Leasing and Ownership within Ocean and Coastal Waters
A Conservation Practitioner's Toolkit

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4.6 Outreach

Outreach may be the one implementation activity that can and should be done at several levels even when no other activities (such as science, habitat, maintenance, public use, or enforcement) are undertaken. At a minimum, lessees and owners will benefit from reaching out to agencies, other organizations, neighbors, politicians, and the public to inform and engage them during planning processes for protected sites and during external planning processes that may affect protected sites or marine resources in general.

Agencies

Lessees and owners can use their status as vested stakeholders to get seats at negotiation tables when agencies are contemplating decisions that will affect their sites or the marine environment at-large. Lessees and owners can use these opportunities to plant and nurture approaches such as resiliency, ecoregional assessments, marine spatial planning, and ecosystem-based management. Organizations can also use their sites as case studies of effective area-based management, new restoration techniques, scientific discoveries, and compatible public use, among others.

Conservation Organizations

Other conservation organizations may be interested to know how they could apply similar leasing and ownership strategies in ocean and coastal waters. When an organization leases or owns lands and resources, it is in a unique position to reach out to other conservation organizations as a means to achieve greater conservation and also to bolster leasing and ownership as widely understood and comprehensively applied strategies. When additional conservation organizations use leasing and ownership strategies, overall acceptance and success of the strategies will improve.

Neighbors

Reaching out to neighbors (including adjacent landowners and lessees, as well as landowners within the watershed) is critical to the long-term success of leasing and ownership projects that lie within an ecologically functional distance to the shoreline. Activities that neighbors undertake may impact leased and owned projects which typically lie at the bottom of watersheds, below the high tide line along coastal areas. Neighboring structures and activities such as shoreline armoring, recreational piers, chemical treatments on lawns, and septic systems can jeopardize the success of projects. Providing neighbors with information on best management practices (for example, see the Shoreline Landowner’s Education Toolkit) and funding for shoreline improvement projects creates goodwill and improves the likelihood of project success. Outreach to neighbors can also serve to recruit volunteers for other implementation activities (such as science, habitat, maintenance, and enforcement).

Politicians

Working within ocean and coastal environments can be extremely controversial due to the multitude of stakeholders, the complicated management framework, and the fluidity of the environment. As such, when conservation organizations become lessees and owners of lands and resources lying with ocean and coastal waters, they may be affected by controversies through political decision-making. Given this, lessees and owners may not only benefit from understanding the political climate related to such work in the relevant locations, they may also benefit from actively reaching out to local, state, and federal politicians to educate them about the in-water conservation projects. When working with politicians, however, non-profit conservation organizations must understand and follow all applicable guidelines associated with lobbying.

Public Users

Public users in and around leased and owned sites can be both a blessing and a curse. To make them a blessing, some sort of outreach is likely needed. Informational signs placed on or adjacent to sites is a passive approach that is often used on protected areas which are open to the public. However, the effectiveness of this approach is questionable as the public often does not have the time or desire to proactively stop their activities and educate themselves about the possible impacts caused by their activities. As such, lessees and owners of lands and resources within ocean and coastal waters should consider whether an active approach to public outreach is a cost-effectiveness means to achieving their conservation goals.