Table 2 Examples of emerging niche innovations for ocean stewardship.

i. Integrated Ocean Management for coastal zone development planning and disaster risk management

Uncoordinated ocean development; use conflicts across sectors; uneven and inequitable access to ocean resources, exposure to hazards, and available data/information

• A cross-sectoral approach which takes account of indirect, distant and cumulative impacts, recognizes trade-offs and uneven power relations between stakeholders

• Offers lessons for durable outcomes and scaling transferable to anywhere in the world¹¹⁹

• In Belize (Box 2), diverse Ministries are collaborating and coordinating to develop a shared coastal zone vision across their many objectives (including disaster risk management), and to implement new policies and investments consistent with a cross-government Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Plan. A new Ministry was formed from previous sector-based institutions to facilitate integration, and community groups (including private interests) helped both shape the vision for the ICZM Plan and also are instrumental in its implementation and monitoring. A rigorous science-policy engagement process conducted by the government is bringing rigor and transparency to a shared knowledge platform and implementation of the ICZM Plan.

• As in Belize, governments are beginning to integrate disaster risk management with spatial development planning in coastal regions

Belize - Governance adaptation (Box 2).

Indonesia - Ministry for Marine Affairs established

Fiji, Hawaii, EU - Area-based and ‘ridge-to-reef’ management approaches for managing social -ecological systems^2,120,121.

Barbados, Kenya, Seychelles - ‘Blue Economy’ approaches

Vietnam, Phillipines, Indonesia, Fiji - Disaster Risk Reduction in development planning and budgeting (United Nations’ Global Assessment on Disaster Risk Reduction)¹²²

ii. Rights-based fishery management (RBFM)

Uneven and inequitable access to fisheries and livelihoods; lack of transparency in stock status, catch, and distribution of returns

• A collection of fishery management strategies: Territorial use rights for fishing (TURFs), individual transferable quotas (ITQs), and fishery cooperatives⁵⁸

• Assigns exclusive rights to individual fishers, communities or cooperatives to harvest species based on a prescribed spatial area or catch limits

• Can improve food security and livelihood support (especially in small-scale fisheries), and also economic returns (especially in larger, industrial fisheries); but explicit design for economic vs. social objectives is key^123,124

• Monitoring and adaptive learning required for design^58,123

• In Chile (Box 3), in response to declining coastal fisheries and livelihood support, an initial set of local fishing groups helped spur a governance transformation--a Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURF) policy in 1991. Over the past 3 decades, capacity and political leverage of fisher associations have facilitated cross-scale and the cross- organizational interactions to help institutionalize the new governance regime. The evolving needs of the local TURFs, monitoring and scientific and legal analyses, have led to several governance amendments to improve the sustainability of the rights-based system over time.

Chilean TURFs (Box 3).

Pacific Islands’ Nauru Agreement - cooperative fishing trading

Iceland ITQ fisheries^125,126 Added small boat ITQs in response to social concerns about sector consolidation in large commercial ITQ enterprises

Western Alaska Community Development Quota – designed for rural communities¹²⁷

iii. Pre-competitive collaboration and supply chain transparency

Declining fish stocks; unstable supply/value chains; inequitable distribution of financial and social impacts of fisheries; lack of transparency in impacts on shared ocean

• Improved transparency and oversight of supply chain mechanisms

• Enables traceability for supply chain management in fisheries sector, informing consumer choice

• Monitoring innovations including vessel monitoring systems (VMS) automatic identification systems (AIS) improving enforcement responses for illegal unreported and unregulated fishing

• Supports justice in marine sustainability

• Applicable to any ocean-dependent businesses

• In the SeaBOS case (Box 4), 10 of the world’s largest seafood harvesting companies are managing seafood cooperatively, monitoring their practices and impacts, increasing transparency in supply chains and working together with governments to improve existing regulations concerning aquaculture and fisheries. The companies (encompassing hundreds of others in their value chain) are working outside their otherwise-competitive relationships and are collaborating with scientists to develop new approaches to managing their enterprises as stewards of the natural ocean assets upon which their businesses depend.

SeaBOS - Fishing industry initiative (Box 4)

Marine Stewardship Certification (MSC) – labelling and certification

Abalobi app South Africa – promotes traceable and storied seafood and supports small scale fishers

Conservation Alliance for Sustainable Seafood – socially responsible seafood movement¹²⁸

Global Fishing Watch Platform - real-time tracking of global commercial fishing activity via a public map¹²⁹

iv. Decarbonising maritime sector

Increasing GHG emissions and environmental, social and political impacts

• The UN Climate Summit in September 2019 reiterated a global commitment to decarbonization¹³⁰

• Commitments by many leading financial institutions to reduce investments in the oil sector

• The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) met in June 2019 to agree on actions in support of the IMO strategy to decarbonise shipping

Norway & Washington – electric ferries

Hong Kong harbor – Solar-sail assisted ferries

v. Knowledge and information sharing platforms

Lack of transparency and access to data and information on the status/trends of ocean functions, resources & hazards, impacts of human activities and natural pressures, market pricing, and responses of ocean system to policy or investment interventions

• Open-source data and analytical platforms share information and learning in the ocean system¹⁰⁷

• Opening access to more proprietary data sources will build trust and amplify information sharing

• Used to design and improve content of information (peer-to-peer and at multiple scales by decision-making communities)

• Catalyzing discussions with multiple actors across scales: how to standardize and improve data, analytics, and communication; tracking SDG progress and impacts of Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) under the UNFCCC

• Facilitates clear signals for priority policy needs, and engagement between global and local scale actors

• Can help accelerate these nascent efforts for adaptive governance, accountability and decision making at multiple scales

• InVEST¹³¹ is driving integrated, multi-sectoral coastal development and disaster risk planning at national (Box 2) and regional scales around the world (e.g.^132,133,134).

InVEST platform - Open source global data and software platform for quantifying ecosystem values¹³¹

Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP) – ocean data management and results sharing for EU, US, Australian providers

Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) - world’s ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information sharing site; open access, to support UN and other policy efforts

vi. Legal Innovations (see also^30,135,136)

Meta-governance and juridical principles for managing and protecting commons resources and spaces, limitations of national self-interest in state-centric system, securing environmental justice against polluters

• International measures to protect access and benefit sharing of marine resources in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (through for example establishment of MPAs, equitable sharing of benefits and access rights, guidelines for implementation of instruments into national policy and legislation)

• Jurisprudence has recognized both procedural and substantive environmental rights

• Earth system (or natural law) development allowing a previously unimaginable reality—rights for nature

• An argument has emerged for a human right to an environment conducive to health and well-being and could contribute to environmental justice through the creation of a duty of care

• Volitional reflexive governance (see Glossary in Table 1) to navigate the complexities of sovereignty and secure broad agreement on comprehensive rules for climate change and achieving the SDGs

Meta-governance – Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction⁶¹ to be finalized in 2020, FAO Small Scale Fisheries Guidelines⁹¹, FAO Guidelines for implementation of international legal and policy instruments related to fisheries and conservation in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction⁹⁰, Organisation of African Unity Model Law⁸⁷

Jurisprudence – Climate (eg.^137,138), marine living resources (eg.¹³⁹, enforceable rights for nature (eg.^140,141,142)

International Agreements on Human Right to the Environment (eg.^{95,96,98,99,100,101,143})(see also¹⁴⁴)

Volitional Reflexive Governance - UNFCCC Paris Agreement (see⁸⁵), Voluntary National Review process under SDGs (see⁷⁰).