Enabling Conditions and Outstanding Challenges in Marine Protection and Management

Spatial management of marine areas continues to expand around the world as a viable means of reducing human impacts on marine ecosystems. This report, prepared in support of and at the direction of the Aspen Ocean Community Dialogue, explores challenges to the design and successful implementation of marine managed areas, especially protected areas. It does not compare the effectiveness of spatial marine management to other forms of management, describe the virtues or failures of the spatial management of marine systems, or comprehensively review the literature. Instead, it identifies, on the basis of the literature and talks with experts, those challenges that can be addressed through better cooperation and dialogue among the key institutions and individuals who affect and are affected by spatially explicit marine management.