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An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century - California Ocean ...

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CHAPTER 5ADVANCING AREGIONAL APPROACHThe nation’s ocean and coastal resources offer many opportunities <strong>for</strong> beneficialuses but are also affected by <strong>the</strong> cumulative impacts of human activities that spancities, counties, states, and sometimes nations. To move toward an ecosystembasedmanagement approach, government should have <strong>the</strong> institutionalcapacity to respond to ocean and coastal issues in a coordinated fashionacross jurisdictional boundaries.The voluntary establishment of regional ocean councils, developedthrough a process supported by <strong>the</strong> National <strong>Ocean</strong> Council, wouldfacilitate <strong>the</strong> development of regional goals and priorities andimprove responses to regional issues. Improved coordination of federalagencies at <strong>the</strong> regional level would complement <strong>the</strong> establishmentof regional ocean councils, improving <strong>the</strong> federal response tostate and local needs while fur<strong>the</strong>ring national goals and priorities.The development and dissemination of regionally significantresearch and in<strong>for</strong>mation is imperative to meet <strong>the</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mationneeds of managers and support ecosystem-based decisions.Addressing Issues Across Jurisdictional LinesIn addition to improving coordination at <strong>the</strong> national level, as describedin Chapter 4, an important component of <strong>the</strong> new National <strong>Ocean</strong>Policy Framework is <strong>the</strong> streng<strong>the</strong>ning of regional approaches that allowdecision makers to address pressing ocean and coastal issues on an ecosystembasedscale. Today’s governance systems are generally not designed to transcendtraditional political boundaries. Governments rarely consider opportunities orimpacts outside <strong>the</strong>ir immediate jurisdictional area, although <strong>the</strong>se borders seldom correspondwith ecosystem boundaries. In addition, individual agency mandates are often toonarrow in scope, sector-based, and poorly coordinated to address regional issues. Finally,broadly accepted regional goals—social, economic, and environmental—are infrequentlyavailable to promote and gauge progress.Despite <strong>the</strong>se challenges, <strong>the</strong>re are many instances where concern <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> health of aparticular ecosystem has motivated a wide range of participants to create new structures<strong>for</strong> addressing regional concerns. The declining health of <strong>the</strong> Chesapeake Bay triggered a86 A N O CEAN B LUEPRINT FOR THE 21ST C ENTURY

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