Effron, M., Lipton, D., Rouleau, T., Samonte, G., Wiley, P., Barba, K., Bundy, M., Chabot, H., Curtis, R., Edwardds, P., Myles, L., Sandifer, P., Sutton-Grier, A., Wowk, K.

Approach of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

2015

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

"This section of the online Federal Resource Management and Ecosystem Services Guidebook describes the agency use of one of its key agecies: NOAA. NOAAs fisheries science centers are responsible for conducting fish stock assessment and ecosystem surveys and for producing some of the scientific peer-reviewed publications used in the management process. Often, partnerships with commercial and recreational fishing interests are developed to contribute to the research, which is provided to regional fisheries management councils. NOAA recognizes the potential for ecosystem services (ES) approaches to help it make better management decisions within an ecosystem-based management (EBM) framework. In three broad decision contexts, highlighted below, NOAA is moving toward a more quantified, spatially explicit consideration of ecosystem services and a better understanding of how they are affected by different management alternatives. The three decision contexts are 1) Fisheries ecosystem-based management; 2) Regional place-based management, which includes fisheries management, coastal protection, climate mitigation and adaptation, damage assessments, and habitat restoration, among other NOAA mission areas; and 3) Local place-based management. Analysis of how federal management actions affect the production and delivery of ecosystem services helps guide those actions to prioritize and maximize services deemed important to specific stakeholder groups and society at large. To conduct this analysis, NOAA and its federal partners need to take research on ecosystems and connect it with the values that society places on ecosystem services. This task entails some challenges. They include the availability and transferability of ecological and social data across spatial and temporal scales as well as specific policy guidance and legal mandates to use the ecosystem services approach to carry out EBM efforts."

habitat_restoration