Climate change creates a changing environment, which in combination with existing environmental stressors (Bates et al. 2010) makes natural resource management and the need to accommodate competing interests more challenging. Marine systems are complex and dynamic, and the effects of human actions often do not become apparent until much later after the event (Smith and Stern 2011). These dynamic marine systems are difficult to understand and to make predictions about, and the problems can never be solved completely (Rittel and Webber 1973). However, every effort must be made to manage marine systems to the best of our ability. Essentially, it is not enough to just better understand the ongoing changes and the dynamics within and across the natural, social and governing systems, but also to select the most appropriate strategies and responses that would help to cope with, adapt to, mitigate and learn to live with global change (McClanahan and Cinner 2012; Biggs et al. 2015).
The social and institutional dimensions of social-ecological systems have received relatively less attention than the biophysical dimensions, but are frequently identified as important barriers to the development of appropriate adaptation to global change (Biesbroek et al. 2013). As societies are affected by stresses that threaten environmental resources, the social and governing systems have to be able to select rapid, appropriate, adequate and informed responses to global change. It will be necessary to triage a range of possible responses to global change while considering endogenous and exogenous ecological, social and institutional factors.
A large number of individual case studies have previously described how individuals, communities, regions and nations adapt to change. However, there is a substantial lack in the scientific literature in which such case studies are evaluated, compared and contrasted with a common framework that can integrate the dynamic interactions of social-ecological systems. Here, using a systems approach, consisting of linked natural and human subsystems (Folke et al. 2016), we use the I-ADApT framework (Bundy et al. 2016) as a tool to learn from such examples and help select appropriate responses.
There is benefit in learning from the failed or successful strategic responses applied in other places. A number of authors have attempted to articulate criteria for evaluating governance success or failure (Bovens and t’ Hart 1996; McConnell 2010) that lies at the basis for policy learning. In essence, policy failure presents opportunities for policy learning (May 1992) almost representing trial-and-error learning. There is a pressing need for a quantitative approach to better understand the reasons responses fail, but also what makes them succeed (Frey and Rusch 2013). There have been many attempts to identify success factors in public-good problems (Ostrom and Stern 2003, Cox et al. 2010).
Retrospective empirical analysis is important for the ability to predict the probable results of rule changes or other policy measures (Ostrom 2009). Experiential learning (i.e. learning from other policy domains or other states and countries) can be imperfect, and the wrong conclusions can be drawn. A requisite understanding of the original context is imperative (Neustadt and May 1986), and the I-ADApT framework aims to provide this context (Bundy et al. 2016).
Some major lessons arose across the five clusters identified in the introduction (Table C.1). These main overarching learnings are the focus of the following section.
Group 1: Oyster farming systems under stress – Fragile monoculture systems, short-term responses and unsolved issues (3 studies) |
The first group encompasses human-dominated systems in which monoculture farming systems are increasingly facing natural hazards jeopardizing their future. Changing conditions are found simultaneously in Matsushima Bay (Japan), Puget Sound (U.S. Pacific coast) and Bourgneuf Bay (French Atlantic coast), where Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) farming is a major activity for the local communities, with limited alternative opportunities. The stressors are different in the three cases, but the consequences are similar: larvae and juveniles dying in massive quantities in both U.S. and French industries for different reasons1 and blooms of Norovirus affecting human consumption in Japan due to the destruction of sewage facilities after the Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Because the shocks occurred in developed countries, the financial support provided by the states to protect their industries was substantial, and the local communities (through the market and private firms) have also organized themselves to find short-term solutions and increase awareness and knowledge about their difficulties. However, issues are hardly solved in the long term because of the low resilience of such poorly diversified marine systems. If oyster famers proved to be very responsive and adaptable in the course of history, accepting a high level of natural risk exposure and adopting new breeding technologies after every collapse, their individualistic and dispersed organization suffers a lack of governance when it comes to developing collective actions regarding resource management. Such considerations could also include investigations into investments to move away from monoculture (e.g. integrated multi-trophic aquaculture). |
