Ecosystem Based Management: Navigating mismatches between socio-ecological systems

Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) is a dynamic process, focused on understanding and managing ecosystems across a range of organisational, spatial and temporal scales. Despite the importance of scale, only rarely is scale-dependency in different disciplines and the interactions between them explicitly stated and bought into play as affecting both the decision-making process and its success. Unsurprisingly, many of the problems encountered by societies in managing natural ecosystems arise because of a mismatch between the scale of management and the scale(s) of the ecological processes being managed. This research therefore aims to produce new knowledge to better understand and communicate scale-dependencies for EBM.  We evaluate scale-dependencies in socio-ecological systems and provide case study examples where scale is explicitly recognised resulting in ‘scale fit’.  Case studies include customary practices such as rāhui (restricted access) and research that acknowledges ecological heterogeneity when scaling up information. We further explore spatial and temporal aspects of ecological connectivity in relation to the size of the proposed management area and the duration and timing of the management actions. We do this against a background of the organisations and legal instruments that are responsible for managing marine systems to ensure social-ecological resilience.  This research aims to facilitate the development of decision-making practices that explicitly identify scale-dependencies to increase the success of decision-making processes.