Incorporating Stakeholder Input in Ecosystem-Based Management of Living Marine Resources: an Application to Regional Marine Research Planning for the Aleutian Islands Region

Gathering, weighing, responding to, and incorporating stakeholder input are essential steps in environmental planning and resource management and are required under various acts including the National Environmental Planning Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and the Endangered Species Act. However, processing stakeholder input can be challenging because of the large volume of information and the voluntary nature of participation. Group decision methods and multiple criterion decision analysis techniques provide objective procedures for categorizing multiple layers of information and can facilitate preference selection among different interest groups. The application and performance of a variant of the Analytical Hierarchy Process, a multiple criterion group decision making technique, is explored as a mechanism for distilling stakeholder input in the context of environmental planning and ecosystem-based management of living marine resources. Development of an Aleutian Island Regional Marine Research Plan (AI RMRP) serves as a case study to determine the effectiveness of using the Analytical Hierarchy Process for defining research priorities. Funding for the AI RMRP was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to Alaska Sea Grant for the purpose of compiling and prioritizing a list of research and information needs for management of living marine resources for the Aleutian Island Region. The research and information needs presented in the AI RMRP represent shared interests across a broad range of stakeholders and could be used as a foundation for ecosystem-based management plans.