Image
Credit: Rob Suisted

Scale and EBM

Improving understanding and communication of scale-dependencies for EBM

Project LeaderDurationBudget
Joanne Ellis (University of Waikato) April 2022 – December 2023$400,000

Overview

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is a dynamic process, focused on understanding and managing ecosystems across a range of organisational (eg iwi, hapū and whānau; local councils, regional councils and central government agencies), spatial (eg local, regional, national) and temporal scales (eg past, present and future effects).

Despite the importance of scale, scale-dependency in different disciplines, and the interactions between them, is rarely explicitly stated and acknowledged as affecting both the decision-making process and its success.

While some Sustainable Seas research explicitly focuses on producing results for different scales, there are gaps in understanding of how EBM can be achieved across a variety of scales. Scale also influences components that may have to change if jurisdictional boundaries or management resolutions are changed, such as the prediction of impacts from cumulative interactions, the return periods of events for management, or the creation of spatial and temporal rules for consenting.

To support development of decision-making practices that explicitly identify scale and scale-dependencies to increase the success of EBM decision-making processes we are:

  1. Reviewing existing knowledge of scale dependencies from other Sustainable Seas projects.
  2. Analysing scale-dependencies, specifically in the legal-policy, ecological, socio-psychological, mātauranga Māori and economic realms.
  3. Creating visual summaries to aid understanding of cross-scale implications and contribute to robust, transparent decision making.

Research Team

Joanne Ellis (University of Waikato)
Judi Hewitt (University of Auckland)
Simon Thrush (University of Auckland)
Karen Fisher (University of Auckland)
Taciano Milfont (University of Waikato)
Elizabeth MacPherson (University of Canterbury)
Erica Williams (NIWA)
Eric Jorgensen (Ocean Bay Farm)
Ani Kainamu (NIWA)

Co-Development Partners

Aquaculture NZ Waikato Regional Council Bay of Plenty Regional Council Shane Geange (Department of Conservation)

Project Proposal

378 KB | pdf

Location

This is a national project.

Tools & Resources

This project has produced or contributed to:

Seafood: Tools, resources and research
Summary
This is a research round-up of our tools, resources and research that support an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach to the seafood industry (July 2022)
View
Scale dependencies and its influence on EBM
Report
This report provides a review of the existing knowledge of scale dependencies in Sustainable Seas research project and compares between phase I and II of the challenge. Ellis J, Rullens V, Fisher K & Hewitt J (December 2022)
View
A review of te ao Māori perspectives of marine scales and where these are impeded by contemporary management
Report
Kainamu A & Rolleston-Gabel T (September 2023)
View
Te ao Māori perspectives of marine scale
Report
Kainamu A & Rolleston-Gabel T (2023)
View
Considering scale and EBM in Aotearoa New Zealand
Graphic
Graphic depicting how successful practice for EBM requires a clear understanding of scale by decision-makers (2024)
View

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