Group 2: Vulnerable mixed fisheries – Variety of stressors for large-scale social-ecological systems, adverse conditions and limited achievement (2 studies) |
These ecosystems appeared to be degraded by overuse, suffering from a mix of stressors and adverse social and natural conditions, with a variety of long-term actions for gradual (slow) improvement. The pre-crisis natural conditions are nonetheless opposite: a formerly rich tropical ecosystem of reef fisheries in the South Sulawesi archipelago and a ‘young’ (less than 10,000 years since the last ice age) and species-poor sea bordering the Baltic and northern European countries. Both areas have experienced a dramatic increase of their populations; this human influence causes major ecosystem changes: overfishing, rising influx of nutrients and toxins into the sea, dead seabeds, destruction of coral reefs and mangroves, etc. Social and governing resources are not equal in these two parts of the world. An ambitious master plan (Baltic Sea Action Plan, BSAP) was implemented in 2007 to reform the management of the Baltic Sea. This plan includes an ecosystem-based management approach and a comprehensive monitoring system to observe eutrophication levels, water pollution by hazardous substances, maritime activities and the biodiversity of the sea. With lesser means, the Indonesian government has launched a Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program (COREMAP), but the level of education is low and the adaptive capacity of the local communities is limited. People responded with coping strategies which were sometimes more harmful than beneficial for the environment (for instance, building wave breakers with coral stones to fight coastal erosion), and the natural system is far from being saved in the long run. Participation between different levels of governance and the multiple stakeholders is pertinent, and bottom-up approaches to implementation options need to be facilitated by adequate financing. |
Group 3: Coastal water quality issues – Local water quality issues affecting coastal systems, lower sensitivity to global change and mitigated success of societal responses (5 studies) |
In this group, the phenomena at stake are different but commonly detected in lagoon ecosystems or semi-enclosed bays, in which water renewal and circulation are restricted. Inter-sectoral conflicts are often at the root of water quality issues, making participation and integrated management approaches important. The high nutrient loadings caused by the watershed effluents of the urbanized areas and intensive agriculture modify the natural conditions for the farming and fishery systems located in their vicinity, resulting in eutrophic and anoxic waters. Such changes have caused massive seasonal mortalities in Greece for sea bass and sea bream in a very short time (sometimes hours). The short-term consequences are a disaster for fishers or farmers who lose hundreds of tons of biomass and need to get rid of them to avoid detrimental consequences for tourism during the high season. Tourism and fishing activities are also affected in Omura Bay (Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan) by water quality problems, and fish production has sharply declined because of low recruitment and degraded habitat. |
The Venice Lagoon and Yokohama Bay are facing distinct difficulties. In the former case, an exotic species (Manila clam: Ruditapes philippinarium) was introduced in the early 1990s, and many harvesters turned to dredging this species without any controls, provoking tensions and conflicts with other lagoon users. In the Yokohama Bay case study, the same species (R. philippinarium) has been collected and consumed by local people for centuries. However, the annual catch fell from 140,000 tons to 30,000 tons in less than three decades because of coastal development and lack of management policies. For the five systems of this cluster, the responses were necessarily different, but all converged to implement stricter management rules for harvesters, to integrate coastal management actions and to try to monitor and restore the quality of waters by creating novel institutions. Responses are often government based (top-down), and the state-driven management responses have led to both successful and unsuccessful outcomes due to the complexity and vulnerability of these social ecological systems. In such catastrophic sudden events, the need for and access to scientific information in the urgent day-to-day management following these events is essential, as well as direct, pragmatic and accurate communication by trusted institutions and individual stakeholders. In the longer term, lasting networks of information exchange and monitoring by institutions whose boundaries overlap are essential. |
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Group 4: Overexploited and weakly governable fisheries – Degraded systems due to anthropogenic pressures, conflicting governance levels and resulting problems of governability (8 studies) |
