New Partnerships Needed to Ensure Future of Marine Environments: UN

On World Oceans Day, UNEP Launches Guide to Ecosystem-based Management

Nairobi, 8 June 2011 - Declines in marine and coastal ecosystems due to human activities such as overfishing and pollution could be reversed if organisations, communities and other stakeholders adopt a more integrated approach to managing coastal environments. Closer partnerships between different marine users - such as fishing communities, the tourism industry and conservationists - can also help coastal communities become better prepared for natural disasters and the impacts of global warming, such ocean acidification and changes in sea levels.

The recommendations come in a new publication from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which outlines how planners and policy-makers in local, national and regional governments can adopt what is known as an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach to help ensure sustainable development for marine and coastal environments and the many people who depend on them.

Launched on World Oceans Day 2011, Taking Steps Toward Marine and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management: An Introductory Guide, explains in simple, accessible language how sharing knowledge and best practices across different sectors can make marine management more effective.

Using over 20 case studies and success stories, ranging from polar ecosystems in Antarctica to atolls in the Indian Ocean, the publication offers guidance to marine managers towards achieving long-term sustainability, from initial planning of how to deal with environmental degradation to on-site implementation of action plans.

"The future role of marine and coastal ecosystems in human well-being depends increasingly on developing the capacity of countries to manage human uses and impacts in order to ensure that ecosystem health and self-repairing capacity is not undermined", said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

"Central to a transformational response to decades of overfishing, pollution and unplanned urban development will be moving from sectoral marine and coastal management to a joined approach that marries seemingly competing interests", added Mr. Steiner.

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is holistic, integrated approach that looks at marine and coastal ecosystems as units with many ecological and social links. These connections can be numerous and complex, with disruptions to any part of an ecosystem - such as changes to habitats or fluctuations in the population of a species - having many knock-on effects.

For more information, please visit http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=2645&ArticleID=8776&l=en