DSTs that use interactive software including maps, models, communication modules, and additional components can help solve problems that are too complex and multi-faceted to solve using human intuition or conventional approaches alone. Used properly, planning tools can:

• Save time, energy, and resources
• Guide users through difficult steps of decisionmaking processes so they can quickly move from data analysis to final decisions
• Repeat analyses with relative ease and reduce redundancy by leveraging the work of others
• Reduce requirements for human expertise
• Help users explore a wider range of alternatives
• Document decisions about inputs and parameters
• Increase the understanding of planning requirements and limitations for multiple sectors in the planning process

Download a copy of the guide here!

The workshop was successful in producing a set of guiding draft Marine EBM Principles relevant to British Columbia, a Logic Model that summarizes rationale, drivers and desired outcomes, and suggested innovative approaches to joint planning, shared governance and enhanced collaboration.

The Marine EBM Principles (“The Sidney Consensus”) were finished in October 2010 by a workshop working group, and are available for download here.

View the Sidney Consensus: Marine EBM Principles

The Working Group was composed of:
Jon Chamberlain, BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands; Kai Chan, University of British Columbia; Heather Coleman, PacMARA; Steve Diggon, Coastal First Nations; Dan Edwards, Area A Crab Association; Kim Houston, Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Michelle Molnar and Bill Wareham, David Suzuki Foundation.

Other documents available from the Marine EBM Gaps Workshop:

View the Workshop Summary.

View the DRAFT Marine EBM Logic Model

The next step in this process will be to collaboratively create a Strategic Roadmap to guide shared EBM implementation. We are currently applying for funding to conduct this workshop.

The workshop was attended by 29 invited experts and observers from Australia, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Washington DC, Victoria and Vancouver. The attendees included government staff, university researchers, graduate students, NGO staff, Marxan consultants, professional economists and climate change scientists. Attendees participated in one of three workshop sub-groups (robust analysis, human use, climate change) and periodically reported back on their progress during plenary sessions.

Objectives of the workshop were to:
1. Assess and report on the applicability of the Marxan Good Practices Handbook (MGPH) for the BCMCA project;
2. Encourage the use of good Marxan practices in BC in order to support ecosystem-based management and an integrated management approach;
3. Discuss and develop guidance on sections of the MGPH that currently do not provide sufficient or clear guidance;
4. Obtain expert guidance on proper and robust use of Marxan, specifically for the BCMCA project;
5. Obtain guidance on the robust development of cost layers (e.g., human uses) and how to best use Marxan’s cost function to achieve BCMCA’s scenario objectives.

View the Marxan Workshop Proceedings Report

The PacMARA ED was assisted in this undertaking by Terje Vold (Innovation  Expedition), Dave Nicolson (Black Coffee) and Caroline Dawe (WWF-Canada).  Rosaline Cannesa (MPARG – University of Victoria) spent considerable time editing the final report.

The objective of this report is to help inform the EBM community of practice about information and data gaps existing in the EBM framework in BC marine waters and plan to fill the gaps. Section 4 of this report, documents the state of marine EBM readiness. Some components of information that would support EBM in BC marine waters are incomplete or missing. Research indicates that gaps exist in the policy framework, management instruments, decision tools and methods and there is no formal performance evaluation framework.

This document provides background material for input to the PacMARA Marine EBM Gaps Workshops. During the workshops members of the marine EBM community of practice will work together to prioritize the gaps and issues that must be resolved to help move EBM forward in the BC marine environment. This document supports that objective employing a four step approach:

1. Identify knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to proceed with EBM in BC marine waters.
2. Catalogue what data / information are currently available to fill these needs for BC marine waters.
3. Determine what data / information gaps exist for implementation of EBM.
4. Research possible methods for addressing the knowledge gaps by prioritizing the filling of needed data / information.

Report: Marine Ecosystem Based Management Knowledge Gaps Study

Appendices: EBM Gaps Appendix A, EBM Gaps Appendix B

Access Database: EBM Knowledge Gaps Database
Instructions: This database contains the identified data gaps from the PNCIMA EAOR. The gaps can be sorted by topic (biodiversity, habitat, function, stressor, activity) or subtopic (pollutants, invasive species, noise etc).
The database also includes a list of possible participants for the workshops, which has been gleaned from the recent biodiversity and PNCIMA EBM workshops. There are report forms for displaying all of the information.

Guénette, S. and Alder, J. 2008. Scoping study for the development of scientific advice on Bowie Seamount, for Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association.

Contact: info@pacmara.org

The Data Gaps Inventory project was based on an initial scoping study completed in 2004. It identified major gaps in marine data in BC. There have been several studies in BC commenting on data gaps in various fields, but before this project no effort has yet been made to tie these together in one comprehensive document. Furthermore, there has been no attempt to strategically analyze how to address these numerous gaps.

The goal of the Data Gaps Inventory is to identify what data currently exist in BC and where they can be found, as well as where the knowledge gaps lie. The emphasis is on geo-referenced datasets such as GIS, or those that could easily be imported into a GIS.

The Inventory also identifies older datasets that are not in an accessible electronic format, since they could be valuable sources of data in the future if funding becomes available to convert them into electronic format. Generally, the digitization of data is much less expensive than new surveys, and can add historical perspective.

This analysis will help direct future marine research and digitization priorities in BC.

A mix of agencies and organizations in many sectors and disciplines currently make contributions in science, research and analysis to marine management in BC. However, these are not well integrated or coordinated, and many information gaps exist.

This research analyses the literature around collaboration and the role of science in policy development in order to discover whether collaborations are actually better at asking and answering the questions needed to inform an ecosystem-based approach to planning and decision making.

Four collaborative science organizations in Canada and the USA are also being evaluated in order to discover critical elements of successful science collaborations.

The MA thesis can be downloaded here: (Word) or (PDF)

Funder: Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Contacts: Chris Picard & Jeff Ardron

The purpose of this project was to identify an appropriate boundary for the Central and North Coast Fisheries and Oceans Canada planning area. Several boundaries have been suggested, and PacMARA was approached by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to evaluate them and make recommendations.   See the reports section of this site to download the report.