This group is the most complex to analyze because of the diversity of situations found in the eight case studies. Six of them are located in developing or emerging countries, making solutions more uncertain when pollution or overharvesting problems are nested within the poverty conditions faced by important coastal communities. Fragile social network structures and weak, business-dominated governance arrangements prevail and overwhelm the consequences of resource exploitation and related environmental outcomes. Natural disasters like cyclones in the Bangladesh Sunderbans or shifting upwelling conditions in the Southern Benguela bring additional difficulties to people by destroying mangrove habitats or displacing fish stocks, and solutions rapidly become out of reach of local governments. Where reform of the governance system or bottom-up governance may not be an available option, the adaptation approaches have to be sought through culturally appropriate solutions. The situation is obviously different in the two developed countries of this section, located, respectively, in Japan and the United States. Conservation, replenishment and management initiatives involving a huge financial effort were undertaken, but they do not mean that success was guaranteed because of population density (Tokyo |
Bay) and poorly resilient ecosystems (e.g. Chesapeake Bay). This is the case, too, in Uruguay, where the yellow clam fishery, affected by fresh water runoff and overharvesting, had to be closed by the government for 13 years, between 1993 and 2006. Stricter conservation measures were adopted successfully by local fishermen in a co-management system, and the fishery is gradually recovering, but at a too slow pace to sustain important local livelihoods. Another way of adapting to changing conditions is to convert an entire fishing village into a prosperous tourism industry, as was done in the Chinese village of Jin-Shanzui, near Shanghai. Such a spectacular transformation is not always possible, and the governing institutions have no other options than solving the natural resource problem as a key priority. In the Philippines chapter, the authors show how the government has paid more attention to the water quality problem in the MMO river system since 2008 by creating a Water Management Quality Area (WMQA) program, even though the latter fails to integrate local fishery organizations in the governing board to reach greater success. A similar initiative was recently taken in Cameroon by the adoption of a long-term national strategy for the sustainable management of mangroves to stop deforestation and overharvesting. Its main goal is to increase awareness and education about these important ecosystems, which is a first and important step towards sustainability. |
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Group 5: Habitat restoration programs – Habitat deterioration issues, high sensitivity to fisheries and tourism, successful restoration and management plans (2 studies) |
Stresses in these two case studies concern coral reef degradation occurring for different reasons: coral bleaching because of rising sea temperatures and invasive species like starfish for the Sekisei Lagoon and red clay outflows obstructing photosynthesis for Onna village. The consequences are dramatic for coral reefs and their associated biodiversity: a distributional survey conducted in 2002 in Sekisei Lagoon reported that the coral reef area covered only 18% of its former area in the early 1980s. The local impacts for human well-being are also severe: for instance, the number of fishermen obtaining their living from Lagoon resources was halved between 1980 and 2014. Traditional industries are challenged by new ones, like increasing tourism pressure (e.g. through diving, resorts and cruise ships), on the fragile environment of the Okinawa archipelago. The boom of tourism started, for example, in Onna village in the 1970s, raising conflicts with local fishermen. Social power is dispersed, hindering short-term collective decisions. Livelihood opportunities are limited, the population affected by environmental change exceeded 20% and the long-term objectives seem to have been met by voluntary policies. Where restoration is deemed the only possible option, the most effective responses |
(long term and short term), are those initiated by a groundswell of local action (i.e. social energy). Voluntary policies sensitive to local social and cultural characteristics reinforce the stewardship and ownership feelings and generate positive outcomes. Novel institutions were created as early as the 1980s to prevent red clay outflows, followed by a new set of rules for peaceful and prosperous coexistence between fishing and tourism, and more recently, by the creation of an Integrated Coastal Management Council in Onna village. A similar institution was created in Sekisei Lagoon (SLNR Committee) to restore coral reefs. Both institutions succeeded in adapting and solving the problem, at least partially if not fully. Among other factors explaining these good results, the traditional culture of sato-umi2 and co-management helped to increase the participation of citizens and stakeholders in the decision-making process. |
A significant number of case studies clearly defined their conceptual framework as integrating social-ecological systems (Berkes et al. 2000). Global environmental change can be seen as a double-edged sword that results from human actions that affect the biophysical system and biophysical factors that affect human well-being (Folke et al. 2004; Perry et al. 2010). All case examples in this book conform to the popular scholarly belief that delineation between the social, the ecological and the governance aspects of global change would be artificial and arbitrary (Folke 2016).
