The Marine Ecosystem-Based Management Tool Innovation Fund

Coastal and marine resource management is naturally fraught with unique challenges due to the complex interconnections of marine ecosystems and the dynamic nature of ocean environments. Current increases in habitat degradation, depletion of key marine species, coastal zone pollution and a host of other environmental stresses are now acting together to drive many marine ecosystems to critical levels of impairment and potential collapse. The “business as usual” management approaches of single species fisheries management, and reactive ad hoc conservation measures have generally failed to restore economically important fish stocks, critical marine ecosystems and coastal fishing communities once they have been impaired. A new consensus has emerged that current marine resource and conservation management techniques are failing primarily because they do not fully represent the complex ecosystem interconnections found in the coastal and marine environments. This failure to represent important ecosystem interconnections is directly limiting our ability to achieve realistic and sustainable management and conservation outcomes.

The solution now called for is nothing less than a true paradigm-shift in our approach to coastal and marine management (Pew Oceans Commission 2003, U.S. Oceans Commission 2004). The new paradigm will require a fundamental shift from single species and ad hoc management methods to a more Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach. The move to Marine Ecosystem-Based Management necessarily expands our current focus from single-species management and discrete area protection to a broader evaluation of ecosystem functions, flows and services. The demands on coastal and marine managers, conservation planners, government agencies and academic analysts to develop new methods for better incorporating the complexities and interconnections of marine ecosystems are very challenging.

The current software tools available to help implement a marine ecosystem-based management approach are fundamentally insufficient to meet the challenges managers and policy-makers face. The future demands of marine ecosystem-based management will require significantly more detailed data management, analytical capability and monitoring capacity, amongst other unknown and unforeseen needs. Successful implementation of marine ecosystem-based management practices will require a diverse toolbox of novel, modular, interoperable and freely exchanged tools that can grow with the marine resource management and conservation community to meet future needs.

To stimulate the development and dissemination of creative software tools for M-EBM, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have initiated the Marine Ecosystem-Based Management Tool Innovation Fund. This 2-year long program seeks to expand the network of M-EBM tool developers through the establishment of targeted small grants and an associated technical support program. The program will grant approximately $500,000 a year for two years in small competitive grants to a broad range of organizations and developers. The initiative will aggressively provide detailed tool development guidelines, technical support, training workshops and assistance in tool development to the grantees for the duration of the fund. The primary deliverable products will be the innovative, interoperable and freely disseminated tools developed by the grantees.

The initiative is funded by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The fund will work closely with the emerging Marine-EBM Tools Network, NatureServe and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to maximize the connections between this program and parallel initiatives. The fund will be administered by the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab and the Center for Marine Conservation at Duke University. Additionally, one staff member is housed at NatureServe to strengthen the collaborative partnership with the existing tool network programs. Please direct all inquiries to Daniel Dunn.