Don't Leave Marine Spatial Planning to the Experts

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been gaining widespread attention as “the next big idea” in ocean management, promising to break down the barriers between single-sector laws and agencies that have hindered the sustainable use of marine resources. A July 2010 Executive Order from President Obama called for all Executive branch agencies with ocean responsibilities to work together in advancing MSP within nine large coastal and ocean regions. Before we move forward with this concept on a large scale, it is worthwhile to explore some relevant history.

Many of today’s debates about ocean management closely resemble arguments about the stewardship of US public lands that have raged over the last 100 years. A closer examination of that history reveals specific pitfalls that have thwarted success: a focus on resource units (such as trees) separate from the ecosystems in which they are embedded, excessive reliance on "best available science" by technocrats who overlook social and cultural realities, failure to include affected communities in decision making, and disproportionate influence by the most powerful stakeholders. Some of these hazards are likely to be even more severe in the marine context where ecosystems—including the human communities with which they are intertwined—are more difficult to observe than on land. Statements to date from the Council on Environmental Quality and the White House do not make it clear that these lessons from the past have been understood and will be heeded. This talk will explore case studies of forest planning processes and review the evolving critiques of public lands management to distill lessons that may be applicable to the ocean context. The historical analysis suggests that implementing MSP will require new ways of thinking about people in marine systems and broader involvement by researchers and stakeholders from outside the usual community of marine experts.