Joanna Vince

Australian Ocean Governance—Initiatives and Challenges

The last decade has seen increasing attention to institutional arrangements and policy outcomes affecting the governance of the worlds seas and oceans. Governance is linked to institutional capacity and to the effectiveness of public organizations drawing attention to tools and approaches underpinning effective and efficient institutional arrangements. Australia has taken a high profile in oceans governance, with international actions matched by the development of a number of national initiatives including a national Oceans Policy. Australia has numerous laws and policy instruments addressing aspects of the management of the marine environment, reflecting the federal nature of this policy area where responsibility is shared between the Commonwealth (federal or Australian) government and Australian state and territory governments. The Oceans Policy, implemented by the Commonwealth and applied within Commonwealth jurisdiction, has been a major initiative but its implementation highlights a number of challenges. This article outlines Australias approach to ocean governance and assesses, through reference to the concept of effectiveness, current governance arrangements integral to the Oceans Policy.

Policy Transfer in Oceans Governance: Learning Lessons from Australia's Oceans Policy Process

This article examines policy transfer as an important mechanism for policy change in oceans governance. Since it entered into force in 1994, the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) has obligated signatories to demonstrate that they can effectively manage the resources within their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). This article focuses primarily on the Australian response to fulfill its obligation to the LOSC through the development of Australia’s Oceans Policy (AOP), and the transfer of key policy components to Canadian and New Zealand ocean initiatives. This article argues that government officials (or civil servants/bureaucrats) were essential agents of change who formed networks that contributed to successful policy transfer in oceans management.

Australia's Oceans Policy : Five Years of Integration Across Sectors and Jurisdictions?

In December 1998, the Australian government released two formal documents that comprised Australia’s Oceans Policy (AOP). The AOP sets out for the first time a comprehensive, integrated, national approach to ecosystem based ocean management that covers Australia’s vast ocean domain. Analysis of policy development and implementation delivered by new institutional arrangements indicates potentially significant changes to ocean-related policies embodied in the AOP. This paper argues that despite reflecting a commitment towards integrated ocean management, the legal and jurisdictional framework established following a quarter century of ‘offshore federalism’ has made it difficult to implement a fully integrated oceans policy.

Oceans governance and marine spatial planning in Australia

Australian ocean governance faces the challenge of sustaining a balance between marine resource use and conservation while dealing with pressing threats resulting from climate change such as sea level rise, fisheries food security, IUU fishing and ocean acidification. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a way forward for dealing with these challenges in oceans governance. This paper examines a recent Commonwealth MSP initiative in Australia: Marine Bioregional Plans (MBPs) that are based on large marine ecosystems and provide the framework for the establishment of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Four MSP conditions are introduced: use of ecosystem-based approaches; spatial orientation; integration; and a multilevel policy framework. By analysing MBPs utilising these conditions, this paper outlines the challenges and accomplishments of this MSP process.

Ten years of implementing Australia's Oceans Policy: From an integrated approach to an environmental policy focus

The release of Australia’s Oceans Policy in 1998 was recognised in Australia and internationally as a milestone in marine resource management. The policy outlined a new, national approach for ecosystem-based ocean management. It also sought to integrate sectoral and jurisdictional interests through the establishment of new institutions and the adoption of new implementation methods (such as Regional Marine Plans). In 2003, the present writer’s review in Maritime Studies reflected on five years of policy implementation and the struggle to achieve full integration. This paper follows on from that review and analyses how, after ten years of implementation, the original focus of the policy implementation process has changed, reflecting an unfortunate lack of integration and institutional restructuring.

Progress in integrating natural and social science in marine ecosystem-based management research

Climate change, in combination with population growth, is placing increasing pressure on the world’s oceans and their resources. This is threatening sustainability and societal wellbeing. Responding to these complex and synergistic challenges requires holistic management arrangements. To this end, ecosystem-based management (EBM) promises much by recognising the need to manage the ecosystem in its entirety, including the human dimensions. However, operationalisation of EBM in the marine environment has been slow. One reason may be a lack of the inter-disciplinary science required to address complex social–ecological marine systems. In the present paper, we synthesise the collective experience of the authors to explore progress in integrating natural and social sciences in marine EBM research, illustrating actual and potential contributions. We identify informal barriers to and incentives for this type of research. We find that the integration of natural and social science has progressed at most stages of the marine EBM cycle; however, practitioners do not yet have the capacity to address all of the problems that have led to the call for inter-disciplinary research. In addition, we assess how we can support the next generation of researchers to undertake the effective inter-disciplinary research required to assist with operationalising marine EBM, particularly in a changing climate.

Governance solutions to the tragedy of the commons that marine plastics have become

Plastic pollution has become the new millenniums tragedy of the commons. This is particularly true with the marine debris plastic pollution issue, which has seen significant global interest recently. There is long-standing acknowledgment of the difficulty in managing the commons, with regulations, economic and market based instruments and community-based solutions all having a role to play. We review the global plastic pollution issue in the context of governance and policy, providing examples of successes, opportunities and levers for change. We discuss the role of regulation, public perception and social license to operate (SLO) in managing waste that enters the ocean. We argue that while plastic pollution is a tragedy, there are many opportunities for reduction, management, and changes to the global communitys relationship with plastic.

The twenty year anniversary of Australia’s Oceans Policy: achievements, challenges and lessons for the future

ABSTRACT In 1998 the Australian government released Australia’s Oceans Policy. The oceans policy was a policy experiment that attempted new and untried methods of policy implementation through ecosystem based management approaches. However, the government’s initial goal to achieve ‘full’ integration across sectors and jurisdictions was never achieved. This paper examines the achievements, challenges and lessons learned from this complex and historically significant policy process that spanned over a decade. It reveals that despite the attempt at a holistic policy approach, the challenges to reconcile the jurisdictional and sectoral issues that are entrenched in Australian oceans governance contributed to the policy’s demise. These issues continue to shape ocean and marine resources management in Australia and given the timely event of the twenty-year anniversary of the launch of the policy the question is asked – what is the way for forward for Australian oceans governance?

Policy capacity in oceans governance: Rio+20 and Australia’s outcomes

ABSTRACT Oceans were a key theme of the Rio+20 Conference in 2012 and the importance of conservation and sustainable use of the oceans was reinforced by the UN member states. This paper examines Australia’s policy capacity to develop and implement oceans policies in the context of its history of responses to key commitments to international forums, such as United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Our analysis highlights that governments such as Australia are now consciously making policies in oceans governance that they know they have the capacity to deliver. We conclude that Australian oceans governance has been constrained by this tendency towards focusing on relatively ‘safe’ areas of policy development, and that deeper more radical engagement is needed in order to build policy capacity so that Australia again becomes globally recognised as a leading nation in policy innovation in oceans governance.

Introduction: Oceans governance: Where have we been and where are we going?

Australian ocean governance faces the challenge of sustaining a balance between marine resource use and conservation while dealing with pressing threats resulting from climate change such as sea level rise, fisheries food security, IUU fishing and ocean acidification. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a way forward for dealing with these challenges in oceans governance. This paper examines a recent Commonwealth MSP initiative in Australia: Marine Bioregional Plans (MBPs) that are based on large marine ecosystems and provide the framework for the establishment of the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Four MSP conditions are introduced: use of ecosystem-based approaches; spatial orientation; integration; and a multilevel policy framework. By analysing MBPs utilising these conditions, this paper outlines the challenges and accomplishments of this MSP process.