarez-Romero et al., 2015; Lebel, 2012; Mahon et al., 2009). 3.) Structural alignment across multiple dimensions À social, temporal and functional À helps to build collaborative capacities, and corresponds to emerging theory regarding social-ecological fit in complex systems-to-be-governed (Epstein et al., 2015; Guerrero et al., 2015; Kooiman, 2013). ...
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Technical Report
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Abstract Systematic conservation planning identifies priority areas to cost‐effectively meet conservation targets. Yet, these tools rarely guide wholesale declaration of reserve systems in a single time step due to financial and implementation constraints. Rather, incremental scheduling of actions to progressively build reserve networks is required. To ensure this incremental action is guided by the original plan, and thus builds a reserve network that meets all conservation targets, strategic scheduling, and iterative planning is needed. We explore the issue of scheduling conservation actions using the national scale conservation plan for Papua New Guinea (PNG), commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority that identifies a comprehensive set of priority areas that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. As part of the planning process a subset of areas were identified in collaboration as priorities for immediate action—termed areas of interest (AOIs). However, the extent to which targets are met if action stopped after implementing the AOIs is unknown. We test three possible implementation scenarios based on these priority areas to measure target achievement and shortfalls. We then consider how iterative planning would interact with scheduling actions to identify new long‐term priorities that will meet missing targets. Our results show that while a large number of conservation targets are met within the AOIs there are shortfalls for protecting threatened and range restricted endemic species. Meeting targets for these would require an updated set of national priorities and an additional 13% of land area compared with if all areas identified in the original assessment were protected in a single time step. This provides important insights into the benefits of strategic scheduling of implementation, as well as the need for capacity to monitor action and update priorities as implementation proceeds.
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Understanding the ways in which fish use estuaries is crucial to develop effective interrealm management plans that take into account all components of these highly connected ecosystems. Fish assemblages of New Zealand estuaries are poorly studied, and knowledge of the life history of fish that commonly occur in estuaries remains limited. This thesis examined the distribution, occurrence and movement of fish in estuaries along the Otago coastline. The role of estuary-ocean connectivity on estuarine fish assemblage structures was investigated across seasons. Life histories of fish were explored by combining community ecology and otolith microanalysis approaches. Comparison of ichthyofaunal composition between 12 estuaries with varying degrees of connection to the marine environment showed marked variations in fish assemblage patterns. Fish species with marine affinity commonly occurred in the shallow littoral habitats of permanently open estuaries. Intermittently closed and open lakes or lagoons (ICOLLs) were found to be dominated by species with potential marine larval rearing but are also known to form landlocked populations. Forsterygion nigripenne, an endemic estuarine species that is generally assumed to have marine larval phase, occurred in almost all permanently open systems and in one ICOLL. Greater fish abundance was recorded in ICOLLs than in permanently open estuaries. Seasonal comparisons showed higher fish abundance in summer than winter. Salinity and temperature were best predictors of fish abundance in both estuary types. The distribution and occurrence of fish also varied between different sections of a permanently open estuary. A year-round sampling of fish in the Waikouaiti Estuary showed distinct seasonal and spatial differences in fish assemblages. Juveniles and adults of fish species with marine larval phase occurred more frequently in the upper reach of the estuary. F. nigripenne occurred in large numbers at different life stages in the middle reach of the Waikouaiti Estuary. Conversely, primarily marine species that use estuaries for short periods dominated the lower reach. Fish abundance was higher in the middle reach where the water was more turbid. Warmer months of the year saw higher abundances and species richness. Among all physicochemical variables, salinity and turbidity were best predictors of fish abundance in the Waikouaiti Estuary. The presence of F. nigripenne in large numbers at different life stages throughout the year in the middle section of the Waikouaiti Estuary raised the question as to whether this species actually has marine larval phase. Thus, otolith microchemistry was used to investigate how F. nigripenne uses estuaries. A laboratory experiment was conducted to understand the extent to which the chemistry of the ambient water affects the otolith elemental profile of F. nigripenne. Results of the experiment indicated a positive and direct relationship between the chemical composition of F. nigripenne otoliths and the ambient water. Otolith microchemistry of wild-caught F. nigripenne collected from two permanently open estuaries showed relatively consistent elemental profile spanning across the otolith without prominent peaks. The results indicate that F. nigripenne is primarily an estuarine-resident species that completes its entire life cycle within estuaries. The inter- and intra-estuarine fish assemblage structure patterns presented in this thesis may reflect the impacts of stressors (both global and local) and effects of management actions that has been implemented. Future deviations from findings of the present study, in terms of distribution and occurrence of fish in estuaries, may indicate changes in the freshwater-estuarine-marine continuum because of stressors and/or management actions taken by decision makers.
