[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 139 (Friday, July 21, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47125-47127]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-15546]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XD173]
Request for Information; Advancing Equity and Environmental
Justice in the Southeast Through the Conservation and Management of
Living Marine Resources
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for information.
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SUMMARY: In May 2023, NMFS finalized its first-ever national Equity and
Environmental Justice Strategy. The national strategy describes the
path the agency will take to incorporate equity and environmental
justice into the vital
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services we provide to all communities. Through this Request for
Information, we are seeking stakeholder input to inform the
operationalization of the national strategy in the Southeast Region.
The public input we receive in response to the questions listed in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document will inform the
development of a Southeast Equity and Environmental Justice
Implementation Plan that is specific and responsive to the needs of
underserved communities in the U.S. Caribbean, South Atlantic, and Gulf
of Mexico.
DATES: Interested persons are invited to provide input in response to
this Request for Information through September 30, 2023. Late-filed
input will be considered to the extent practicable.
Verbal input will be accepted during a webinar-based listening
session to be conducted in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese on Tuesday,
August 29, 2023, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to provide input using one of
the following methods:
Electronic Submission: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to https://www.regulations.gov and enter NOAA-NMFS-2023-0092 in the Search box.
Click on the ``Comment'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter
or attach your comments.
Verbal submission: NMFS will accept verbal input during a
webinar-based listening session from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday,
August 29, 2023. The webinar will be conducted in English, Spanish, and
Vietnamese. Information about how to access the webinar will be
available at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/about-us/southeast-equity-and-environmental-justice-implementation-plan. The
transcript of the webinar will be posted to https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/about-us/southeast-equity-and-environmental-justice-implementation-plan after the listening session
has been completed.
Recorded presentations providing more information on this public
comment opportunity will be made available at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/about-us/southeast-equity-and-environmental-justice-implementation-plan in English, Spanish, and
Vietnamese for interested persons to listen at their convenience prior
to submitting input via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal or the webinar-
based listening session. If you are unable to provide electronic
written comments or participate in the webinar-based listening session,
please contact Brent Stoffle at [email protected] or (305) 951-
1212 for alternative submission methods.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Heather Blough,
[email protected], (727) 304-0131.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
NMFS is responsible for managing the nation's living marine
resources. We work to make fisheries sustainable and productive,
provide safe seafood to consumers, conserve threatened and endangered
species and other protected resources, and maintain healthy ecosystems.
The work that we do affects people in underserved communities who
depend on these resources for their environmental, economic, social,
and cultural well-being. We recognize that these communities experience
barriers to accessing our services and that the services they access
may not effectively meet their needs.
On May 22, 2023, NMFS finalized a national Equity and Environmental
Justice Strategy (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-fisheries-releases-final-equity-and-environmental-justice-strategy)
designed to break down key barriers impeding the equitable delivery of
services and opportunities derived from the work that we do. The
national strategy describes the path we will take to incorporate equity
and environmental justice into the vital services we provide to all
communities.
Our goals under the strategy are to: (1) Prioritize identification,
equitable treatment, and meaningful involvement of underserved
communities; (2) Provide equitable delivery of services; and (3)
Prioritize equity and environmental justice in our mandated and mission
work with demonstrable progress.
The strategy outlines six objectives to accomplish those goals: (1)
Provide an empowering environment within NMFS to support multiple
approaches to equity and environmental justice; (2) Ensure that our
policies promote equal opportunities for all and do not create
unintended inequities or unequal burdens for underserved communities;
(3) Identify underserved communities and their needs, conduct
collaborative research, and assess impacts of management decisions; (4)
Build relationships with underserved communities to better understand
their engagement preferences, and improve information sharing with all
communities; (5) Distribute benefits equitably among communities by
increasing the access to opportunities for underserved communities; and
(6) Enable the meaningful involvement of underserved communities in
decision-making processes.
Together, these goals and objectives are intended to create the
capacity and accountability processes necessary to effectively embed
equity and environmental justice within our agency and the work that we
do.
Additional information on the national strategy, including our
working definitions of equity, environmental justice, and underserved
communities, is available on our website at: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/about-us/southeast-equity-and-environmental-justice-implementation-plan.
II. Purpose of This Request for Information
NMFS recognizes that we have much work to do to effectively embed
equity and environmental justice into our day-to-day efforts, and we
have incorporated input from communities into our national Equity and
Environmental Justice Strategy (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-fisheries-releases-final-equity-and-environmental-justice-strategy) to guide that work. The purpose of this Request for
Information is to solicit input on ways we can operationalize the
national strategy in the Southeast Region by identifying specific
actions and related performance metrics we will take to advance each of
our six national equity and environmental justice objectives in the
U.S. Caribbean, South Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico. We will supplement
the information we receive in response to this Request for Information
with information we obtain through a series of focus group meetings we
are conducting with underserved community members and liaisons
throughout the region.
