Unpacking the theory and practice of multiscale marine conservation planning

Problems of scale abound in the science and governance of marine environments and are pervasive in conservation planning. Despite frequent calls to integrate planning across scales, it remains unclear whether multiscale... [ view full abstract ]

Problems of scale abound in the science and governance of marine environments and are pervasive in conservation planning. Despite frequent calls to integrate planning across scales, it remains unclear whether multiscale planning occurs in practice, or how it should be approached. First, to understand the strengths and weaknesses of conservation plans developed at different scales, we applied a social-ecological systems (SES) framework to assess the ability of plans developed at different levels (from patch to international) to consider SES components that exist at different scales, using the Coral Triangle as a case study. We found that no plans were able to adequately consider SES components across all scales, and thus there is no ideal scale at which to plan for conservation. On this basis, we identify a need for and develop an explicit definition of multiscale conservation planning: where planning processes undertaken at different scales effectively inform one another and consequently result in improved outcomes. To examine the extent to which multiscale planning occurs in practice and identify factors that may impede or facilitate multiscale planning, we analysed planning processes from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. We found that plans at different scales inform one another through flows of planning resources (e.g. data, knowledge, expertise, funding) and that, rather than occurring unidirectionally (i.e. ‘scaling down’ or ‘scaling up’), real-world instances involve multidirectional scaling. We demonstrate that scalar capital is critical to effective multiscale planning and describe how this can intentionally be fostered in planning processes to improve outcomes.