Terminology for describing improved ocean management is still being refined as part of an ongoing dialogue among ocean management stakeholders at many levels. This glossary is a compilation of working definitions of key terms used in MOP’s Five Year Strategic Plan and the Massachusetts ocean-management planning process.

Area-Based Management (ABM)
ABM is a management tool compatible with EBM. ABM focuses on spatially dividing the marine environment for a variety of uses. By comprehensively accounting for the stressors on the marine environment and planning for them accordingly, ABM aims to reduce user conflict while protecting areas critical to ecosystems and species.

Comprehensive Ocean Management
(See Integrated multi-use ocean management)

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM)
Ecosystem-based management is an integrated approach to management that considers the entire ecosystem, including humans. The goal of ecosystem-based management is to maintain an ecosystem in a healthy, productive and resilient condition so that it can provide the services humans want and need.

Ecosystem-based management differs from current approaches that usually focus on a single species, sector, activity or concern; it considers the cumulative impacts of different sectors. Specifically, ecosystem-based management:

• emphasizes the protection of ecosystem structure, functioning, and key processes;
• is place-based in focusing on a specific ecosystem and the range of activities affecting it;
• explicitly accounts for the interconnectedness within systems, recognizing the importance of interactions between many target species or key services and other non-target species;
• acknowledges interconnectedness among systems, such as between air, land and sea; and
• integrates ecological, social, economic, and institutional perspectives, recognizing their strong interdependences.

This definition is taken from a Scientific Consensus Statement on Marine Ecosystem-Based Management developed by the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS) in 2005. This document, signed by more than 220 scientists and policy experts from academic institutions across the U.S., highlights current scientific understanding of marine ecosystems, explains how this knowledge shapes the call for a new management approach, and provides a definition for what the scientific community envisions when it recommends “ecosystem-based management” for the oceans. To see the full statement, go to: http://www.compassonline.org/pdf_files/EBM_Consensus_
Statement_v12.pdf

Ecosystem Services
An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment, interacting as a functional unit. Humans are an integral part of ecosystems. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual, recreational, and cultural benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient cycling, that maintain the conditions for life on Earth. People seek many services from ecosystems and thus perceive the condition of an ecosystem in relation to its ability to provide desired services.

The above definition of ecosystem services is taken from the Millennium Assessment Reports. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, the MA involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. Their findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably. For more information go to: http://www.maweb.org.

Examples of ecosystem services provided by the oceans include: food and pharmaceutical supply, jobs, recreation, inspiration, coastal storm protection, nutrient cycling, climate regulation, carbon sequestration and human waste management.

Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
EEA is responsible for developing the ocean plan and managing all components of the planning process. Ocean planning will be managed by a planning team w/in EEA as augmented by CZM and other agency resources as needed.

Integrated Multi-use Ocean Management (IMUOM)
This term was developed during MOP planning phase to capture two concepts the group felt were important for their discussions. “Integrated” reflects that impacts and tradeoffs should be considered across sectors. “Multi-use” reflects support for a full range of sustainable, thriving marine-based activities. IMUOM is comparable to the term Comprehensive Ocean Management used by MA Ocean Task Force. MOP vision for an integrated, multi-use ocean management plan is one that will:

• integrate management across sectors and interests (user groups, conservation groups, etc.) ecosystem resources, and agencies;
• be based on scientific principles of ecosystem-based management that incorporate human activities and reflect compatible spatial and temporal scales;
• reflect public input and gain the support of major affected groups and organizations;
• establish a process for adapting the plan to respond to changing conditions; and
• support sustainable marine industries and ecosystem stewardship more effectively than current management systems do.

Governance Board
In the context of this Strategic Plan, the governance board is a balanced group of partners to oversee the implementation of the Strategic Plan and senior staff, who will support that implementation.

Oceans Advisory Commission (OAC)
The OAC will meet approximately quarterly and will have four primary areas of responsibility:

• Coordinate development of plan principles;
  
• Review and provide feedback on the results of public input processes;
  
• Review and provide feedback on the plan framework alternatives—the conceptual basis of the plan—to help ensure that public input is incorporated appropriately and that identified plan principles are appropriately addressed;
  
• Once the plan framework is populated by the data and analysis necessary to develop the plan itself, review the plan to help insure that public input is incorporated appropriately and that identified plan principles are incorporated.

Specific issues EEA will ask the OAC for feedback on include but are not limited to:

1. Proposed planning process
2. Public input process
3. Level of detail of the first plan
4. How to have OAC work informed by science advisory committee output

EEA will also ask OAC members to participate in a regional public meeting(s) convenient to them. EEA will staff the OAC.

Partners
In the context of this Strategic Plan, partners are stakeholders, or others, who support MOP goals and who commit to work collaboratively with MOP to implement its purpose.

Science Advisory Council (SAC)
The SAC will review the Workgroups’ data for completeness, identify additional existing data sources, identify ‘big picture’ questions the ocean plan should address over time and the data needed to do so, review the baseline data characterization, and review the plan principles. The SAC will review the adequacy of baseline data to support management recommendations of the immediate plan and the responsiveness of the long-term research plan to identified “big-picture” questions. The SAC will participate in the review of plan framework alternatives and provide feedback on the scientific adequacy and evaluate of the plan framework.

The SAC will also evaluate plan scenario alternatives for the degree to which the alternatives best advance a scientific foundation for the plan, in part based on a weighing of data precision and accuracy that is available in MA with the management measures incorporated in the scenarios. EEA will staff the SAC.

Sector
A component of an integrated system such as an economy or a society.

Examples of sectors relevant for ocean management include: offshore energy, recreational fishing, tourism and resource management sectors.

Stakeholders
In the context of this Strategic Plan, stakeholders are those who are affected by or who can affect integrated multi-use ocean management planning. It can include those who have authority to create or implement ocean planning, those who will be affected by it, those who have resources to provide, including information and funding, and those who can block the plan from being implemented or from succeeding in its implementation. Stakeholders may not necessarily support MOP goals, but MOP will reach out to all stakeholders as it implements the Strategic Plan.

Workgroups
EEA workgroups have begun the task of cataloging, synthesizing, and analyzing existing data related to ocean resources, and incorporating results of this work into the Massachusetts Ocean Resource Information System (MORIS), a geographic information system managed by CZM. Workgroups will soon be expanded to include appropriate representatives from outside of state agencies who will assist in ensuring that data is up-to-date and analysis is scientifically and technically accurate. Workgroups are organized around the following subject areas: habitat, transportation and infrastructure, renewable energy, sediment management, fishing (which includes commercial and recreational fishing, as well as fisheries resources), and cultural and recreational uses. Workgroups are also identifying the existing regulatory framework for their issue areas to help inform the development of the plan framework and implementation.

<back to top>