Using the lens of I-ADApT to give insight into appropriate management responses in the case studies, it is clear that governance systems have to deal with increasing complexity and uncertainty (Folke et al. 2005) in all locations and regardless of the scale of the impact. For example, the cases of extreme events in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, or ocean acidification (Chapters 2 and 12) report that the governance response to the crisis was less effective and adequate than the social response. Consequently, unexpected and unpredicted governance outcomes are responsible for governance ‘failures’ even in well-planned efforts (Bavinck et al. 2005).
Increased uncertainty, variability and system complexity can translate into a system being less predictable. Predicting environmental system behavior, whether spawning events or rainy seasons, seems to have become increasingly difficult for governance institutions as well as the people whose livelihoods depend on the inherent resource system (Chapter 4). Scientific methods to deal with unpredictability and uncertainty (e.g. in modeling) are increasingly sophisticated (Levin et al. 2013). Pragmatic ways to extend existing scientific knowledge into the realm of day-to-day governance, involving the policymakers and the resource users, are, however, less developed.
To further complicate governance, delayed ecosystem responses, tipping points and regime shifts make accurate responses difficult (Chapter 5; Valman et al. 2016; Varjopuro et al. 2014). Determining thresholds beyond which the system will behave in different ways is notoriously difficult (Walker and Salt 2006; Bigg et al. 2009). Nevertheless, understanding the mechanisms that underpin regime shifts are essential for ecosystem-based management strategies to be implemented and achieve a sustainably exploited system (Möllmann and Diekmann 2015). Irreversibility has economic, social and environmental cost implications that can offer unique governance challenges, for example, the economic loss of $270 million resulting from the impact of ocean acidification in the Pacific Northwest United States as in Chapter 2, social implications in terms of young members of the community being unwilling to take up oyster farming due to high oyster mortality resulting from Norovirus in Matsushima Bay, Japan as in Chapter 1 and the inability to clear dead fish after increased cage fish mortality in Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece, as in Chapter 6. Whereas reversible changes may be desirable to some extent from a system renewal point of view, irreversible changes that result in a change in the ecosystem state can have serious and unwanted environmental and social consequences (e.g. Lindenmayer et al. 2011; Möllmann et al. 2015). The social and economic implications of reaching irreversible tipping points in the natural resource systems need to be carefully considered in innovative governance approaches (Möllmann and Diekmann 2012).
When regime shifts and tipping points in the social and natural realm happen in tandem, a potentially very difficult-to-solve situation can emerge. For example, in South Africa, the effect of regime shift in the political realm in conjunction with environmental changes and fish stock collapses brought about a reallocation of fishing rights and an examination of how fisheries were managed (Chapter 14). There is a strong need for enough flexibility in the system for fishers to re-engage should the ecological systems concerned eventually recover. However, balancing economic growth, jobs and equitable resource access remains one of the biggest challenges facing fisheries managers as evidenced by other case examples in this book.
The experiences are not homogeneously grim across all cases, as many of them offer examples of effective governance responses (Chapters 1, 7, 8, 9 and 11) even though several challenges are not fully addressed. The global change conditions favor reversible and flexible options that reduce decision time horizons (Hallegatte 2009) and help make progress in selecting and implementing global change responses amidst uncertainty and unpredictability.
According to the UN Atlas of the Oceans (www.oceansatlas.org), about two-thirds of the world’s population lives within 60 kilometers from the sea, and this number is expected to increase continuously. Consequently, decreasing system predictability, rapid development, high population density, pollution and heavy exploitation of resources and extractive activities are highly likely to take place on the coast (Bundy et al. 2016). These combined pressures will lead to an increase in inter-sectoral conflicts, including access- and ownership-related disputes in the coastal zone. The increasing global trade lies at the foundation of the predicted growth in the blue economy, that is, ocean-based industries have the potential to outperform the growth of the global economy as a whole, both in terms of value added and employment (OECD 2016). Infrastructure developments (e.g. ports and transportation) are already growing and are predicted to grow further at a much faster pace.
