Marine stewardship

Addressing challenges in marine social-ecological systems requires an in depth understanding of both ecological and social processes, as well as how they interact.

It also requires an understanding of the dynamics of marine social-ecological dynamics at multiple scales and in diverse settings. The PECS working group on Marine stewardship has two current major goals:

1. To conduct systematic cross-case study comparisons of the factors leading to the emergence of marine stewardship. Diverse data sets from local, national and international case studies have been pooled in order to investigate general patterns of emergence. Case studies include Chile, Mexico, the USA, East Africa, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Canada, the Southern Ocean, Baltic Sea and Coral Triangle.
2. To bring together three global databases on fisheries, water, and forests (FWF) governance. The PECS Marine stewardship working group has the opportunity to bring together the remarkable database on water and forests that Elinor Ostrom and her group developed, and the fisheries database developed by Gutierrez and Defeo (published in Nature in 2011). Such cross-system comparison would enable the identification of drivers, dynamics, and transformations, potentially leading to resource stewardship or other types of governance outcomes.

Two workshops have been held: in August 22-24 2011, and March 2013.

Current working group members:

• Xavier Basurto (Social Science and Policy, Duke University Marine Lab, USA)
• Louisa Evans (ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia)
• Natalie Ban (School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Australia)
• Stefan Gelcich (Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile)
• Jack Kittinger (Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, USA)
• Juan Carlos Castilla (Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile)
• Omar Defeo (South American Insitute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies, Uruguay)
• Nicolas Gutierrez (Marine Stewardship Council, UK)
• Andrés Marin (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Per Olsson (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Henrik Österblom (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Max Troell (Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Sweden)
• Beatrice Crona (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Magnus Nyström (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Carl Folke (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)
• Matilda Valman (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden)