Adaptation to climate change–related ocean acidification: An adaptive governance approach

TY - JOUR

T1 - Adaptation to climate change–related ocean acidification

T2 - An adaptive governance approach

AU - Greenhill, Lucy

AU - Kenter, Jasper O.

AU - Dannevig, Halvor

N1 - © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Funding Information: Collaborative and polycentric activity is fundamental to adaptive governance and is supported by emerging structural capacity across the governance system. This includes government led public – private initiatives, the regional Marine Planning Partnerships, organisations and groups proposing to take on local management of Crown Estate Scotland assets and co-operation supported through Aquaculture Management Areas. In this supportive institutional context, actors operating at different levels can support awareness raising, advance collective action and enhance adaptive capacity. Marine planning can encourage and facilitate consideration of potential adaptation options alongside other priorities, but the process is still developing and challenges are evident in its implementation and in understanding its influence on the management of marine activities ( Greenhill et al., 2020 ). Greater connectivity between marine planning, national policy development and regulatory decision-making regarding aquaculture would increase capacity to develop and implement adaptation responses for the sector. Strengthening the legal procedures connecting marine planning and aquaculture sector planning and management by government, Crown Estate Scotland's leasing process and local authority licensing in Scotland could enhance the role of marine planning in adaptation, including increasing its capacity to facilitate legitimate debate on adaptation options ( Craig, 2019 ). Funding Information: Delivering Scottish Government's policy to expand the aquaculture sector faces significant challenges, including sea lice, disease, public objection and conflict for space with other activities (O'Hagan et al., 2017).22 Various national initiatives therefore seek to promote the growth of the aquaculture sector while addressing the constraints, including spatial guidance for finfish development based on environmental sensitivity to nutrient enrichment and benthic impacts (Marine Scotland Science, 2019),23 designation of protected areas for shellfish growing24 and guidance on addressing visual impacts (SNH, 2008)25. Development of larger sites, further offshore is encouraged to avoid sensitive inshore locations and there is a presumption against further marine finfish farms on the north and east coasts due to potential for interaction with wild salmon (Scottish Government, 2015).26 As owner and manager of a range of rural, coastal and marine assets including the seabed and most of the foreshore, Crown Estate Scotland's27 objectives are to enhance the value of their assets and revenue from activities including the aquaculture sector (finfish, shellfish and seaweed), and they invest in strategic research and development to support the industry.This research was supported by the project ?Adapting Coastal Zone Management to Ocean Acidification (grant no. 255748), funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The contribution from the participants at the workshop is gratefully acknowledged. This article has benefitted from the constructive feedback of three anonymous reviewers. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/6/15

Y1 - 2020/6/15

N2 - Climate change-driven ocean acidification (OA) is causing rapid change to global ecosystems and poses a significant threat to marine life. However, predicting ecosystem effects remains highly uncertain and governance responses to OA are not yet forthcoming. Adaptive governance can provide a means to deal with this uncertainty and we consider its application to the polycentric governance of adaptation responses to OA in Scotland, focussing on the aquaculture industry as a vulnerable sector. A workshop was used to develop potential responses to OA and to gain information about present and potential capacity for adaptive governance at national and regional levels. Scottish legislation, policy and planning documents were subsequently analysed to enable description of how governance and management arrangements constrain or enable adaptation responses. Legislative and policy analysis indicates convergence across emerging mechanisms in support of adaptive governance and identified interventions. Recent advances in climate change adaptation in Scotland promotes integration of adaptation into wider Scottish Government policy development and functions, based on iterative and collaborative processes across scales. Alongside this, new models of coastal and marine governance, including a partnership-led regional marine planning process and devolution of seabed management rights under Crown Estate Scotland, seek to advance new models of locally-led and learning-based planning and management which can support adaptation responses. However, adaptation measures at operational scale requires flexibility in the aquaculture licensing regime which is currently of low adaptive capacity. Further, expansion of the industry faces social and ecological constraints which limit spatial measures, and are complicated by uncertainty in predicting local OA effects. Expanding the use of holistic and co-operative management tools such as Aquaculture Management Areas could support adaptation across wider spatial scales. Better integration across policy and planning instruments is also needed to enhance adaptive capacity, including between climate change adaptation, marine planning and aquaculture planning and management. This could be enabled by establishing links between existing and proposed collaborative groups to enhance development of adaptation responses and through co-ordination of monitoring and review processes to promote learning across scales.

AB - Climate change-driven ocean acidification (OA) is causing rapid change to global ecosystems and poses a significant threat to marine life. However, predicting ecosystem effects remains highly uncertain and governance responses to OA are not yet forthcoming. Adaptive governance can provide a means to deal with this uncertainty and we consider its application to the polycentric governance of adaptation responses to OA in Scotland, focussing on the aquaculture industry as a vulnerable sector. A workshop was used to develop potential responses to OA and to gain information about present and potential capacity for adaptive governance at national and regional levels. Scottish legislation, policy and planning documents were subsequently analysed to enable description of how governance and management arrangements constrain or enable adaptation responses. Legislative and policy analysis indicates convergence across emerging mechanisms in support of adaptive governance and identified interventions. Recent advances in climate change adaptation in Scotland promotes integration of adaptation into wider Scottish Government policy development and functions, based on iterative and collaborative processes across scales. Alongside this, new models of coastal and marine governance, including a partnership-led regional marine planning process and devolution of seabed management rights under Crown Estate Scotland, seek to advance new models of locally-led and learning-based planning and management which can support adaptation responses. However, adaptation measures at operational scale requires flexibility in the aquaculture licensing regime which is currently of low adaptive capacity. Further, expansion of the industry faces social and ecological constraints which limit spatial measures, and are complicated by uncertainty in predicting local OA effects. Expanding the use of holistic and co-operative management tools such as Aquaculture Management Areas could support adaptation across wider spatial scales. Better integration across policy and planning instruments is also needed to enhance adaptive capacity, including between climate change adaptation, marine planning and aquaculture planning and management. This could be enabled by establishing links between existing and proposed collaborative groups to enhance development of adaptation responses and through co-ordination of monitoring and review processes to promote learning across scales.

KW - Adaptive governance

KW - Aquaculture

KW - Climate change adaptation

KW - Ocean acidification

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082810901&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105176

DO - 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105176

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85082810901

SN - 0964-5691

VL - 191

JO - Ocean and Coastal Management

JF - Ocean and Coastal Management

M1 - 105176

ER -