Marine resource management: Culture, livelihoods, and governance

The management of marine resources is a politically and culturally driven process, shaped by human livelihoods and perceptions, where notions of both space and place shape policies and decision-making in fundamental ways. An emerging sub-field within geography critically explores geographic aspects of marine resource management. However, there has been little work to fully articulate this field and to describe the contributions of geographic methodologies and lenses to understanding marine resource management processes. This special issue provides one of the first collections of geographic papers focused on the socio-cultural and socio-spatial dimensions of marine resource management, emphasizing research that has or can be applied to management and policy discussions. The papers in this issue cover critical topics within this emerging field, examining the combined influences of social, ecological, cultural, political, economic, historical, and geographic factors on how marine spaces and resources are used, perceived, and managed. Important themes include: emerging spatial approaches to marine resource management, human dimensions of marine protected areas, the roles of mapping and GIS, the integration of quantitative and qualitative data, and the varying ways in which marine spaces and places are conceptualized by marine resource users and managers. Issues of marine resource governance, community engagement, and vulnerability also play key roles in the future of marine resource management The papers in this issue shed light on space, place, and human-environment interactions in coastal marine systems, making it clear that questions about stakeholder inclusion and representation, particularly in spatial forms, will continue to dominate the field for some time to come. Future research in this field will be fruitfully informed by core geographical heuristics of space, place, and human-environment dynamics. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.