Stakeholder Engagement in Decision Making and Pathways of Influence for Southern Ocean Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Southern Ocean ecosystem management is characterized by a unique and complex international network of stakeholders and stakeholder relationships (a ‘transactional landscape’) relating to the globally significant services that these ecosystems support. This transactional landscape spans governments, industry (fishing and tourism), scientific research, conservation non-government organizations, civil society, and international decision-making forums. We used a network approach for stakeholder mapping to provide the first description of the transactional landscape for Southern Ocean ecosystem management – both in terms of the connections between stakeholders and ecosystem services, and directly between stakeholder groups. We considered 65 stakeholders and their relationships to 12 provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services. An analysis of the connections within this network reveals differences in the degree of connectivity between stakeholders and ecosystem services. Notably, ecosystem science facilitates high connectivity between stakeholders and provisioning services, but there is little connectivity between stakeholders and supporting services. We then applied a formal ‘values-rules-knowledge’ framework to a set of case studies to analyze the decision-making process in relation to Southern Ocean ecosystem services, as well as the relative importance of different stakeholder groups which were considered in the network analysis. Our analyses suggest that emphases for decision making have been on knowledge and rules, but that wider consideration of values across the broader stakeholder landscape – together with science (knowledge) and governance (rules) – might better support decision making for Southern Ocean ecosystem conservation and management, and provide a stronger foundation for sustainable provision of ecosystem services into the future.

Protecting ocean carbon through biodiversity and climate governance

“…Additionally, we found that the latest BBNJ draft agreement text featured 19 times fewer ocean carbon mentions than the draft including stakeholder proposals. Stakeholder consultation can enhance conservation outcomes because of the broader consideration of ecosystem services (Solomonsz et al, 2021). Participation from interest groups has previously helped to promote ocean carbon and nature based solutions in biodiversity and climate policy discussions (Oostdijk et al, 2022).…”

Innovating the Blue Economy: A Novel Approach to Stakeholder Landscape Mapping of the Atlantic Area Sea Basin

“…The five distinct attributes (shown in Table 2) include: 1) general identification of the stakeholder, based on public available information on websites, policy briefs, social media; 2) a stakeholder category (e.g. private investor, maritime cluster, spin-off, learned bodies, accelerator) identified using expert knowledge and literature research (Maguire et al, 2012;Roe, 2015); 3) geographic scale of influence of the BE stakeholder (Solomonsz et al, 2021); 4) the role of the stakeholder according to EU BE sectors (European Commission, 2018); 5) which stakeholders provide different types of financial support; and 6) the main BE sector the stakeholder belongs to or is active in, according to the Blue Growth Strategy. This includes the five main BE contributory sectors (aquaculture, coastal tourism, marine biotech, ocean energy, seabed mining) and respective sub-sectors (European Commission, 2019).…”

“…(B) Scale of influence of stakeholders by countries Note: Other BE sectors include maritime transport, port activities, environmental conservation or fishery etc. Note: Business angels: people who invest their money in the initial phase of startups, in exchange for a participation in capital [BBVA, 2022(Solomonsz et al, 2021]; Incubator: an organization or place that aids the development of new business ventures especially by providing low-cost commercial space, management assistance, or shared services (https://www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/incubator); Growth equity Firm is a type of investment opportunity in relatively mature companies that are going through some transformational event in their lifecycle with potential for some dramatic growth (https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/tradinginvesting/growth-equity/); Government research and institutes: refer to national research centers and universities.…”

The Comprehensive Management Zoning of Mountains, Rivers, Forests, and Farmlands Based on Element Recognition

“…Therefore, the theory is often regarded as a management tool that focuses on ecosystem management mechanisms. Its scope can be broadly divided into research on management subjects [21][22][23], research on management techniques [24][25][26], and the design of management strategies [27][28][29]. The IEM is more mechanism-oriented, highlighting the overall management process.…”