| “The way I view EBM is that we are expanding the lens through which coastal managers look.” | |
| Greg Capobianco, New York Department of State | |
New York state officials listened when two national commissions studying ocean policy called on coastal resource managers to adopt ecosystem-based management (EBM) to address the myriad of issues facing the nation’s shorelines. In 2006, New York passed legislation that is effectively shifting the state from conventional segmented resource management to a system that focuses on the interconnections between the environment, human activities, and the delivery of critical ecosystem services.
“This is not about creating a new program or adding more work, but rather building on existing efforts,” says Greg Capobianco, director of the New York Department of State’s New York Ocean and Great Lakes staff. “The way I view EBM is that we are expanding the lens through which coastal managers look.”
He explains, “Right now, coastal managers mainly focus on the thin ribbon of coastal area. What we really need to do is look fully up into the watershed and out to the ocean, and bring these three elements together. In New York, we are thinking, deliberating, and bringing the allocation of resources together to make these connections.”
New York’s 2006 Oceans and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Act established a council of nine state agencies to work together to better manage human activities that affect New York’s coastal ecosystems.
As a result of the council’s efforts, the state’s ecosystems have been identified, opportunities for ecosystem-based management have been recognized, the Ocean and Great Lakes Atlas has been created, projects are progressing in two pilot communities, and a broader regional partnership has been established.
“This act is unique,” Capobianco says, “because it was the first—and is still—the only statute that really calls on a state to undertake EBM.”
National Spotlight
While not a new management approach in the coastal and marine environment, EBM was spotlighted by both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and Pew Oceans Commission as a solution to the combination of human activities on land, along the coasts, and in the ocean that are affecting marine ecosystems. Impacts include altering marine food webs, changing the climate, damaging habitat, eroding coastlines, introducing invasive species, and polluting coastal waters.
Traditional management approaches have considered each activity or threat to ecosystem health in isolation, says Kathryn Mengerink, coauthor of Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management: Implementation Handbook and director of the Ocean Program at the Environmental Law Institute. “That’s what EBM is trying to address.”
EBM is defined in the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s September 2004 final report as managing ocean and coastal resources in a way that reflects “the relationship among all ecosystem components, including humans and nonhuman species and the environments in which they live.”
The report notes, “Applying this principle will require defining relevant geographic management areas based on ecosystem, rather than political, boundaries.”
Heather Leslie, coeditor of the recently published book, Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans, and assistant professor of environmental studies and biology at Brown University, describes EBM as “an integrated approach to the management of land and sea.”
“Its core goal,” Leslie says, “is to sustain the long-term capacity of coastal and marine systems to provide the benefits that people value—services such as seafood, access to clean water, healthy beaches, and protection from coastal storms—while allowing sustainable human uses.”
No Cookie Cutter
“Ecosystem-based management happens in so many different ways in different places,” says Karen McLeod, the other coeditor of Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans, which examines EBM case studies from around the country.
“There is no cookie cutter way to go about doing this,” says McLeod, who is also the director of science for Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS). “Every place differs in its ecological, social, and historical context. In some places it’s been implemented through a top-down government mandate; in others it’s a bottom-up, grassroots effort, or something in between.”
Leslie notes that “EBM can happen at a wide range of spatial scales, from the local to the watershed or regional scale. The key is to integrate understanding of both the ecological and human dimensions across scales.”
Day-to-Day
New York’s legislation charges the Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council with developing comprehensive strategies, grounded in science, to embrace and advance EBM principles in order to “conserve, maintain and restore coastal ecosystems so that they are healthy, productive and resilient, and able to deliver the resources people want and need.”
Among the council’s tasks were to define executive and legislative steps to integrate EBM within existing state programs, create an ocean and Great Lakes resources atlas for the public and decision makers, demonstrate improvements in two study areas using EBM, and identify opportunities for EBM with neighboring states and the federal government.
