Sustaining the World's Large Marine Ecosystems

Preface
This volume, Sustaining the World’s Large Marine Ecosystems, is a collaborative
effort of NOAA’s Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) Program, and the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN is the world’s largest
global environmental network. Its members include governments, nongovernmental
organizations and 10,000 volunteer scientists in 160 countries. The
IUCN Global Marine Programme has eight focus areas related to the
conservation and sustainable use of oceans: climate change mitigation and
adaptation, coastal livelihoods, the conservation of threatened species, energy
and industry, fisheries and aquaculture, the management of marine invasive
species, marine protected areas, and ocean governance. The IUCN promotes
large marine ecosystem monitoring, assessment, management and biodiversity
conservation through its support of capacity building and socioeconomic studies
that further the understanding of ecological processes that drive the coastal
economies of developing countries.
Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are regions of ocean space of 200,000 km² or
greater, that encompass coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the
outer margins of a continental shelf or the seaward extent of a predominant
coastal current. LMEs are defined by ecological criteria, including bathymetry,
hydrography, productivity, and trophically linked populations. The LME concept
for ecosystem-based management with its 5-module approach focused on
productivity, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics,
and governance, was selected as a notable scientific breakthrough and
commemorated in 2007 during the celebration of 200 years of ocean science by
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its
predecessor agencies (http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/).
LME Projects
One hundred and ten developing countries are presently engaged in 16 joint
international projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe, that are
based on the LME approach and use the LME as a management unit. The
projects are funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank,
participating countries, and other donors at a level of $1.8 billion. The GEF LME
projects apply an ecosystem based management (EBM) strategy to (i) recover
depleted marine fish and fisheries, (ii) reduce and control coastal pollution and
nutrient over-enrichment, (iii) restore degraded habitats, (iv) establish marine
protected areas and (v) sustain ecosystem goods and services.
LME Project Partners
NOAA and IUCN are providing technical and scientific support to the projects
through close partnerships with the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations
Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Intergovernmental Oceano-
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