III - Marine SABRES charts new waters in ecosystem-based management
We believe this will encourage a more widespread uptake of ecosystem-based management across Europe.
Emma Verling, Marine SABRES project coordinator
The health of the oceans is critical to global biodiversitybiodiversitymeasure of the number and variety of different organisms (including plants, animals, fungi and microbes) that are present in a habitat. Environmental degradation typically leads to a fall in biodiversity. and human livelihoods. To strike a balance between ecological preservation and our dependence on marine resources, the Marine SABRES(opens in new window) consortium has been exploring innovative tools such as socio-ecological systems (SESs) and ecosystem-based managementEcosystem-based managementis an environmental management approach that aims to consider interactions between all elements present in an ecosystem, including humans, in its decision-making.. While SESs have long been crucial analytical models used to describe human and ecological systems’ interactions – considering biological, social and economic factors holistically – they’re also notoriously complex, explains project coordinator Emma Verling, a research fellow at University College Cork’s(opens in new window) Environmental Institute. “The complexity of SES models can deter their use. With this project, we aim to simplify them to aid managers in making informed decisions, especially when balancing various needs such as conservation and economic development. We believe this will encourage a more widespread uptake of ecosystem-based management across Europe.” Beyond efforts to simplify the models, the project will also demonstrate the value of these streamlined versions in three distinct demonstration areas, each chosen for its unique environmental and socio-economic contexts: the Tuscan Archipelago, the Greenland-Iceland-Faroes region, and Macaronesia on Africa’s north Atlantic coast. “In the Tuscan Archipelago, we aim to restore seagrass beds, crucial for biodiversity and carbon sequestrationsequestrationis the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it long term. This happens naturally through processes such as plant growth. Choices in how an ecosystem is managed can increase or decrease the rate of its carbon sequestration., by developing sustainable mooring and boating practices,” says Verling. “We will study the effects of climate change and changing oceanographic conditions on the ecosystemecosystemdescribes a community of living organisms, their non-living environment, and the interactions within and between them. The boundaries of an ecosystem can change over time, and the scale of an ecosystem ranges from the microscopic to the entire planet. state across Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands in close cooperation with the fishing industry, and in Macaronesia, we’ll test out specific coastal restoration and conservation interventions while monitoring their impact on touristic activities.” Each area focuses on different threats, allowing Marine SABRES to tailor its conservation strategies effectively and demonstrate their applicability across various marine contexts. Looking ahead, Marine SABRES seeks not only to demonstrate effective conservation strategies within these three systems, but also to provide a model that can be scaled up to more complex systems worldwide. The project’s outcomes are expected to inform and influence both European and international maritime policies.