Increasing global trade (OECD 2016) means that already stressed systems will have to deal with additional trade-related pressures. For instance, diseases cannot be contained as much, and risks of global-scale issues will increasingly emerge in addition to the local pressures. Diseases (Chapters 3 and 15) are a pertinent example of effects that apply at the global and local scale and are intricately linked to growing coastal population pressures.
It is well accepted that population growth will put further pressures on already stressed systems and resources, but the contribution of human migration to this impact is largely unexplored. It is as yet unknown how migration affects or can potentially negate adaptive responses (Chapter 12). It is nonetheless clear that migration will put extra pressure on fish resources (both in the short and long term) (Chapter 18). Conversely there is evidence of outmigration by the fishers as a direct impact of disruptions in marine ecosystem and loss of fishery productivity (Chapters 13 and 17).
Unintended migration can occur as a consequence of relief programs after environmental disasters and extreme events and exacerbate existing resource scarcities and conflicts. Examples may be where ceasing forest exploitation caused migration to coastal areas (Chapter 18), thereby increasing pressures on fish resources, or resettlement of refugees in coastal areas, thereby aggravating already existing resource scarcities and conflicts (Chapter 12).
Social structures can also be altered by migration, which may affect compliance with improved fisheries management (Chapter 18). Cultural drivers of immigrant fishers are often not well understood, and the tenuous nature of their residence may mean they are reluctant to invest in durable infrastructure or environmentally sustainable approaches, thus de facto annihilating any existing attempts at recovery or improvement of marine resource management. Investment in building and strengthening social capital involving the new and the old resource users should take precedence in management and governance responses to coastal crises.
Pressures on the marine system also result from diversification of marine uses and the expansion of human social and terrestrial activities (Breckwoldt et al. 2016, Chapters 11, 16 and 19). In the marine context, inter-sectoral conflicts can be linked to on-land activities that affect downstream habitat quality. For instance, tensions exist between the agriculture and the fish and shellfish producing sectors because agricultural and industrial runoff affects water quality (Chapters 11 and 17). Similarly, tensions exist between woodcutting in mangroves and the fisheries sector in Cameroon (Chapter 18).
Some of inter- and intra-sectoral tensions can increase due to exogenous events like the economic crisis in the 1990s. Salary cuts in the public sector and reductions of staff caused laid-off workers to try their hand at mangrove wood harvesting, with severe implications for the marine environment in Cameroon (Chapter 18). In another example from Japan, pressures playing out between fishing, heavy industry and environmental protection have had considerable effects on Tokyo Bay and the local mantis shrimp stock (Chapter 16). Such conflicts can be longstanding and are observed all over the world – with little resolution in sight. Certain cases (Chapters 19 and 20) provide examples of elements that can help achieve win-win outcomes in situations of intra- and inter-sectoral tensions.
In the core section of this final chapter we return to the questions posed in the introduction to illustrate the use of the I-ADApT typology as an entry point to compare marine social-ecological resource crises and to identify potential solutions.
A move from top-down to co-management generally works (but not always). Globally, the governance structures of marine and coastal systems are as wide and varied as the range of issues and problems they try to address (e.g. Charles 2012; Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2015). It is apparent from the case studies that there are many iterations in the number and type of governance arrangements involved in the management of the coastal zones (both horizontally and vertically), but that many challenges and gaps remain (Chapter 18) where management is entirely lacking. Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all panacea (Ostrom et al. 2007), and the range of case studies discussed in this book strongly substantiates this claim. Moving from a hierarchical system of governance to more integrated coastal management has proven useful in many international cases (Cinner et al. 2016; Chapter 9).
In some marine sectors, hierarchical (top-down) governance structures have proven efficient and effective, such as for the oyster and other fisheries in Virginian waters in the United States (Chapter 15). Similarly, shellfish aquaculture and wild harvests in the Puget Sound region of the United States are regulated primarily by top-down governance groups, which interact strongly with bottom-up governance groups (Chapter 2). Some success of the hierarchical approach may be attributed to the wide support of the governance systems by state and nationally funded scientific projects and organizations.