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Terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems are connected via multiple biophysical and ecological processes. Identifying and quantifying links among ecosystems is necessary for the uptake of integrated conservation actions across realms. Such actions are particularly important for species using habitats in more than one realm during their daily or life cycle. We reviewed information on the habitats of 2,408 species of European conservation concern and found that 30% of the species use habitats in multiple realms. Transportation and service corridors, which fragment species habitats, were identified as the most important threat impacting ∼70% of the species. We examined information on 1,567 European Union (EU) conservation projects funded over the past 25 years, to assess the adequacy of efforts toward the conservation of “multi‐realm” species at a continental scale. We discovered that less than a third of multi‐realm species benefited from projects that included conservation actions across multiple realms. To achieve the EU's conservation target of halting biodiversity loss by 2020 and effectively protect multi‐realm species, integrated conservation efforts across realms should be reinforced by: (1) recognizing the need for integrated management at a policy level, (2) revising conservation funding priorities across realms, and (3) implementing integrated land‐freshwater‐sea conservation planning and management.
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Governance across the land–sea interface presents many challenges related to (1) the engagement of diverse actors and systems of knowledge, (2) the coordinated management of shared ecological resources, and (3) the development of mechanisms to address or account for biogeochemical (e.g., nutrient flows) and ecological (e.g., species movements) interdependencies between marine and terrestrial systems. If left unaddressed, these challenges can lead to multiple problems of social-ecological fit stemming from governance fragmentation or inattention to various components of land–sea systems. Network governance is hypothesized to address these multiple challenges, yet its specific role in affecting social-ecological fit across the land–sea interface is not well understood. We aim to improve this understanding by examining how network governance affects social-ecological fit across the land–sea interface in two empirical case studies from the Lesser Antilles: Dominica and Saint Lucia. We found that network governance plays a clear role in coordinating management of shared resources and providing capacity to address interactions between ecological entities. Yet, its potential role in engaging diverse actors and addressing, specifically, biogeochemical interactions across the land–sea interface has not been fully realized. Our research suggests that network governance is beneficial, but not sufficient, to improve social-ecological fit across the land–sea interface. Strategically leveraging the network processes (e.g., triadic closure) leading to the existing governance networks could prove useful in addressing the current deficiencies in the networks. Additionally, the interplay between hierarchical and networked modes of governance appears to be a critical issue in determining social-ecological fit at the land–sea interface.
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Water quality outcomes affecting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-level and multi-party decision-making that influences forested and agricultural landscapes. With international concern about the GBR’s declining ecological health, this paper identifies and focuses on implementation failure (primarily at catchment scale) as a systemic risk within the overall GBR governance system. There has been limited integrated analysis of the full suite of governance subdomains that often envelop defined policies, programs and delivery activities that influence water quality in the GBR. We consider how the implementation of separate purpose-specific policies and programs at catchment scale operate against well-known, robust design concepts for integrated catchment governance. We find design concerns within ten important governance subdomains that operate within GBR catchments. At a whole-of-GBR scale, we find a weak policy focus on strengthening these delivery-oriented subdomains and on effort integration across these subdomains within catchments. These governance problems when combined may contribute to failure in the implementation of major national, state and local government policies focused on improving water quality in the GBR, a lesson relevant to landscapes globally.
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Landscape approaches attempt to achieve balance amongst multiple goals over long time periods and to adapt to changing conditions. We review project reports and the literature on integrated landscape approaches, and found a lack of documented studies of their long-term effectiveness. The combination of multiple and potentially changing goals presents problems for the conventional measures of impact. We propose more critical use of theories of change and measures of process and progress to complement the conventional impact assessments. Theories of change make the links between project deliverables, outputs, outcomes, and impacts explicit, and allow a full exploration of the landscape context. Landscape approaches are long-term engagements, but short-term process metrics are needed to confirm that progress is being made in negotiation of goals, meaningful stakeholder engagement, existence of connections to policy processes, and effectiveness of governance. Long-term impact metrics are needed to assess progress on achieving landscapes that deliver multiple societal benefits, including conservation, production, and livelihood benefits. Generic criteria for process are proposed, but impact metrics will be highly situation specific and must be derived from an effective process and a credible theory of change.
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Coastal land use planners and resource managers are increasingly confronted with complex problems that should integrate land and marine use, effects of land use on marine water quality, and coastal hazards, such as sea level rise on human development and natural resources. We hypothesized that using multiple geospatial decision support tools in a common framework could help planners examine alternatives across multiple domains (e.g. land, coastal, estuarine). We developed information workflow models, assigned appropriate tools to necessary functions, and tested the resulting toolkits in two pilot studies in the Southeastern United States. The integrated toolkits worked effectively and demonstrated the ability to combine data and analysis across traditionally separate sectors and the land-marine domain divide. We describe challenges regarding data needs, expert knowledge, and stakeholder engagement, suggesting that our ability to integrate tools across sectors and domains may be ahead of our institutional abilities to conduct integrated planning. As institutional barriers are lowered out of necessity to deal with these pressing problems, and capacity for advanced spatial planning increases, such toolkits will be poised to support new integrated approaches.
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The efficacy of protected areas varies, partly because socioeconomic factors are not sufficiently considered in planning and management. Although integrating socioeconomic factors into systematic conservation planning is increasingly advocated, research is needed to progress from recognition of these factors to incorporating them effectively in spatial prioritization of protected areas. We evaluated 2 key aspects of incorporating socioeconomic factors into spatial prioritization: treatment of socioeconomic factors as costs or objectives and treatment of stakeholders as a single group or multiple groups. Using as a case study the design of a system of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kubulau, Fiji, we assessed how these aspects affected the configuration of no-take MPAs in terms of trade-offs between biodiversity objectives, fisheries objectives, and equity in catch losses among fisher stakeholder groups. The achievement of fisheries objectives and equity tended to trade-off concavely with increasing biodiversity objectives, indicating that it is possible to achieve low to mid-range biodiversity objectives with relatively small losses to fisheries and equity. Importantly, the extent of trade-offs depended on the method used to incorporate socioeconomic data and was least severe when objectives were set for each fisher stakeholder group explicitly. We found that using different methods to incorporate socioeconomic factors that require similar data and expertise can result in plans with very different impacts on local stakeholders. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.
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Soil erosion associated with land‐use change is considered one of the greatest human threats to coral reef ecosystems globally. To account for sediment runoff in land–sea planning, spatially and temporally dynamic models are needed that predict where soil loss is occurring, in addition to where sediments are travelling and settling in coastal marine areas. This assessment is particularly difficult given the complex three‐dimensional movement of sediment in water bodies. This study assessed the vulnerability of key marine resources to sedimentation in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, by developing a coupled terrestrial and marine model that relied primarily on global datasets. The model predicted the quantities of sediment at river mouths, and the spatial extent over where this sediment disperses in the ocean. In total, 1850 km ² of coral reefs, marine protected areas, dive sites, pearl farms, and other benthic habitats in Raja Ampat were found within sediment plumes with varying degrees of impact. Two hypothetical land‐use scenarios were created to illustrate the sensitivity of sedimentation on marine resources to development, and to compare future alternative management scenarios. The model provides a powerful tool for planners to understand how land management, and land‐use change might affect marine resources, particularly in data‐limited regions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Concerns about excessive sediment loads entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon in Australia haveled to a focus on improving ground cover in grazing lands. Ground cover has been identified as an important factor in reducing sediment loads, but improving ground cover has been difficult for reef stakeholders in major catchments of the GBR. To provide better information an optimising linear programming model based on paddock scale information in conjunction with land type mapping was developed for the Fitzroy,the largest of the GBR catchments. This identifies at a catchment scale which land types allow the most sediment reduction to be achieved at least cost. The results suggest that from the five land types modelled,the lower productivity land types present the cheapest option for sediment reductions. The study allow smore informed decision making for natural resource management organisations to target investments.The analysis highlights the importance of efficient allocation of natural resource management funds in achieving sediment reductions through targeted land type investments.
