Social, Economic and Cultural Overview and Assessment for Ocean ...

Core Elements of a SECOA: Based on the information gleaned from the case studies, a
set of “core elements” were identified, reflecting the minimum level of information that
seems to be required for conducting a SECOA. Under the social component, the core
variables include demography, education and training, health and community services
and coastal-ocean use patterns. Economic variables identified included employment,
macro indicators such as GDP, available utilities, industry profiles (notably the fishing
sector) and housing. Cultural variables included indigenous traditions and heritage. The
principal governance variables included structure, traditional/Aboriginal governance and
enforcement/security. Although these lists reflect the more commonly occurring of the
variables, the sum of these should not be interpreted as indicating a “best way” to conduct
a SECOA. In reality, the approaches used and the depth of data collection will depend on
local conditions, human and financial capacity, time and political constraints, as well as
the objectives of the assessment. A SECOA must be adapted and its process modified to
reflect all of these relevancy factors, including both spatial and temporal considerations.
Attribute Analysis: The attributes of a SECOA were divided into process-related,
content-related and data-form components. It was apparent that each socio-economic
assessment possesses different characteristics depending on its objectives, phase, time,
budgetary and operational limitations – as above, these relevancy factors are crucial to
consider in terms of how applicable a given case study is to a LOMA context. In terms of
specifics, economic data was usually more in-depth than social, cultural or governance
information. Interestingly, approximately half of the case studies flagged current and/or
emerging threats that could affect the management area; this aspect could be of particular
importance to LOMAs, e.g., in the face of climate change and privatization of rural areas.
Overall observations: The main trends that appeared to emerge for process-related
points were: (a) cross-scale vertical and horizontal linkages are important when
undertaking a SECOA at the scale of a LOMA, (b) the agendas of the agencies leading a
SECOA may influence the short-term and long-term success of the work, and future
implementation aspects, and (c) community involvement, especially in decision making,
can help with the success of a SECOA, and furthermore, the team leading the SECOA
iv