Lessons from bright-spots for advancing knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy

Karcher, Denis B.; Cvitanovic, Christopher; Putten, Ingrid E. van; Colvin, Rebecca; Armitage, Derek; Aswani, Shankar; Ballesteros, Marta; Ban, Natalie C.; Barragán‐Paladines, María José; Bednarek, Angela T.; Bell, Johann D.; Brooks, Cassandra M.; Daw, Tim M.; Modino, Raquel de la Cruz; Francis, Tessa B.; Fulton, Elizabeth A.; Hobday, Alistair J.; Holcer, Draško; Hudson, Charlotte G.; Jennerjahn, Tim C; Kinney, Aimee; Knol-Kauffman, Maaike; Löf, Marie; Lopes, Priscila F. M.; Mackelworth, Peter; McQuatters‐Gollop, Abigail; Muhl, Ella‐Kari; Neihapi, P.; Pascual-Fernández, José J.; Posner, Stephen; Runhaar, Hens; Sainsbury, Keith; Sander, Gunnar; Steenbergen, Dirk J.; Tuda, Paul; Whiteman, Elizabeth; Zhang, Jialin

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114994

Cited by 28 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…These processes can help to identify existing gaps to monitoring ecosystem change under current and future pressures, with a view to informing appropriate management actions. Development of an indicator and assessment framework should be an objective, transparent, and inclusive process, which generates support for co-development (scientists, managers, and policymakers) and obtains consensus among stakeholders (McQuatters-Gollop et al, 2019;Stephenson et al, 2019;Lear et al, 2020;Karcher et al, 2022). Key to this is sector buy-in from government departments tasked with data collection, biodiversity assessment, and reporting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Roadmap to Advance Marine and Coastal Monitoring, Biodiversity Assessment, and International Reporting: A Developing Nation Perspective

Smit

Niekerk²,

Harris³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Despite the increasing number of tools and indicators to measure biodiversity status and trends, many developing countries struggle to initiate and advance coastal and marine assessments needed to monitor and track national and international progress in biodiversity targets. We identified five key challenges that hinder progress in this context, based on a national marine assessment workshop held in South Africa, and developed recommendations and tangible actions to address these challenges drawing from multiple national assessments, regional initiatives, and global collaborations over the last 15 years. Challenges include a poor understanding of methods, limited capacity and funding for assessments, a lack of systematic approaches to biodiversity assessment and indicator development, and scattered efforts that often fail to link science to policy. Key actions could enable the development of a coordinated framework to feed into policy and decision-making at multiple scales. We provide South African examples to highlight a developing country’s progress toward marine biodiversity assessment and provide a roadmap to integrated monitoring, assessment, and reporting based on positive outcomes. Recommendations to address challenges include building collective understanding of assessment tools and methods, prioritizing pressures urgently needing mitigation measures, using relevant indicators to support reporting at multiple scales, applying coordinated approaches to identify gaps and opportunities, codeveloping coordinated approaches with direct policy links, and leveraging resources and technical capacity for iterative improvement. This roadmap can guide developing and developed countries and support global best practices to collaboratively advance marine and coastal ecosystem monitoring and assessment at multiple scales for meeting many objectives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Roadmap to Advance Marine and Coastal Monitoring, Biodiversity Assessment, and International Reporting: A Developing Nation Perspective

Smit

Niekerk²,

Harris³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Timing of policy windows was also recognized by Karcher et al (2022) as a key factor in uptake of science into environmental management internationally. They also rightly recognized a "time for action" where knowledge is presented at the time when people are willing to change and create improved environmental outcomes.…”

Section: Mismatches Between Timing Of Information Need and Its Availa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Success also relies highly on effective individuals (Greenhalgh et al, 2022;Karcher et al, 2022). When liaison is working, trust is built, with existing relationships allowing for sharing and transparency, and clarification when concepts or outputs are not understood.…”

