Public Involvement in marine

management? An evaluation by
UK marine practitioners

Littoral Conference
London
September 21st-23rd 2010

Emma McKinley and Steve Fletcher

School of Applied Sciences
Bournemouth University
 Overview
• Research objectives
• Background/ Marine citizenship
• Methodology rationale
• Practitioner Interviews
• Results of interviews
• Key conclusions
 Research Objectives
• Assess practitioner perception of current management

• Evaluate practitioner perception of the role of the

individual and the collective wider public in marine
management

• Identification of the key elements influencing public

capacity for involvement in management and decision
making processes

• Assess the application of these findings to current marine

management and make recommendations for its
improvement.
 Background to marine
management
• Traditionally state driven governance
distributed among sectors
• International transition to more integrated,
participatory management (Applestrand, 2002; Edwards et al,
1997, McFadden, 2008)

• Citizen driven management proving

successful in terrestrial management (Ananda,
2007)

• Canada’s Ocean Act (1997), Australia’s

Ocean Policy (1998) and the Marine and
Coastal Access Act (2009)
 Marine citizenship
• Over 50% of global population lives within
50Km of the coast (Ducrotoy et al, 2000)
• Increased awareness of the value of
marine derived goods and services (Costanza et
al, 1999)

• Existing concepts of environmental

citizenship can’t be applied effectively to
marine environment (McKinley and Fletcher,2010; Hawthorne
and Alabaster, 1999; Berkowitz et al, 2005)
 Factors of Marine Citizenship?
Factors Environmental Marine Citizenship
Citizenship
Education X X
Awareness X X
Concern X X
Responsibility (Personal X X
and Societal)
Socio economics X X
Personality traits X X
Desire to Act X X
Livelihood Dependency X
Proximity to the X
environment
Factors present in environmental citizenship and marine citizenship, identifying the
additional components in marine citizenship.
 Marine citizenship
Socio-demographics Personality Variables Capacity

Proximity

EducationResponsibility

Marine Citizenship Knowledge

Behaviour
Concern

Public Perception Participation Awareness

McKinley and Fletcher, 2010

 Methodological approach
- Selection of telephone interviews as
appropriate method for data collection

- Examination of practitioner perception of

the role of communities in marine
management

- Semi structured questions allowed

flexibility throughout
 Practitioner Interviews
• Conducted between August 2008 to February
2009
• 42 interviews conducted
• Wide range of practitioners interviewed
• Examples of organisations:
OSPAR; Natural England; NAW; DEFRA; WWF;
Sea Fisheries Committees
• Manual content analysis conducted on the
data
 Practitioner Results
• Supported need for specific concept

• Influencing factors: Participation; Education;

Awareness; Socio-economics; Culture;
Proximity to the coast; Exposure to
environment

• Key themes identified

Education Personal Attachment
 How can effective public
involvement be encouraged?
Personal Attachment Education
Responsibility - Awareness

Involvement - Access to information

Desire to Participate - Knowledge of marine

issues
Proximity to the coast
-Related concern
Dependency
-Capacity for involvement
Socio-economic and cultural
links
 Practitioner perception of current marine management

Historically fragmented
fragmented’, ‘ineffective’, ‘short-sighted’ and ‘disconnected’
“needs more public involvement”
Lacking a holistic overview
“getting better with time”
“all short term orientated rather than long term”
“cultural issues that we don’t understand”
Need for a change in management approach
“promotion of the ecosystem approach to management
should bring benefits to the environment and [to] those who
use it”.
 Role of communities in marine management
Perception of Public role
•“ideally there should be an active role”
•obligation [for individuals to participate], if they want to
have an input into the future
Challenges to public involvement
•“Everyone has their part to play, but how much?”
•Not entirely convinced by the argument that the general
public are stakeholders
•no adequate mechanism [for public involvement]’.
•“everyone should take care of the environment but it is for
people higher up to deliver policies.”
•“need to make opportunities for the public to have
involvement”
 Education
“the importance of the country’s dependency on the marine
environment needs to be central to education”.
• Recognised as a key element of public
involvement in UK marine management
• Need for an improvement in marine
education available - particularly
addressing links
• Schools are target audience
• Utilise both formal and informal education
methods
• Media as a key avenue
 Personal Connections
“Feeling of ownership and responsibility for the marine
environment is fundamentally linked to public involvement”
• Public disconnection with the marine
environment - “alien”
• Need to invoke a sense of pride regarding
our “island culture”
• Tap into personal connections to the marine
environment
• Link behaviour and impacts
• Encourage a sense of responsibility for
individual behaviour
 Refined model
MC feature Impact on Management Desired Outcome
High Awareness
Desire to be involved
Concern for ME
Capacity for involvement Long-term, integrated
Educated/ Informed sustainable
management plans
Actively Participative Active role for the marine
environment
Ease of implementation
Pro-env behaviour&
perception

Sense of personal& Desire to be involved

Societal responsibility

Adapted from (McKinley and Fletcher, 2010)

 Concluding remarks
• Further evolution in marine management
• Demand for public involvement, although
there are capacity issues
• Key areas need to be addressed
- Education
- Awareness of links between individual
behaviour and the marine environment
• Strong links to emergent concept of
marine citizenship
 References
Ananda, J. (2007). "Implementing Participatory Decision Making in Forest Planning."
Environmental Management 39: 534-544.
Applestrand, M. (2002). "Participation and societal values:the challenge for lawmakers and policy
practioners." Forest Policy and Economics 4: 281-290
Berkowitz, A., R., Ford, M., E., and Brewer, C., A. (2005). A framework for integrating ecological
literacy, civics literacy, and environmental citizenship in environmental education. in
Environmental Education and Advocacy: Perspectives of Ecology and Education. E. Johnson,
A., and Mappin, M.,J. Editors, Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.: 227-266
Ducrotoy, J. (2001). "Higher Education in Coastal Sciences and Management: Establishing a
Partnership Between Education and " Innovations in Education and Teaching International
38(3): 239-250
Fletcher, S., and J. Potts (2007). "Ocean Citizenship: An Emergent Geographical Concept."
Coastal Management 35: 1-1
McKinley, E., and Fletcher, S. (2010). "Individual responsibility for the oceans? An evaluation of
marine citizenship by UK marine practitioners." Ocean & Coastal Management 53(7): 379-384
Hawthorne, M., and Alabaster, T. (1999). "Citizen 2000: Development of a model of
environmental citizenship." Global Environmental Change 9: 25-43
THANK YOU