Multiple
ocean 'futuring exercises' have been carried out to understand the breadth of
potential future scenarios and ultimately to be better prepared for climate
driven changes to fisheries and ecosystems. These future studies have been
implemented across many temporal and spatial scales and for various geographic
levels (e.g. shared socio-economic pathways, SSPs. They generally result in
different scenarios mostly along two dimensions or axes (i.e. challenges for
mitigation and adaptation in the SSPs). In conjunction with these scenarios,
potential societal adaptations are described. However, the potential
transformations necessary within the governance arena are less well explored
and developed, and the capacities for enabling governance adaptations are not
yet well identified. To start planning for future ocean change (even within the
confines of the existing scenarios) this cannot be ignored.
This session
will aim for innovative thinking about potential options for resilient fisheries
and ocean governance structures that deliver socially and ecologically
sustainable outcomes under different future scenarios. The goal is to bring
discussions of governance to the forefront of future ocean change and
sustainability, both as an analytical lens as well as implementation tool for
navigating change.
A central aim
is to identify the modes of governance most suited to managing the climate
change impacts and the conditions under which these modes are most suited. The
session will explore the key capacity building requirements associated with
different futures and governance (and identify any scale issues); for example,
the institutional changes needed to underpin different governance approaches.
It will also explore the institutional changes required to move beyond
'business-as-usual' reactive modes of governance towards governance that can
enable decision-makers to be forward looking in anticipation of environmental
change.
This session
will bring the concept and practice of fisheries governance to the forefront of
sustainability-oriented fisheries and ocean planning and identify key capacity
building requirements associated with different ocean futures and governance
options (and identify any relevant scale issues).