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Climate change has emerged as a principal threat to coral reefs, and is expected to exacerbate coral reef degradation caused by more localised stressors. Management of local stressors is widely advocated to bolster coral reef resilience, but the extent to which management of local stressors might affect future trajectories of reef state remains unclear. This is in part because of limited understanding of the cumulative impact of multiple stressors. Models are ideal tools to aid understanding of future reef state under alternative management and climatic scenarios, but to date few have been sufficiently developed to be useful as decision support tools for local management of coral reefs subject to multiple stressors. We used a simulation model of coral reefs to investigate the extent to which the management of local stressors (namely poor water quality and fishing) might influence future reef state under varying climatic scenarios relating to coral bleaching. We parameterised the model for Bolinao, the Philippines, and explored how simulation modelling can be used to provide decision support for local management. We found that management of water quality, and to a lesser extent fishing, can have a significant impact on future reef state, including coral recovery following bleaching-induced mortality. The stressors we examined interacted antagonistically to affect reef state, highlighting the importance of considering the combined impact of multiple stressors rather than considering them individually. Further, by providing explicit guidance for management of Bolinao's reef system, such as which course of management action will most likely to be effective over what time scales and at which sites, we demonstrated the utility of simulation models for supporting management. Aside from providing explicit guidance for management of Bolinao's reef system, our study offers insights which could inform reef management more broadly, as well as general understanding of reef systems.
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Setting social, economic, and ecological objectives is ultimately a process of social choice informed by science. In this special feature we provide a multidisciplinary framework for the use of cumulative effects assessment in land use planning. Forest ecosystems are facing considerable challenges driven by population growth and increasing demands for resources. In a suite of case studies that span the boreal forest of Western Canada to the interior Atlantic forest of Paraguay we show how transparent and defensible methods for scenario analysis can be applied in data-limited regions and how social dimensions of land use change can be incorporated in these methods, particularly in aboriginal communities that have lived in these ecosystems for generations. The case studies explore how scenario analysis can be used to evaluate various land use options and highlight specific challenges with identifying social and ecological responses, determining thresholds and targets for land use, and integrating local and traditional knowledge in land use planning. Given that land use planning is ultimately a value-laden and often politically charged process we also provide some perspective on various collective and expert-based processes for identifying cumulative impacts and thresholds. The need for good science to inform and be informed by culturally appropriate democratic processes calls for well-planned and multifaceted approaches both to achieve an informed understanding of both residents and governments of the interactive and additive changes caused by development, and to design action agendas to influence such change at the ecological and social level.
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conservation dollars to address this crisis has had a profound influence on the planning methods and conservation strate-gies of governmental and nongovernmental organizations. For example, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Conservation International have pinpointed priority ecoregions and bio-diversity "hotspots," respectively, that represent some of the most significant remaining regions for conserving the world's biological diversity (Olson and Dinerstein 1998, Myers et al. 2000). Both The Nature Conservancy (TNC) (Master et al. 1998) and World Wildlife Fund (Abell et al. 2000) have set con-servation priorities at the scale of large watersheds for fresh-water ecosystems in the United States. The National Gap Analysis Program (GAP) of the US Geological Survey's Bio-logical Resources Division is using biological survey data, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS) technology at the state level to identify those native species and ecosystems that are not adequately represented in existing con-servation lands, in other words, the aim of the program is to detect conservation "gaps" (Jennings 2000). Some state governments in the United States are also developing their own biodiversity conservation plans (e. g., Kautz and Cox 2001).