Governance and offshore aquaculture in multi-resource use settings

Abstract

The notion of the sea as a seemingly endless source of resources has long dominated marine governance. This is despite that different perceptions and valuation systems underlie the institutional structures that govern and manage marine systems. Socio-political considerations cover the whole range of stakeholders and their type of involvement in the establishment and operation of multi-use offshore systems. However, within the vast variety of regulations inside the EU, the EU Member States as well as in North America, their implementation for offshore multi-use settings is as yet incipient and examples of best practice in multi-use scenarios are needed. These need to combine different knowledge systems (e.g. Authorities, decision-makers, local communities, science, etc.) to generate effective insights into the management of multiple uses of ocean space and to complement risk-justified decision-making. Pre-existing social networks can provide significant political leverage for governance transformations as required for the move offshore. That said, a range of organizational and social challenges related to the collective use of a defined ocean territory have to be taken into account. For instance, the creation and compliance with defined responsibilities and duties or the introduction of cross-sectoral management lines, such as an offshore co-management, that integrates the different demands and practices of the involved parties within an operational scheme that is practical on a day to day manner are in case in point. Indeed, how people perceive and value marine environments and the resources they provide determines individual and collective preferences, actions and strategies in the marine realm. Thus, for the effective implementation of sustainable marine resource management, the public has to be included in the knowledge production in order to understand processes that take place in our economies, environment and societies which in turn will affect the outcomes of management actions. In the following chapter, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) approaches, linkages between site-selection criteria's, GIS and modelling towards the multi-use of offshore areas to marine governance are discussed in more detail.