Top-down management fails where there is inadequate science, funding or monitoring of illegal activities. In Cameroon, ineffective monitoring and absence of strategic planning have led to unsustainable resource harvesting (Chapter 18). In Bangladesh, much unsustainable harvesting behavior and rule breaking is observed, largely driven by poverty (Chapter 12).
Co-management has been implemented in many countries around the world, both in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (Bavinck et al. 2005;2013). Both governments and user groups have moved towards co-management as it is believed they stand to benefit from joining together to manage fisheries (Bavinck et al. 2005; Cinner et al. 2016; but see also Davis and Ruddle 2012 for a contrary view). The Philippines is one of the early adopters of co-management in natural resource management and decentralization in governance (Ratner et al. 2012).
Many variations of the co-management approach exist to date, largely based on the five-stages model (Sen and Nielsen 1996). At one extreme, non-government stakeholders provide information and advice but the government retains decision-making controls. At the other end, stakeholders have full control and the government merely monitors how this control is exercised (Bavinck et al. 2005). In Omura Bay (Japan) both a top-down management system with vertical processes and a networking function with horizontal processes exist (Chapter 9). This approach of a matrix management system achieves useful outcomes for integrated management.
In Venice, Italy, the move to co-management, with stakeholders having an advisory function, encouraged good management practices (Chapter 8). Clearly, there can be dissatisfaction with being at either end of the co-management spectrum. In South Africa, the views of the stakeholders are not considered to their satisfaction, as their input is only advisory (Chapter 14). On the other hand, free participation in co-management committees can make decision making difficult when the legitimacy of committee members is called into question (Chapter 20).
Failure of a co-managed system can result from difficulties in coordinating policies across multiple scales and organizations in an integrated way (Ford et al. 2011). In the Spermonde Archipelago, the governance system is based on regulations that are nested across multiple levels with a social organization that is highly hierarchical and inflexible. This situation has led to difficulties in coordination between different levels of government and to overlapping and unclear responsibilities (Chapter 4).
The structure of the co-management approach that works in one place may not be appropriate in another, as their success is partly culturally determined. In Japan, a co-management approach that encourages active stakeholder participation but that is institutionally designed to incorporate the precautionary principle (based on a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle) has been successfully implemented (Chapter 20). The concept of sato-umi acknowledges a harmonious relationship between man and nature (Yanagi 2013) as key to achieving coastal sea areas with high biodiversity and productivity (Chapter 9). Fisheries in Omura Bay are managed by fishers’ groups and local stakeholders and supported by the government.
A minimum level of public support for management of extreme events is needed in order to be effective (cf. Cluster 5). A low level of group cohesion in combination with other factors such as regional socioeconomic changes and lack of legal provisions can lead to institutional failure (Serafini et al. 2017). It is often said that bottom-up self-organization is important when rebuilding a damaged system (Chapter 1). In Japan, most of the initial support for restoration efforts after the tsunami came from private volunteer organizations. However, there is a need to financially support voluntary activities (Chapter 9).
Voluntary action does not always result in the desired effect. In order to reduce fishing pressure on the mantis shrimp stocks in Tokyo Bay, the fishermen themselves introduced regulations and sought help from researchers to assess the effectiveness of their management actions (Chapter 16).
Equity issues need to be carefully considered. Disadvantaged groups need to be recognized as stakeholders in any post-crisis management. Considerations of gender-related issues are important (Schwerdtner et al. 2016). In the Philippines (Chapter 11), women play a significant role in actual fisheries and fish farming. Even though the assets can be held by males, household finances are often the women’s domain (Chapter 4). Moreover, corruption and mismanagement of funds should be carefully avoided. In societies with strong socially hierarchical structures and where poverty reigns, funds may only reach a certain circle of people (Chapter 4) with tremendous negative impacts on the effectiveness of the government responses (Idrus 2009).
The timing of the response is also key. In France, substantial public financial aid was given to oyster farmers immediately after a crisis, which allowed most of them to survive in their business. But in the long run only the stronger and more profitable farms survived, which, in retrospect, indicates that money might have been spent more wisely if it had been distributed in a staged process (Chapter 3).