Section: Science-policy Liaisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around the world there is recognition that, for coastal planning and management to achieve good environmental outcomes, there is a need for effective use of relevant science (Nursey-Bray et al, 2014;Dale et al, 2019). Unfortunately mechanisms to achieve this are largely lacking (Karcher et al, 2022). Two important factors should enhance the ability of Aotearoa-New Zealand to manage its coastal waters: no internationally shared responsibilities; and a fairly flat management hierarchy (national or sub-national within a national framework).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barriers to coastal planning and policy use of environmental research in Aotearoa-New Zealand

et al. 2022

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Identifying barriers to the effective use of science in coastal management of Aotearoa-New Zealand is easy, due to the present lack of complicated governance and management structures, coupled with an emphasis on funding science that includes pathways to implementation. This opinion piece discusses four areas that still hinder effective use of science, all of which are likely to be problematic for other countries. We initially focus on why the science may not be used related to: misunderstandings (linguistic and conceptual differences including indigenous world views); timing of information delivery; uncertainty surrounding the information (knowledge limitations and funding); and top-down constraints (legal systems, politics and institutional objectives). We use Aotearoa-New Zealand examples to demonstrate the barriers operating within each area and discuss three potential solutions. Importantly our analysis indicates that researchers alone cannot transcend these barriers; rather, we need to work as part of an ecosystem, requiring commitment from all society, extending beyond the usual suspects (management agencies). We believe that ecological and systems education from junior school levels through to universities have an important role to play in setting the context to overcome current barriers.

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“…The relevance of 2nd Generation approach to the residents of CZOs is most impactful when it is communicated in a manner that resonates with local communities and supports their needs, helping create positive societal change toward more sustainable livelihoods. Establishing effective KE to share scientific findings in an appropriate way (Karcher et al., 2022) can support optimum human decision‐making that meets the economic and social needs of local people by helping them to develop and sustain healthy and productive ecosystems (Yin et al., 2021). For example, in the USA, at the Calhoun CZO, reforested sites previously degraded by agriculture provide information about the potential for the recovery of degraded landscapes, including the specific effects of land use and potential regeneration on fertilizer (phosphorus) transport (Foroughi et al., 2021) and the impact on human livelihoods, adaptation and governance (White et al., 2015).…”

Section: Introduction: Incorporating Human Impacts Into Critical Zone...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving Sustainable Earth Futures in the Anthropocene by Including Local Communities in Critical Zone Science

Naylor,

Dungait,

Zheng

et al. 2023

Earth's Future

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Critical Zone Science (CZS) explores the deep evolution of landscapes from the base of the groundwater or the saprolite‐rock interface to the top of vegetation, the zone that supports all terrestrial life. Here we propose a framework for CZS to evolve further as a discipline, building on 1st generation CZOs in natural systems and 2nd generation CZOs in human‐modified systems, to incorporate human behaviour for more holistic understanding in a 3rd generation of CZOs. This concept was tested in the China‐UK CZO programme (2016–2020) that established four CZOs across China on different lithologies. Beyond conventional CZO insights into soil resources, biogeochemical cycling and hydrology across scales, surveys of farmers and local government officials led to insights into human‐environment interactions and key pressures affecting the socio‐economic livelihoods of local farmers. These learnings combined with the CZS data identified knowledge exchange (KE) opportunities to unravel diverse factors within the Land‐Water‐Food Nexus, that could directly improve local livelihoods and environmental conditions, such as reduction in fertilizer use, contributing toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and environmental policies. Through two‐way local KE, the local cultural context and socio‐economic considerations were more readily apparent alongside the environmental rationale for policy and local action to improve the sustainability of farming practices. Seeking solutions to understand and remediate CZ degradation caused by human‐decision making requires the co‐design of CZS that foregrounds human behavior and the opinions of those living in human modified CZOs. We show how a new transdisciplinary CZO approach for sustainable Earth futures can improve alignment of research with the practical needs of communities in stressed environments and their governments, supporting social‐ecological and planetary health research agendas and improving capacity to achieve SDGs.

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Lessons from bright-spots for advancing knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy

Cited by 28 publications

References 101 publications

A Roadmap to Advance Marine and Coastal Monitoring, Biodiversity Assessment, and International Reporting: A Developing Nation Perspective

A Roadmap to Advance Marine and Coastal Monitoring, Biodiversity Assessment, and International Reporting: A Developing Nation Perspective

Barriers to coastal planning and policy use of environmental research in Aotearoa-New Zealand

Achieving Sustainable Earth Futures in the Anthropocene by Including Local Communities in Critical Zone Science

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