Part of the state’s EBM success, Capobianco says, is due to the diversity of the council, which brings together the commissioners of agriculture and markets, economic development, environmental conservation, general services, transportation, and parks, recreation, and historic preservation. It also includes the secretary of state, the president of the Energy Research and Development Authority; and the chancellor of the State University of New York. The state’s coastal management program staffs the council.
Capobianco says, “We are working to incorporate EBM principles into our day-to-day decision-making and the council agencies have made good progress doing this.”
Building Maps
One of the council’s first achievements was to create the online Ocean and Great Lakes Atlas, www.nyoglatlas.com, which allows users to build maps by selecting features of interest, print maps, and download information into Google Earth or two different software packages.
Currently, more than 200 data sets on resources such as storm drains, wetland boundaries, underwater vegetation, park locations, and fisheries are available through the atlas. Eventually, more than 900 data sets will be included.
“The atlas is an amazing tool,” says Capobianco. “We are constantly building this as resources allow.”
Learning Laboratories
The act also established two demonstration areas—the Great South Bay on Long Island and the Sandy Creeks Watershed on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario—to gain on-the-ground experience in applying EBM. Each project area was designed to address known problems and to learn how EBM might be applied.
In Great South Bay, implementation efforts are focused on hard clam and seagrass restoration activities. In the Sandy Creeks Watershed, a number of implementation projects are ongoing, including an aquifer study, a stream restoration project, and an invasive species control program.
“These areas have served as learning laboratories for the council agencies to collaborate on various approaches to EBM planning and implementation,” Capobianco says. “The goal is to apply lessons learned as the council begins to implement EBM statewide.”
Documenting Direction
In its report released in April 2009, the council defined the state’s ecosystems, recognized existing EBM management efforts in the state, and identified executive and legislative steps to integrate EBM within existing programs. The council also identified 13 priority actions to be achieved by 2014 at current funding levels and called for the development of a state research and monitoring agenda.
One of the state’s priorities, Capobianco says, is marine spatial planning, starting with a pilot project in New York’s ocean waters. The pilot project will develop siting criteria for offshore wind development and identify critical ocean habitats in need of greater protection. When complete, it will result in an amendment to the state’s coastal management program.
Reaching Out
While developing the report, the state held 14 “community conversations” across the state to provide public input. The document also emphasizes the need to partner with local governments, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and citizens, as well as the state legislature and federal government.
On June 4, 2009, New York led the initiative to establish the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) with New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. MARCO will work regionally to address shared ocean issues, with a focus on climate change, water quality, ocean habitat protection, and offshore renewable energy.
“Regional ocean governance is a priority,” Capobianco says. “We organized the mid-Atlantic region and worked together to craft an initial action plan for our states to tackle shared priorities in the mid-Atlantic ocean ecosystem.”
Sharing Lessons
Capobianco believes other states can learn from New York’s EBM experience.
“I think New York is a good model,” he says. “When you read it, our statute is not like any others. It’s a very solid and detailed place to start.”
Capobianco adds, “Each state and region would put their own personality on it, but I think the approach and vision that New York initiated will be helpful to get people thinking about EMB in a comprehensive fashion.”
For more information on New York’s ecosystem-based management efforts, contact Greg Capobianco at (518) 474.8811, or gregory.capobianco@dos.state.ny.us. For more information on ecosystem-based management, contact Heather Leslie at (401) 863-6277, or heather_leslie@brown.edu, Karen McLeod at (541) 737-9822, or karen.mcleod@science.oregonstate.edu, or Kathryn Mengerink at (858) 822-5821, or mengerink@eli.org.
For More Information
- New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council, http://nyoglecc.org
- The EBM Roadmap, www.ebmtools.org/roadmap.html
- NOAA National Ocean Service and Coastal Ecosystem Science, http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coastalecosci/
- Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force: Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/
- Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS), www.compassonline.org/marinescience/solutions_ecosystem.asp
- Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management: Implementation Handbook, www.elistore.org/reports_detail.asp?ID=11350
- The Nature Conservancy’s Ecosystem-Based Management Decision-Support Toolkit, http://marineplanning.org
