U.S. Natural Resources and Climate Change: Concepts and Approaches for Management Adaptation

Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and objectives that were established under an implicit assumption of stable climatic conditions. However, projected climatic changes render this assumption invalid. Here, we summarize general principles for management adaptations that have emerged from a major literature review. These general principles cover many topics including: (1) how to assess climate impacts to ecosystem processes that are key to management goals; (2) using management practices to support ecosystem resilience; (3) converting barriers that may inhibit management responses into opportunities for successful implementation; and (4) promoting flexible decision making that takes into account challenges of scale and thresholds. To date, the literature on management adaptations to climate change has mostly focused on strategies for bolstering the resilience of ecosystems to persist in their current states. Yet in the longer term, it is anticipated that climate change will push certain ecosystems and species beyond their capacity to recover. When managing to support resilience becomes infeasible, adaptation may require more than simply changing management practices—it may require changing management goals and managing transitions to new ecosystem states. After transitions have occurred, management will again support resilience—this time for a new ecosystem state. Thus, successful management of natural resources in the context of climate change will require recognition on the part of managers and decisions makers of the need to cycle between “managing for resilience” and “managing for change.

Climate Change and Antarctic Fisheries: Ecosystem Management in CCAMLR

Climate change and associated ocean acidification present varied and complex threats to Antarctic fisheries, making conservation and sustainable management of these fisheries more challenging than ever. The ecosystem approach is generally considered to be the most effective way of enhancing the climate resilience of fisheries, and the Commission on the Conservation and Management of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is expressly charged with implementing that approach in achieving its conservation objective. Implementation of the ecosystem approach is, however, a complex and challenging matter, and the emerging need to graft climate change impacts onto the range of factors already to be considered exacerbates these difficulties. This Article examines the implications of climate change for Antarctic fisheries, focusing on issues of both ecosystem resilience and the institutional resilience of the Commission on the Conservation and Management of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. While the potential implications of climate change on the Antarctic marine ecosystem have been under general discussion in the Commission since 2002, the Commission still has a long way to go in moving to actively anticipate climate stressors, in absorbing their importance into its decision-making processes, and in reshaping its management measures to address climate-driven changes in the Antarctic marine ecosystem

Crossing the Sectoral Divide: Modern Environmental Law Tools for Addressing Conflicting Uses on the Seabed

The oceans are the venue for a vast range of competing human activities, many of which pose serious threats to the marine environment. Seabed activities, in particular, pose complex threats due to the perturbation of marine biodiversity and the water column caused by construction, exploration or exploitation activities. With regulation of ocean activities essentially a sectoral matter, the potential for inter-sectoral conflict between shipping, fisheries, mineral exploration and exploitation, cable and pipeline operations and mining operations, only exacerbates the problem. In recent years, consensus has emerged on the need to promote cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination among marine sectors in order to avoid inter-sectoral conflicts and to achieve sustainable environmental outcomes for the oceans. This chapter examines the general principles which provide the foundation for the development of normative frameworks and management approaches, as well as the new cross-sectoral management approaches and tools that are emerging in order to address conflicting uses on the seabed and conserve and protect the marine environment

The MCS and enforcing regime.

AbstractThis chapter discusses the monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) and enforcement which are essential components of the international legal framework governing the sustainable management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks. The chapter begins with a discussion of the concepts of MCS and enforcement and the international legal framework supporting them. This is followed by an overview of the comprehensive, practical and innovative measures provided for under UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) to address MSC and enforcement. The chapter examines the practice of regional fisheries management organization (RFMOs) in implementing these measures. Practical MCS and enforcement measures discussed in the chapter include fishing vessel registries; data collection and reporting; trade-related measures; regulation of transshipment; observer programmes; aerial surveillance; satellite-based vessel monitoring systems; vessel detection systems; at-sea boarding and inspection; requirements on the use of force; and port-State measures. Lastly, the objectives of MCS measures to ascertain what and how much is being caught, where, when and by whom, to collect required scientific data, inform management decisions, and determine RFMO management measures are also presented.</p

Trans-Jurisdictional Water Law and Governance

With considerable government, citizen and financial donor attention devoted to a range of international, transnational and domestic laws and policies aimed at protecting, managing and sustainably using fresh and coastal marine water ..