Download shallow seas

ZSL SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION EVENTS
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SERIES
SHALLOW SEAS
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
The Meeting Rooms, The Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY
Chair: Heather Koldewey, Head of Global Conservation Programmes, ZSL
Saving the shallows: focusing marine conservation where people might care
Amanda C.J. Vincent, Project Seahorse, Fisheries Centre, The University of British Columbia, Canada
It is time to emphasize the plight of life at the ocean’s fringes, defined as less than 10 m deep, as a steppingstone to marine conservation in general. As marine conservation and food security problems loom ever larger,
we must address the reality that too few people act in support of the ocean. We need to try a different approach
that directly connects people to their marine neighbourhoods, and one that explicitly links marine conservation to
food security and social equity.
The ocean’s very shallow fringes see the greatest collision between marine life and human pressure, in a way
that people can assess and experience for themselves. Waters < 10 m deep contain a myriad wonderful and
critically important habitats, have enormous economic value in resources and ecosystem services, and are
important in culture and religion. Disastrously, however, the array of cumulative threats imposed by people has
taken its toll on shallow water marine species and ecosystems, and many are now in trouble, at great cost to
people on the coast and farther inland.
A campaign for the shallow seas will only advance marine conservation if it engages new people. Research is
certainly vital but we already know more than enough to mobilise action for the ocean’s fringes. The bigger
challenge is to make ocean conservation important and exciting, using new communication tools that are alien to
many scientists. We will then need to tap into consequent emerging support and commitment, matching people’s
newfound willingness to help with conservation needs and opportunities.
Reconciling poverty alleviation with marine conservation in the developing world: can a focus
on human wellbeing help motivate sustainable resource governance?
Sarah Coulthard, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
Conflicts between the exploitation and protection of shallow seas are perhaps at their most extreme in the
developing world, where large numbers of poor people are directly dependent upon access to the sea for their
daily survival and pursuit of a better life. High levels of demand for easily accessible, but highly fragile, in-shore
resources, necessitates effective policies that can regulate access and ensure sustainable use. However,
policies are often hindered by inadequate understanding of the complex ways in which access to marine
resources relates to people’s wellbeing. Income and livelihoods are an obvious benefit from resource
exploitation, but there are also important social and cultural factors that influence and motivate how people use
the sea. A growing number of scholars are starting to use the concept of wellbeing as a more holistic approach
to understand the connections between people and their marine environment, recognizing that human behaviour
is shaped by a range of different factors that span material and subjective domains. This talk draws from case
studies across the developing world to explore the relationship between access to the sea and human wellbeing.
For each case, we will discuss how different forms of marine conservation policy affect that relationship, and
implications for the workability of those policies. A challenge for effective marine conservation is whether it can
engage more with the strategies people adopt to improve their lives in the present day, whilst promoting
sustainable behaviour and healthy seas for future generations. The talk concludes with some interesting
examples of what could be considered as ‘successful’ forms of marine governance from India, and points to how
those processes have tapped into ‘what matters most’ to the people involved. Both examples are driven by
communities themselves, often with strong civil society support.
Suggested reading
Coulthard, S., Johnson, D. and McGregor, J.A. (2011). Poverty, sustainability and human wellbeing: A social
wellbeing approach to the global fisheries crisis. Global Environmental Change 21: 453–463.
McGregor, J.A. (2004). Researching wellbeing: Communicating between the needs of policy makers and the
needs of people. Global Social Policy 4(3): 337–358.
Vivekanandan, V. (2010). Trawl Brawl India – Sri Lanka trans-border fishing. Samudra report 57. Available
online: http://wif.icsf.net/icsf2006/uploads/publications/samudra/pdf/english/issue_57/art07.pdf
Working papers at www.wellcoast.org
UK Shallow seas – a measure of protection
Richard Harrington, Communications Manager, Marine Conservation Society
The nature of the shallow seas around the UK is diverse, fascinating, and becoming more widely appreciated by an
environmentally aware public. On paper, the number of protection measures under domestic and European laws is growing,
and plans for a future network of marine protected areas in inshore waters around the UK should together make for a healthy,
diverse ecosystem. However, a number of indicators suggest that our seas are declining in their productivity, that human
pressure on our busy shallow seas is growing, and that the natural marine environment is hugely under-protected.
Two European Directives from the previous century have instigated the creation of reasonably large sea areas to be defined
as Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas, but the actual degree of protection afforded in these areas is
questionable. More recently, the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act (and Marine Act for Scotland) answered calls to afford
real protection within inshore waters, legislating for potential “no take zones” within a wider network of conservation zones.
The Marine Conservation Society believes that there is hope for a better managed future, incorporating a sizeable chunk of
shallow sea in a network of sites afforded true protection, and with measures taken to ensure managed, sustainable
exploitation, and pollution reduction for the whole. Our task is to keep political interest in making the necessary change
happen high on the agenda, in a challenging political seascape of financial crisis and austerity.
Engaging society with the sea: insights and opportunities
Rebecca Jefferson, School of Marine Science and Engineering, Plymouth University
Human activities are damaging marine environments around the world. Significant changes in behaviour are
needed to reduce this damage, and conserve marine environments. To achieve this behaviour change, society
need to be connected to seas, recognising both the benefits of healthy seas and the impacts of their own
behaviour choices: this is the concept of marine citizenship.
Currently, 44% of the English public believe the subtidal environment to be generally, mostly or totally barren.
This illustrates one of the many barriers to developing the society-sea connection.
This presentation describes the findings of a recent study of UK public perceptions of the marine environment (n
= 1047), and provides new perspectives on connecting society with the sea. The results challenge some
traditional engagement techniques, which are often focused around flagship species, such as dolphins, showing
the potential for public engagement with messages about marine ecological health. The study also revealed
how motivation of interest in the sea varied with gender and social values, illustrating the need to understand the
multiple perceptions of the marine environment held by the public, and to develop targeted engagement
strategies which appeal to particular audiences.
Understanding the values people hold for the sea unlocks the potential to promote marine citizenship as an
opportunity to deliver healthy marine environments.