Coastal Sustainability: Dealing with the Dual Mandate Based on a Paper by: Michael Weinstein

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Coastal SustainabilityDealing with the Dual
Mandate Based on a Paper by Michael Weinstein

• Presented by M. L. Anderson

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Sustainable Coastal Development we vs them

• If sustainable coastal development is to be
  realized, decision makers must address the issue
  of managing for ecology (biotic sustainability)
  versus commerce (human extractive uses).

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Choices

• Managing for ecology (biotic integrity and
  self-sustainability) versus commerce (human
  extractive uses and ecosystem health).
• Compromise and sacrifice will be required to
  accommodate human needs in the coastal zone.

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Choices

• Mankind has always made his living from the sea
  and human extractive uses have contributed to the
  economy of nations.

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History The Coastal Commons

• Mankind is the most estuarine dependent organism
  in the biosphere requiring
• the shores of estuaries for living space,
• the open waters for extractible commodities,
• ports for commerce,
• wastewater management,
• military terminals,
• recreation, and
• industrial water supply.

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History The Coastal Commons

• Concept of the estuary and the near shore as a
  coastal commons dates back over 2500 years.
• Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the
  earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the
  fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air,
  and over every living thing that moves upon the
  earth. (Genesis 128)
• Historical roots of both the concept of commons
  of the resources of the Earth for the sole
  benefit of all humanity.

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History The Coastal Commons

• And truly by natural right, these be commons to
  all the air, running water, and the sea, and
  hence the shores of the sea. Also all rivers and
  ports are public, so that the right of fishing in
  a port and in rivers is common to all. And by the
  law of nations the use of the shore is also
  public, and in the same manner, the sea itself.
  (Roman Civil Law, Institutes of Justinian, Liber
  2, Tract 1, Section 1)

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History The Coastal Commons

• The right of fishing in the sea from the shore
  belongs to all men (Roman Civil Law, Institutes
  of Justinian)
• Hence the rights of all people for fishing,
  ports of commerce, shoreline development, public
  access and ownership of coastal lands and other
  use rights has early roots in human civilization.

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The Problem

• Nearly ½ of the United States GDP (4.5 trillion)
  is vested in the US coastal zone.
• More than ½ of the US population is in the
  coastal zone.
• More than 3600 people per day are moving to the
  US coast, with a projected coastal population of
  165 million by 2015.

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The Problem

• Increasing coastal populations, land use
  practices, and advanced technology threaten the
  long-term sustainability of ocean and coastal
  resources.
• By 2001, nearly 23 of the nations estuaries
  were unable to support sustainable uses such as
  swimming, fishing, along with impaired biotic
  integrity, and habitat functions associated with
  self-sustaining ecosystems (USEPA, 2001)

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Integrated CZM

• Current global and regional trends will make
  sustainability transition more difficult as well
  as more feasible.
• Trends of note
• Global transition in birth rates toward zero
• Many regions of the globe have experienced
  dramatic growth in per capita domestic product
• industrialized countries now exhibit the largest
  decrease in harmful consumption per unit value of
  product
• Worldwide consumption of energy and other natural
  resources offsets the above gain.
• Recent transition of energy sources and
  transmission in a long-term process of
  de-carbonization, dematerialization and
  detoxification.

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Achieving Sustainable Development

• To address the issues of non-sustainability
  including overexploitation and degradation of
  coastal habitats and resources The US Ocean
  Commission has called for
• prioritizing uses,
• minimizing conflicts,
• protecting resources, and
• ensuring compatible uses.

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Achieving Sustainable Development

• Ecosystem based management
• bridges geographic boundaries,
• places humans in the coastal landscape,
• focuses on multiple activities (uses) defined by
  ecological boundaries.

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Achieving Sustainable Development

• Sustainability science is the study of the
  fundamental character of interactions between
  nature and society and societys capacity to
  guide those interactions along sustainable
  trajectories.

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Integrated CZM

• There is a need for Integrated Coastal Zone
  Management (ICZM) by all levels of governance
  from local to global levels including expertise
  in natural and social sciences, economics and
  engineering.

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Integrated CZM
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Integrated CZM
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Complexity of the people / nature conundrum.

• Panarchy the evolving nature of complex adaptive
  systems.
• The systems of nature are linked by a never
  ending cycle of growth, accumulation,
  restructuring and renewal.
• The degraded system cam be restored to an
  acceptable condition to the benefit of both biota
  and humans.

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Complexity of the people / nature conundrum.

• The natural system has a high level of
  uncertainty and dynamicism (always changing)
  while human dominated systems require
  predictability and stability to ensure
  uninterrupted provision of resources for human
  use.

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Complexity of the people / nature conundrum.

• The conflicting need to
• reconcile social desires
• to preserve, restore and rehabilitate ecosystems
  while
• ensuring the provision of reliable, predictable,
  and stable supply of goods and services from the
  same systems.

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Achieving Sustainable Development

• A sustainable biosphere is not only ecological
  sound but economically feasible and socially
  just.
• Under the new social contract, the science and
  technology community would devote a larger
  portion of its RD agenda towards addressing
  societal goals for sustainable development.

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Integrated CZM

• Ocean Zoning the regulation and allocation of
  access use of specific marine geographic areas.
  The solution will require cooperation among
  professionals traditional separated by academic
  and practical division biology, anthropology,
  economics, agriculture, government and law.

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Integrated CZM
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Integrated CZM

• Quantifying the relationship between species of
  commercial and recreational value, and their
  population dynamics in a human-dominated aquatic
  ecosystem

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Integrated CZM

• Management goals should include elements of
  ecology and commerce proportional to human
  dominance in the landscape.

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Integrated CZM

• Todays multiple stresses in the coastal zone
  requires ecosystem management that takes into
  account conflicting goals and inter-linkages
  among environmental issues.
• Baseline data is needed on the state of the
  ecosystem, amount of the resource, economic
  value, and condition of goods and services
  provided on a site-specific basis.
• Data trends need to be made available to decision
  makers at all levels public and private.
• Integrated regional models that incorporate these
  influences, and address economic and
  technological change need to be developed.
• The models need to be coherent at all scales from
  local site to regional to global.

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Achieving Sustainable Development

• To achieve sustainable development along the
  coasts and resolving emerging conflicts will
  require
• A resolution of the paradox of the dual mandate.
• Development of sustainability science
• Using integrated coastal zone management
• Implementing ocean zone practices
• Establishing new baselines that reflect human
  domination in many coastal systems
• Managing species adapted to human colonization

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Natural Human Dominated
Ecology Management Commerce Management
Uncertainty (Dynamicism) Predictability
(Stability)
Compositional (Biotic Integrity)
Restoration Functionalist (Ecosystem Health)
Rehabilitation
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The End