Mapping ocean governance: from ecological values to policy instrumentation

• Main Author: Maaike Knol
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Lofoten; Norway
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2010.547686

With the turn to integrated forms of ecosystem governance, ocean zoning is argued to be an efficient means to manage cumulative pressures and multiple spatial claims. Maps and mapping practices reflect and constitute the turn to marine ecosystem governance, wherein different actors take part to design policy instruments. This paper traces how mapping practices enacted ecosystem governance in the Barents Sea-Lofoten area in Norway. It demonstrates how ecological values and vulnerability were translated into a boundary infrastructure, which was consequently distilled into a user-oriented grid that provided a temporary framework for oil and gas activities. The paper demonstrates that mapping--perceived as an on-going process of translation--results in constant redefinations of the relationship between actors and information, and of regular reinterpretation of the reality that is created.