'Environmental governance' and 'ecosystem management': avenues for synergies between two approaches

The Ecosystem Approach to Management in Marine Environmental Governance: Institutional interplay in the Baltic Sea Region

“…Ecosystem management can be described as a sustainable long-term management plan for socio-ecological systems which is placebased in the sense that it covers a specific area or region (Söderström, Kern, Boström and Gilek 2016).…”

“…Since stakeholder and citizen involvement is an integral part of ecosystem management (Söderström, Kern, Boström and Gilek 2016), various forms of cooperation (including public-private partnerships) have been discussed and tested. Participation may focus on individual actors, multi-actor processes (Olsson, Folke, and Berkes 2004) and multi-stakeholder partnerships (Bäckstrand 2006).…”

Regional Environmental Governance and Avenues for the Ecosystem Approach to management in the Baltic Sea Area

“…Scholarly attention to ecosystem management began over 50 years ago but has since progressed rapidly, while interest in environmental governance was sparked in the 1990s. The concepts have co-evolved in natural and social science to cover two extensive scientific literature bodies with similar themes and concepts, but with only rare interaction (Söderström et al, 2016). Ecosystem management has typically been used as a place-based management plan in a contained area, with the ambition of multi-stakeholder inclusion, cross-border cooperation and adherence to natural borders of the ecosystem, while the academic discussion of environmental governance has traditionally started from a global perspective (Söderström et al, 2016).…”

“…EAM is described as an instrument and vision of holistic management considering humans as part of the ecosystem, promoting cross-boundary cooperation and sectoral integration, relying on sound science, stakeholder participation and progressing through adaptive management (Söderström, Kern, Boström, & Gilek, 2016;Söderström & Kern, submitted). The notion of regional environmental governance, as a point of departure and analytical tool, is a way of understanding the complex web of the marine environment in the Baltic Sea area, using governance as an analytical framework.…”

“…The notion of regional environmental governance, as a point of departure and analytical tool, is a way of understanding the complex web of the marine environment in the Baltic Sea area, using governance as an analytical framework. As environmental problems take little account of national borders, adopting a governance perspective is an appropriate measure, supported by a growing literature on environmental governance as well as on ecosystem management (Söderström et al, 2016). The Baltic Sea, with its long history of environmental cooperation, stable political structure with a solid regionalisation through HELCOM and Europeanisation through the EU, and currently with EAM as the guiding principle of marine policy, is still one of the most contaminated sea areas worldwide.…”