Deriving Lessons Relating to Marine Spatial Planning from Canada's Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Initiative

Abstract

Stakeholder participation is viewed as a key element of ecosystem-based marine spatial planning (MSP). There is much debate over the effectiveness of stakeholder participation in ecosystem-based management (EBM) in general and over the form it should take. Particular challenges relating to participation in the marine environment are highlighted. A study of the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management initiative, which uses a collaborative planning model to implement EBM, is presented in order to explore these issues further. Criteria derived from a review of collaborative planning literature are employed to evaluate the effectiveness of this model, which is found to be a useful consensus-building tool. Although a strategic-level plan has been adopted, the initiative has encountered difficulties transitioning from plan development to plan implementation. These are attributable in large measure to deficiencies in the design of the collaborative model. Useful lessons relating mainly to stakeholder engagement, the role of the lead agency, and implementation strategies are advanced for those engaging in MSP processes.

Keywords:

• Marine spatial planning
• collaborative planning
• stakeholder participation
• ecosystem-based management
• integrated ocean management

Acknowledgements

Funding from The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Ireland Canada University Foundation in support of this study is acknowledged. The authors gratefully acknowledge helpful critical comments from the editors and two anonymous reviewers. We are deeply indebted to all interviewees who participated in the study, to Glen Herbert and Scot Coffen-Smout, DFO, for their advice and support, and to John Phyne, St Francis Xavier University, for hosting this study.