Posted on Tuesday 10 December 2019

'Toolkit' for managing cumulative effects

The latest Resource Management Journal is a special issue about our collaborative research into how management of cumulative effects (CE) can be improved. It includes a suite of co-developed recommendations and guidance regarding how to progress work on CE management in Aotearoa.

These resources are the results of a collaboration with central and regional government agencies, research organisations, universities, and the fishing and aquaculture sectors, focused on improving CE management. Better CE management is essential to:

• Avoid declines in ecosystem health and productivity
• Set appropriate targets and limits for use and extraction of marine resources
• Mitigate the risk of environmental, economic or social decline

“At the moment, the way we manage cumulative effects in Aotearoa’s marine environments is extremely fragmented and inconsistent. This interagency partnership has a ki uta ki tai (mountains to the sea) strategy, which is the only feasible way to properly tackle cumulative effects," says Kate Davies, the Project Leader.

“So much of our economy and culture depends on our seas – getting this right is crucial for New Zealand’s future. There is real momentum building, with agencies, communities and cultures coming together to tackle the problem.”

The toolkit

The RMJ November 2019 includes practical co-developed recommendations and guidance for marine managers.

• Adapted DPSIR framework – Can be used to assess and manage complex environmental problems
• Guiding principles for CE management in Aotearoa – These closely align with CE and EBM principles developed by other Sustainable Seas research, but also include key components that recognise the specific context of CE management in Aotearoa
• Aotearoa Cumulative Effects (ACE) framework – A tool to guide collaborative CE management across a range of scales and under existing legislation
• Steps for evaluating uncertainty, approaches and tools re CE management – Highlights the various types of uncertainty related to CE, where they occur in decision making, when caution should be used, and tools that can be used to assess or reduce uncertainty

• Summary of the steps recommended to support CE management – An overview of the steps decision makers, practitioners, iwi/Māori and stakeholders need to undertake to effect change
  
  

Related Pages

• Enabling inter-agency collaboration on cumulative effects (project)