Be ready to respond
While it is important that future governance regimes adopt decisions based on the precautionary approach (Farbotko and Lazrus 2012; Himes-Cornell and Kasperski 2015; Morzaria-Luna et al., 2014) protecting natural ecosystems also requires governance to be responsive, proactive, and flexible. For example, adaptive management needs to be implemented when addressing the rapid and drastic climate and human-driven change affecting reef areas (Armitage et al. 2009; GBRMPA 2009; Mathews and Turner 2017; Maynard et al. 2010; Townsend et al. 2008; Weeks and Jupiter 2013; Cinner et al. 2019) (Action 3, 38). Last, government and industry need to establish public emergency funds for a rapid response to unexpected and extreme events (Action 39). These funds have already been proposed, for example, for bushfire prevention in Australia (Arriagada et al. 2020) and flood control in the UK (Hannaford and Hall 2019). They complement private emergency funds (e.g. https://climateemergencyfund.org/) and can enable recovery plans (both social and ecosystem), adaptation plans, or new geoengineering approaches (Markusson et al. 2014).
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