Integrated land-sea conservation planning: concepts and case studies
Session Organizers: Bob Pressey, Patrick Crist, Ken Vance-Borland, and Sarah Carr

Description: The coastal zone is where the land, freshwaters, and sea interact: the mountains meet the sea. Integrated conservation planning for coastal zones is a rapidly evolving field. Two of the greatest needs for implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) in coastal-marine environments are the ability to 1) predict and ameliorate the effects of land use/land cover changes (from development, conservation, restoration, disturbance, and succession actions) on marine ecosystems and 2) mitigate the potential negative impacts of sea level rise and other coastal hazards such as storms and tsunamis on coastal communities and ecosystems. Land use planning frequently ignores the potential impact of terrestrial, freshwater, and nearshore marine development projects on coastal water quality and marine habitats such as seagrass beds, shellfish beds, and coral reefs that are sensitive to pollutants or sediments, nor does it sufficiently account for the potential negative impacts of sea level rise and other coastal hazards. Crossing the land-sea interface requires spatial analyses that incorporate both terrestrial and hydrological processes, using sophisticated spatial modeling and decision support tools to address such integration.

Conservation organizations and land/sea managers need to prioritize terrestrial conservation and restoration actions in terms of their benefits to marine ecosystems and potential for hazard mitigation. In broad terms, the problem of integrated conservation planning within coastal zones can be stated simply: decision-makers with limited funds for investment in natural resource management must balance the local (within-catchment) benefits arising from their actions with the downstream benefits for freshwater and marine systems. In some cases, large benefits for local objectives (e.g. retaining terrestrial biodiversity) and downstream objectives (e.g. reducing soil loss) will be obtainable in the same places but, very frequently, different benefits will not be spatially congruent and difficult choices will be necessary.

The difficulty of resolving this problem can be illustrated by listing the main kinds of technical information that managers need to guide decisions. For terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, they need spatially explicit data on: biodiversity (both depictions of pattern and models of process); ecosystem services (related to soil, water, salinity, acidity and carbon); models of likely expansion or contraction of extractive activities in the absence of management intervention; and the cost, feasibility and relative effectiveness of alternative management actions, including models of downstream effects. They also need to refine qualitative goals into a complex set of quantitative objectives, understand the socio-economic implications of management actions, and develop strategies for managing uncertainty and adaptation to new information. There is presently no framework available anywhere in the world for integrating all of this information to support investment decisions by managers.

This symposium will present the concepts, methods, and initial results of cutting-edge research projects that are seeking to address this need by developing interoperability between analytical tools that have traditionally addressed terrestrial conservation and restoration planning, watershed planning, or marine conservation planning independently. Bringing together a diverse set of concepts and methods for integrated land-sea ecosystem based management and conservation planning in this forum, with time for discussion amongst presenters and audience members, will support the goals of the Society by allowing conservation practitioners and natural resource managers to consider how these new methods may be applied to their projects.