Legal Bedrock for Rebuilding America's Ocean Ecosystems
Recent discussions about ocean policy reform have focused on ecosystem-based management, which fully incorporates humans and considers the cumulative impacts of their activities on ecosystems and the services they provide. This approach is logical given the highly interconnected social-ecological systems on the ocean and may be best realized through comprehensive marine spatial planning and ocean zoning. But the U.S. ocean governance as currently configured cannot easily accomodate ecosystem-based management.
Author(s): Mary Turnipseed, Larry B. Crowder, Raphael D. Sagarin and Stephen E. Roady
Published: April 2009