Ecological Economics 31 (1999) 215 – 226 ANALYSIS Integrated environmental management of the oceans Paula Antunes *, Rui Santos Ecoman Centre, Department of Enironmental Sciences and Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New Uniersity of Lisbon, Quinta da Torre, 2825 Monte da Caparica, Portugal Abstract The application of integrated environmental management (IEM) as an analytical framework and general method- ology to support ocean governance is suggested in this paper. IEM is described as an adaptive process, which has to consider interactively problem assessment, policy priorities, the formulation of policies and their implementation in adequate measures, taking into account the multiple perspectives of the stakeholders involved. Relevant issues related to the accomplishment of IEM tasks for marine environments are discussed and some directions for further research are identified. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Oceans governance; Integrated oceans management www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon 1. Introduction Ocean environmental management has become an important issue because of continued ocean pollution and resource extraction, in spite of some notable successes in reducing them. The environ- mental management of the oceans is an urgent task since they are an increasingly important re- source for the sustenance of life on Earth, and yet have been regarded as an unlimited dumping ground for waste produced by human activities. The world’s oceans are vast (both in surface and in volume) and extremely sensitive. Radical changes in the oceans’ chemical, thermal and physical balance can cause great damage, not only to the biological, chemical and physical activities, but also to the Earth’s atmosphere and inner crust which are also affected by the oceans (Frankel, 1995). The concept of integrated environmental man- agement (IEM) emerged as an alternative to the traditional sectoral approach to environmental problems that prevailed during the 1970s, which has resulted in inefficient procedures and con- tributed to the creation of new environmental problems, mainly due to difficulties in policy co- ordination. IEM aims at conciliating socioeco- nomic development objectives with the preservation of environmental quality and ecolog- ical functions through the adoption of policy in- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +351-1-295-4464; fax: + 351-1-294-8554. E-mail addresses: mpa@mail.fct.unl.pt (P. Antunes), rfs@mail.fct.unl.pt (R. Santos) 0921-8009/99/$ - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0921-8009(99)00080-4