Planning with Multiple Knowledge Sources

Plans that draw on multiple knowledge sources are likely to be more comprehensive and strategic. This includes scientific, experiential, local, and traditional knowledge. For example, scientific information may be able to identify a specific threat such as “overfishing,” but local stakeholder knowledge may also be needed to clarify why overfishing is happening and barriers to overcome it. Such information provides key insights into actions needed to address key threats.

Developing a Management Plan

Management planning provides a time for managers and stakeholders to explore the benefits and values of the site and define clear objectives (ecological and socio-economic) they want to achieve through site management. It also enables participants to identify the main threats to the site values and the root causes of those threats. Through an organized process, strategic actions can be defined that address the root causes of the threats. 

Tools like results chains or conceptual modeling can be used to visually show the expected results from each action and how they are expected to achieve your objective. These tools can help define specific problems and clarify assumptions that specific actions will lead to certain results. Over time, as actions are implemented, models can be reviewed to understand if those assumptions were correct or if things need to change. 

Most MPAs require some form of a “management plan” to provide the strategic guidance for the site, identify the vision, objectives, and management actions, and ensure that the key values/features to be protected and managed are identified. Plans may be mandated by law or produced as part of a community marine management process. It is also often useful for the site to have a subset of plans dealing with specific issues such as:

• annual operational plans to guide daily activities; 

• climate adaptation plans (ecological and social), 

• fisheries management plans, 

• visitor management plans and 

• response plans (that identify risks and how disasters or unexpected events might be managed, such as coral bleaching events, coral disease outbreaks) 

To minimize stakeholder fatigue, planning should take an integrated approach and explore various management topics and stakeholder needs into one plan. This may mean building on one plan to include new components as they emerge. For example, an MPA with a management plan needs to consider adapting to climate change. Rather than developing a new climate adaptation plan, one might update the existing management plan to include climate adaptation that considers both ecological resilience as well as potential trade-offs needed to build socio-economic resilience. Tools exist that are designed to explore a suite of topics within one plan and can be very helpful where no plans currently exist or where a major planning update is planned.