Ecosystem Based Management in Transition: From Ocean Policy to Application

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as a means to improve resource management and stewardship for more than two decades. Over this history, its exact goals and approaches have evolved in concert with advances in science and policy, including a greater understanding of ecosystem function, valuation, and thresholds for change, along with direct reference to EBM principles in statute, regulation, and other Executive Actions. Most recently, and explicitly, the Administration’s National Ocean Policy (NOP) called for the development of a Federal EBM framework that would outline principles and guidelines for implementing EBM under existing authorities. This cross-agency framework has yet to be developed, but, the NOP, and related Administration initiatives, have resulted in the practical application of EBM principles in several issue-specific policy initiatives ranging from fisheries and marine protected area management to coastal adaptation and water resource infrastructure investment. In each case, the application of EBM principles uses apparently unique policy mechanisms (e.g. marine planning, ecosystem services assessment, adaptive management, dynamic ocean management, etc.). Despite differences in terminology and policy context, each of these policy initiatives is linked at its core to concepts of integrated and adaptive management that consider broad ecosystem function and services. This practical history of EBM implementation speaks to both the challenges and opportunities in broad incorporation of EBM across diverse policy initiatives and frameworks. We suggest that the continued growth of EBM as a practical policy concept will require a move away from broad frameworks, and towards the identification of specific resource management issues and accompanying policy levers with which to address those issues. In order to promote this progression, Federal policy should recognize and articulate the diverse set of policy mechanisms encompassed under the rubric of EBM and seek to require similar approaches across the spectra of resource management issues.