by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Jan 17, 2023 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. Presented by: Joachim Claudet of the French National Center for Scientific Research. Description: Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being promoted as an ocean-based climate solution. These claims are controversial, however, because the literature on the climate benefits of MPAs is diffuse and poorly synthesized. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a systematic literature review of 22,403 publications spanning 241 MPAs and analyzed these across 16 ecological and social pathways through which MPAs could contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Our meta-analysis found that marine conservation can significantly enhance carbon sequestration, coastal protection, biodiversity, and the reproductive capacity of marine organisms as well as fishers’ catch and income. Most of these benefits are only achieved in fully or highly protected areas and increase with MPA age. This webinar will present these results and discuss the extent to which MPAs can be a useful tool for mitigating climate change and adapting social-ecological systems.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Dec 13, 2022 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. Panelists: Julie Angus, CEO of Open Ocean Robotics; Emily Charry Tissier, CEO and Founder of WhaleSeeker; and Anna Sanders, Product Development Director for Global Fishing Watch. Description: Existing and emerging ocean technology have tremendous potential for helping global MPAs address critical management needs. In this webinar, experts from three leading ocean technology organizations – Open Ocean Robotics, Whale Seeeker, and Global Fishing Watch – will share how their technology products can help MPAs and address questions from webinar participants. In addition, webinar participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences with ocean tech for MPA management via the webinar chat, enabling knowledge and experience sharing across global MPAs.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Dec 1, 2022 | Past Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, December 8, 2022. Presented by: Jeff Young of EDF. Description: Climate change and overfishing are increasingly straining fisheries and the marine ecosystems that support them, putting marine biodiversity, the nutrition of people in coastal communities, and the global food supply at greater risk. To help address these critical issues, EDF’s Fishery Solutions Center has worked closely with hundreds of stakeholders, researchers, and practitioners from around the world to synthesize their collective expertise into user-friendly tools. The resulting Climate-Resilient Fisheries Toolkit features over 30 tools and resources can help assess conditions and prioritize interventions; examine governance gaps, climate impacts, ecosystem threats, and food and nutrition security needs; integrate available data and knowledge into management action; and design and implement fishery solutions. Tools are designed for use by fishers, researchers, managers, NGOs, communities, and local officials and can help make informed fisheries decisions even in limited data situations. This webinar will introduce participants to the tools in the toolkit and invite input on how the toolkit can be strengthened and improved over time.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Dec 1, 2022 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on Thursday, December 1, 2022. Presented by: Carolyn Kousky of the Environmental Defense Fund. Description: The frequency and intensity of natural disasters—such as hurricanes, floods, and storms—are on the rise, threatening our way of life and our livelihoods. Insurance, an often confusing and unpopular tool, is critical to recovery from these crises. Yet, as it becomes ever more essential, insurance markets are under stress, many are uninsured, and insurance often seems divorced from efforts to improve the resilience and sustainability of our communities. How can we improve insurance to provide consistent and sufficient help following all disasters? How do we use insurance not just to help us recover, but also to help us prevent disasters in the first place? And how can insurance help us achieve broader social and environmental goals? Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at the Environmental Defense Fund and author of Understanding Disaster Insurance, Carolyn Kousky, will present on why traditional insurance markets fall short in meeting the needs of a world coping with climate change and how new insurance and risk transfer markets can help create thriving and resilient coastal communities and ecosystems.
by Sarah Carr, Ph.D. | Nov 16, 2022 | Past Webinars, Webinars
This webinar originally aired on November 16, 2022. Presented by: Steven Mana‘oakamai Johnson of Cornell University. A fundamental challenge in ocean conservation is translating the results of climate models into forms that managers and others can use to plan for the future. Using techniques from information theory, the Ocean Novelty (ONo) Index provides a simple and intuitive way to understand how climate change will alter key ocean biogeochemical variables. This measure can help MPA managers know what they need to prioritize in their planning and design policies and regulations that help their MPA keep pace with expected shifts in the ecosystem state. This webinar will share how the ONo Index is calculated and walk through an application for large MPAs.