III. Specific Information Requested To Inform Development of the
Southeast Region Equity and Environmental Justice Implementation Plan
Through this Request for Information, NMFS seeks written public
input to inform the operationalization of our national Equity and
Environmental Justice Strategy (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/noaa-fisheries-releases-final-equity-and-environmental-justice-strategy) in the Southeast Region. The input we receive in response to
this request will help us to identify specific action items and related
performance metrics to advance
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each of the six national equity and environmental justice objectives in
the U.S. Caribbean, South Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico.
When providing input, please specify if you are providing general
feedback on how we can eliminate barriers or better serve underserved
communities in the region, or responding to one or more of the specific
objective(s) and question number(s) below:
Objective 1. Provide an empowering environment within NMFS to
support multiple equity and environmental justice approaches.
1. What data and resources does NMFS need to identify the
underserved communities impacted by our work and evaluate the success
of our equity and environmental justice efforts?
2. What accountability structures does NMFS need to stay focused on
our equity and environmental justice goals and build trust with
underserved communities?
Objective 2. Ensure that our policies promote equal opportunities
for all and do not create unintended inequities or unequal burdens for
underserved communities.
1. How can NMFS better include equity for underserved communities
in policies and plans?
2. How can existing policies and procedures be refined or revised
to achieve more equitable outcomes?
3. How can NMFS design or revise policies and procedures in a way
that ensures they are helpful and clear to underserved communities?
4. How can NMFS further incorporate into its policies and
procedures relevant language, customs, and indigenous knowledge,
consistent with statutory requirements (e.g., best scientific
information available standard under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act)?
Objective 3. Identify underserved communities and their needs,
conduct collaborative research, and assess impacts of management
decisions.
1. What research do we need to identify underserved communities and
assess their needs?
2. How can NMFS better engage with underserved communities to
identify, co-develop, and co-produce place-based research and
monitoring priorities and promote opportunities for citizen science?
3. How can we reduce bias in the prioritization of NMFS' research
to better serve underserved communities?
4. How can NMFS expand involvement of members of underserved
communities in research and monitoring projects while ensuring
protection of indigenous knowledge?
5. How can NMFS more equitably allocate research and monitoring
resources to identify and characterize underserved communities,
understand their needs, and use findings to effectively guide
management decisions that affect them?
6. How can NMFS more equitably allocate research and monitoring
resources to fisheries, habitat, and protected species science that
directly impacts underserved communities?
7. How can NMFS improve our understanding of the impact of our
regulatory actions on underserved communities?
8. What are best practices for working with communities to
integrate indigenous knowledge into research structure, data
collection, and data reporting?
9. How can NMFS better share research and monitoring results in
plain language?
Objective 4. Build relationships with underserved communities to
better understand their engagement preferences, and improve information
sharing with all communities.
1. Are the various communication platforms and outreach activities
used by NMFS effectively reaching underserved communities? Are there
other preferred methods of communication?
2. How can NMFS build relationships with underserved communities
that allow for two-way communication and trust?
3. What training and resources do staff need to expand NMFS'
outreach and communication in underserved communities?
4. How can NMFS make its communications more accessible and
understandable to a diverse audience, including underserved
communities?
Objective 5. Distribute benefits equitably among communities by
increasing the access to opportunities for underserved communities.
1. What barriers do underserved communities face in accessing
benefits managed by NMFS?
2. Do NMFS' benefits (such as funding, fishery allocations,
permits, opportunities, services, and environmental protection and
restoration) equitably reach or benefit underserved communities?
Consistent with applicable legal requirements, how can we expand the
equity in our delivery of these benefits?
3. What accountability structures and processes are needed to
ensure equitable delivery of benefits, such as data collection, on
benefit recipients and analysis of that data?
4. How can we better serve underserved communities with data and
tools NMFS provides to the public?
Objective 6. Enable the meaningful involvement of underserved
communities in decision-making processes.
1. How can NMFS better account for the needs of underserved
communities in decision-making?
2. What accountability processes and structures are needed for NMFS
to assess if underserved community needs are adequately accounted for
in decision-making?
3. Is the information NMFS uses to support decision-making
accessible to underserved communities?
4. How can underserved communities have equitable access to
participate in public meetings?
5. How can NMFS ensure that public meetings are inclusive, safe,
and welcoming?
6. How can NMFS facilitate access and involvement of underserved
communities during the decision-making process?
7. How can NMFS increase representation of underserved communities
on Regional Fishery Management Councils and advisory bodies, including
international advisory bodies?
Dated: July 18, 2023.
Kimberly Damon-Randall,
Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National
Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-15546 Filed 7-20-23; 8:45 am]
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