Social and environmental sustainability in large-scale coastal zones: Taking an issue-based approach to the implementation of the Prince William Sound sustainable human use framework

Following the grounding of the Exxon Valdez in 1989, a sustainable human use framework (human use framework) for Prince William Sound (PWS), AK was developed by the Chugach National Forest after concerns emerged about the social and environmental impacts of expanding human use due to cleanup activities and increased recreation visitation. A practical, issue-based process was used to develop an implementation strategy for integrating the complex social and ecological data contained in the human use framework and for making specific management and monitoring recommendations. The issue-based process is more of a bottom-up approach to planning compared to typical top-down planning approaches that seek to impose or replicate system-wide environmental conditions as criteria for selecting management and monitoring practices. The implementation strategy includes management guidance for protecting "keystone" recreation experiences while simultaneously protecting social and ecological values of PWS. It also includes practical social and ecological monitoring recommendations that can be used to inform an adaptive management strategy for continued management of sustainable human uses. The issue-based process serves as a model for other coastal zone areas struggling to balance increasing human use and recreation with conservation and environmental protection goals.