In the coming decades, scientific and technological advances are expected to play a crucial role in addressing many ocean-related environmental challenges (OECD 2016). In the Philippines (Chapter 11), fish farmers have already implemented some adaptations to respond to environmental events in the future, such as the use of nets versus earth dikes, which are more prone to damage, and the use of technology depending on their financial capacity.
Counterintuitively, in some places a catastrophic event will result in a better economic outcome (Chapter 3). Some responses will occur through the market for marine resources. Private partnerships can help in combination with public governance, and proper feedback between the two could result in win-win solutions (Chapter 15).
Product market redirection can assist in recovery of ecological systems if it means that the price is higher and compensates for lower harvest rates. New markets can be developed over time once the resource is recovering (i.e. redirection of fresh clam products to restaurants in Uruguay; see Chapter 17).
Several attributes of the governing system are important to effectively deal with global change. Global change can have a slow onset; it can also be catastrophic and fast moving (Walker and Salt 2006). Responses need to be timely, but currently they lag behind the crises, potentially worsening the situation. In Venice, the sluggish response of the governing agencies meant that the spread of introduced species occurred more quickly than the governing system could adapt (Chapter 8).
Assessing the appropriate timing in response to global change involves the consideration of many different types of uncertainties. Exploration of alternative ways to predicting outcomes, implementing new measures, monitoring and ultimately learning in order to update knowledge and adjust actions is key to timing actions (Chapter 5).
Jurisdictional overlap can create a situation where no one knows their responsibility. Decision-making delays can also occur where permission or legal authority for action is too far removed from the observers of change. Iterative timing of plans and checking over different time frames can improve timing (Chapter 9).
Monitoring and enforcement are central to strong governing systems (Chapter 8). Where monitoring is devolved to different levels of the governing system, adequate monitoring cannot take place without transparent fishing and communal or private property rights (Chapter 10).
A system that has a strong patrolling system has to be prepared for increased running costs. If centrally set management rules are only weakly binding in self-funded systems, a lack of enforcement can be catastrophic.
The Philippines has enacted a number of major national laws on fisheries and water resource management and is intensifying initiatives at the local level. One of the gaps is the enforcement of these laws through local municipal fisheries codes and integration in local development plans (Chapter 11). Illegal activities can be the result of poorly defined property rights (Chapter 8).
Too much or too little power vested in certain stakeholder groups may present a governability challenge (Bavinck et al. 2013). It is essential to be aware of both the enabling and restricting roles that power plays (Jentoft 2007). For instance, patron–client relationships are common in some parts of the world and have long been a customary feature (Ferrol-Schulte et al. 2014). These relationships have been held responsible for destructive resource user practices (Chapters 4 and 12).
However, patron–client systems can also provide an alternative type of social security for resource users that allows them to overcome times of hardship with sudden disturbance events such as storms or loss of gear (Ferse et al. 2014). The patron–client links may serve as a short-term coping strategy, and informal rules on resource use may be seen as a long-term mitigation measure (Chapter 4).
It is critical to understand the cultural contexts in which the decision to cope with natural or anthropogenic stressors are made in order to gain a comprehensive picture of how culture contributes to adaptation (Glaser et al. 2015; Glaser and Glaeser 2014) in such a wide diversity of backgrounds: North and South, rich and poor, the organized and the unorganized and those with much political power and those with very little (Bavinck et al. 2013).
Resource access and distributional issues are often at the foundation of resource depletion (Chapter 8). Consideration of the multifaceted aspects of poverty in the context of marine resource use is key (Chapter 12). Many health issues are associated with poverty and will affect the ability to respond to global changes. Very visibly, women remain particularly underprivileged and marginalized, with minimum access to income, livelihood opportunities, education and healthcare (Chapter 12). The environmental impacts on poor regions can therefore be a ‘double blow’, creating impacts that haunt the dependent livelihoods of communities over the long term.
