Link marine restoration to marine spatial planning through ecosystem‐based management to maximize ocean regeneration

Abstract

The speed at which marine and coastal ecosystems are being degraded due to cumulative impacts limits the effectiveness of conservation strategies. To abate ocean degradation and allow ocean regeneration, conservation planning needs to be improved and ecological restoration will be needed. This study explores the potential of incorporating restoration into marine spatial planning (MSP) anchored to ecosystem‐based management (EBM), termed EB‐MSP, for maximizing ocean regeneration. This perspective explicitly brings both passive and active restorations into EB‐MSP in a broad and holistic framework for achieving the recovery of ocean ecosystems, their functions and their valuable services. By proposing a restoration‐focused EB‐MSP framework, we highlight the co‐benefits of interlinking MSP and marine restoration through the EBM core principles. Such benefits include a scaling‐up of restoration effectiveness, a greater guarantee that sustainability and conservation goals will be met and improvements in MSP as an integrated planning tool with the potential to address climate change. Together, this will promote ocean regeneration alongside management for sustainable use to prevent further degradation and to allow much‐needed ecological recovery.

Cautious positivity for the future of aquatic conservation in Europe

“…Habitats currently in, or in the future so attain, good condition should also not be allowed to deteriorate. The ecological, biogeochemical, socioeconomic and cultural benefits of (aquatic) nature restoration are clear (e.g., Manea et al, 2023; Wiederholt et al, 2020), but political and societal will remains cautious. With this new top‐down decree, the EU hopes to avoid a repeat of the missed voluntary targets associated with their 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.…”