Seascapes General Model and Regional Framework for Priority Seascapes

Foreword
by the Chair of the Seascapes Working Group

In 2015 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development committing to “achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – in a balance and integrated manner.” As the world grows smaller and more interconnected, balanced and integrated action is needed to ensure equitable benefits for people without sacrificing the natural resources and ecosystem services billions depend on for their well-being.

The Coral Triangle region is a perfect example of this interconnectivity at a regional scale. Together, the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste make up the global center for marine biodiversity. These six countries also contain over 400 million people, 1/3 of whom rely directly on marine and coastal resources for their food and livelihoods. Overlaying this, the rapid development of the region’s economies, alongside global economic centers such as Singapore and Hong Kong and the immense presence of China, presents additional numbers of resource users and levels of pressure on marine and coastal systems.

Since the 2009 establishment of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), the countries of Coral Triangle have been focused on addressing the competing needs of coastal communities and economic growth through sustainable and collaborative approaches to management at large, “seascape” level, transboundary and multi-national scales. Seascapes offer a platform, a geographic area, within which all user groups can cooperate, coordinate and collaborate to manage for sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and human well-being. The CTI-CFF Regional Plan of Action identifies Seascapes as the first Goal: “Priority Seascapes Designated and Effectively Managed.”

This document represents a key achievement under the Seascapes Goal, the development of “a general model for the sustainable management of seascapes.” It is the result of four-years of evolving thinking and discussions related to what large-scale integrated marine management means to the countries of the Coral Triangle region provides guidance and advice in the establishment and implementation of Seascapes and although written for the context of the Coral Triangle countries, much of the documents sections would be applicable to other parts of the world interested in embarking on large-scale, coordinated, marine area management. We hope you use this document to look at the oceans from a broader perspective and invite all those that are both impacting and being impacted by its use.

Suharyanto
Chairman of the CTI-CFF Seascapes Working Group