A COMMUNITY BASED FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ASSOCIATED WITH

OREGON'S MARINE RESERVES

Michael Harte College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences & Oregon Sea Grant

Selina Heppell Department of Fisheries & Wildlife

Gil Sylvia Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station

• Emerging scientific consensus around ecosystem-based management as a conceptual model for managing marine systems.

• It is about maintaining healthy marine & coastal ecosystems so that they can provide the services humans want and need for this and future generations.

• It is place/system focused rather than sector focused.

• EBM focused research, extension and education explicitly integrates multiple disciplines and perspectives and emphasizes their interconnection.

Planning for the 21st Century Ocean Uses

Putting EBM into effect means giving greater attention to research that supports marine spatial planning by:

• Identifying marine management units based on biophysical characteristics.

• Establishing the ecosystem services provided by these management units and the benefits associated with those services.

• Accounting for cumulative human impacts and associated tradeoffs between services.

Planning for the 21st Century Ocean Uses

• Accounting for uncertainty in baseline information, implementation of policies and social and biophysical responses to a particular activity.

• Evaluating regulatory and non-regulatory management mechanisms that align incentives for the sustainable use of resources within the zones.

• Encouraging adaptive management programs to monitor, review and adjust zones and their regulation as required.

• Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Reports reinforce this approach to ocean and coastal management.

Planning for the 21st Century Ocean Uses

Application to Oregon’s Proposed

MPAs

Application to the Oregon’s Proposed MPAs

1. Develop a conceptual framework for identifying, estimating and evaluating costs and benefits associated with Oregon’s proposed marine reserves from an ecosystem service standpoint.

2. Establish the methods that are likely the best for assessing and measuring ecosystem services and the ecosystem benefits associated with the marine reserves.

3. Apply the operational evaluation framework to marine reserve ecosystem services analysis for two case study sites using available quantitative data and qualitative data.

Application to the Oregon’s Proposed MPAs

4. Identify changes (+ & -) in ecosystem services and benefits that are the most important to decision makers, communities and stakeholders at local and regional scales.

5. Establish monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management procedures to maximize benefits and minimize costs.

4. Produce guidance on the application of an ecosystem-services approach to marine reserve planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Expected Outcomes

• The concepts of ecosystem services and benefits are communicated to, and understood by, decision makers, coastal communities and stakeholders.

• Decision-makers take into account ecosystem services and benefits when assessing, implementing and monitoring marine reserves as an ecosystem-based management tool.

• Decision-makers, communities and stakeholders use consistent definitions and measures of ecosystem services and ecosystem benefits.

• Reduced conflict between decision-makers, communities and stakeholders.

• Reduced social, cultural and economic costs to coastal communities.