by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Oct 24, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, October 28, 2025. Presented by: Nathan Bennett of WWF and the IUCN People and Ocean Specialist Group; Mark Andrachuk of Reconnect Consulting; Stacy Jupiter of the Wildlife Conservation Society; and Laure Katz of the Blue Nature Alliance. Description: To date, there has been substantial work on effectiveness of marine conservation initiatives. However, there has been less attention to how to evaluate and improve equity – and there is a lack of clear guidance that is specific for marine conservation interventions, including MPAs, OECMs, LMMAs. To help fill this gap, an international group of conservation researchers and practitioners collaboratively developed and tested several approaches for assessing social equity in marine conservation. In this webinar, we will present the resultant International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) “Guidebook for Assessing and Improving Social Equity in Marine Conservation”. During the webinar we will provide an overview of the main elements of the guidebook and the rapid, stakeholder, and customized assessment approaches that it contains. This will be followed by a panel discussion on where and how these might be used. The guide and webinar will be of interest to managers, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government at different levels.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Oct 20, 2025 | Blog posts
So-called “serious games” are designed for purposes beyond just entertainment and can be a powerful tool for teaching, engaging stakeholders, conducting research, and evaluating public policy. Look through OCTO’s compilation of serious games for educating stakeholders, professionals, students, and the general public about coastal and marine conservation, management, and adaptation.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Oct 16, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. Presented by: Emily Ogier of the University of Tasmania. Description: Novel marine-climate interventions – such as ocean alkalinity enhancement, assisted evolution of marine species, assisted migration of marine species, regrowing targeted species, restoring habitat, and aquaculture for carbon sequestration – are being rapidly implemented to address both the causes and consequences of warming oceans. A recent survey revealed five types and 17 sub-types of interventions proposed or deployed in 37 marine systems globally. There is low consensus in climate goals being pursued by these interventions, however, and there is limited assessment and management of the broader ecological, cultural and social risks and benefits. This webinar will present the types of novel interventions being developed or deployed, their geographic distribution and stage of development (i.e., pilot or full deployment at regional scale), types of climate goals and benefits pursued, and current arrangements (if any) for responsible governance. Recommendations for responsibly governing these interventions at both pilot and upscaled deployment – such as robust evaluation of opportunity cost of alternative actions, bioethical and cumulative impact assessment at pilot scales, and building in triggers for downscaling or exits based on community monitoring – will also be discussed.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Sep 16, 2025 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, September 16, 2025. Presented by: Laura Perry of Castlerock Conservation and the IUCN SSC CEC Behavior Change Task Force. Description: Conservation behavior change is a nascent discipline, but one which has great applicability to many of today’s conservation challenges. By using lessons drawn from social psychology, behavioral economics, and healthcare interventions, this approach has huge potential to shape human behavior and ultimately secure conservation outcomes. In this talk, we will explore the fundamentals of behavior change and how an array of techniques can be used to change human behavior. Touching on examples from across conservation, we will discuss how these approaches can add value to a conservation program, how practitioners can go about involving behavior change in their work, and the relevance of behavior change approaches to conservation translocations.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Sep 4, 2025 | Past Webinars, Uncategorized, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, September 4, 2025. Panelists and moderator include: Alex Hearn, Professor and Researcher at the University of San Francisco de Quito and the Galapagos Science Center; Nai’a Lewis, Director of Big Ocean and Founder and CEO of Salted Logic; Kerry Sink, Marine Program Manager and Principal Scientist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute; Alan White, President of the Board of the Coastal Conservation and Educational Foundation (Philippines); Lauren Wenzel, MPA Advisor for the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (moderator). Description: Opposition from fishing communities and industries, shifts in government support, funding crises, misinformation and counternarrative campaigns, political instability, natural disasters… Challenges like these can emerge at any stage of an MPA’s development – from planning to long-term implementation – and threaten to derail the MPA’s progress towards achieving its goals. This webinar will discuss ways that MPAs can persevere through adversity, and the factors and strategies that enable MPAs to be durable and make headway toward their missions despite headwinds. Our panelists will speak to their experiences working through MPA processes with communities and industries, designing and redesigning MPAs, and generally ensuring MPA effectiveness. We also encourage webinar participants to share relevant experiences, insights, expertise, and resources during the webinar via the webinar chat. Questions for discussion with the panelists and other participants can be sent in advance of the webinar to sarah@octogroup.org.