A low level of community trust in public governance can limit adaptation processes (Chapters 6 and 7). Community trust in the registered authorities must pre-exist the disaster in order to be able to positively affect public opinion during a crisis. Transparency of monitoring activities before a crisis may help increase credibility of the adaptation management process when the crisis arrives (Chapter 7). High trust can also sometimes reduce public preparedness for disaster because it can create complacency and apathy (Nakayachi 2015).
Trust can be undermined when there is a lack of dialogue between sectors and government. The failure to make appropriate decisions is often amplified where trade-offs between competing values are required (Eriksen et al. 2011). This is particularly pertinent when climate change amplifies existing conflicts (Adger et al. 2005). In Japan (Chapter 16), environmental rehabilitation is not under the jurisdiction of the Fisheries Law and thus not within the control of the FCA. However, the environmental sector has increasing influence on the public opinion and, as a result, the needs for more integrated marine policy are also in the rise.
Clearly laid out roles, rules and responsibilities help successful adaptation to global changes. A clear set of steps with performance indicators and transparent criteria further facilitate successfully dealing with change. Governance of Pacific oyster harvest and aquaculture in light of threats from ocean acidification is now undertaken via a number of clear and logical steps in a multi-stakeholder consultative policy (Chapter 2).
Care has to be paid that the number of rules does not burgeon (Chapter 4). Also the rules cannot be static, as the natural systems are dynamic. Fishers are in permanent search for opportunities, for example, by changing target species.
Information access is essential in all case studies, and science helps to interpret this information (Walker et al. 2003). Views on what caused the environmental changes may be contested even though the effects are not (Chapter 14). Representatives from the humanities (marketers, social communicators, environmental psychologists, etc.) need to communicate this information to the right end users, whether they be government, other scientists or stakeholders.
Much of the action in Washington State on ocean acidification (Chapter 2) was motivated by industry partners, whose widely circulated explanations of the problem and its effects alerted a wider group to the issue. They partnered with local scientists to gain insight into the issue quickly (Barton et al. 2015). The crisis communication is effective when data are available and when the leader’s position is clear, understandable and strongly supported (Chapter 6).
In Indonesia, the large and growing number of inhabitants, in combination with low environmental awareness, results in an overuse of marine resources (Chapter 4). The local population lacks the information to address their own issues
Measures taken to improve the environment of the Baltic Sea continuously have been based on system-specific knowledge (single-loop learning). Stakeholders embraced the scientific management model where policy is informed first and foremost by science (Brunner 1996), resulting in an arguably optimistic view of the ability of technocrats to manage the system (Bovens and t’ Hart 1996).
The inclusion of local knowledge systems is still absent in many areas. The Philippines is one of the countries that became an early adopter of co-management in fisheries. What worked in the Philippines (Chapter 11) to manage fish farming and to address pollution was the promotion of multi-stakeholder engagement, including accountability, and the integration of scientific and local ecological knowledge.
Understanding the interconnected dynamics of social, governance and environmental marine systems requires an interdisciplinary approach. Many institutions and organizations are advancing this type of new research. There is also a need to maintain strength in single disciplinary knowledge and in-depth science to better understand the natural system and appropriate human responses to global change. This means that we need to provide adequate funding for empirical research in both the humanities and natural sciences and their intersection (Essington et al. 2016).
This book, with many case studies of marine social-ecological responses to global change crises, provides an important step in developing such an interdisciplinary-wide science. The use of a single analytical framework (I-ADApT) and its typology serve to organize information and understand common experiences to what might otherwise seem to be unique situations. This framework and typology can also serve as an entry point to help decision makers find solutions to their own global change–related marine social-ecological crises. Sustainability of natural ecosystems, human livelihoods and social consequences are at risk in most of these events, and the timing and choice of immediate responses are critical to reach successful conclusions. This book has highlighted many of these responses and the conditions under which some have succeeded and some have failed. It has also contributed to making marine social-ecological systems more resilient to global change.
The case studies in this book are only a beginning, however, and development of this approach is ongoing. We invite you to contribute your own case studies and to follow the developments of this approach by accessing the Human Dimensions Working Group page on the IMBeR homepage at www.imber.info.
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