Tundi’s Take | EBM: Time to stop talking and start doing
By Tundi Agardy, MEAM Contributing Editor (tundiagardy@earthlink.net) It has been a decade or more since EBM came into the vernacular. In the interim, paeans to EBM have appeared in project proposals, annual reports, government reviews, student writings, and, with...
Making MSP happen: Practitioners talk realizations and resources
What do you need to make MSP actually happen? MEAM asked seven MSP practitioners from around the world, and from different stages of MSP planning and implementation, what has helped them most to move their MSP processes forward. Responses ranged from realizations and...
Notes & News: Canada – Blue Halo – Seychelles – SIDS – US – Blue economy – Ocean valuation – Ocean Health Index – Climate change – MSP impacts – Asia and Caribbean – Tradeoffs in values – Myths of EBFM – Good Environmental Status – MSP concierge
New marine plans set for much of Canada's Pacific Coast Marine plans for most of the Pacific coast of Canada have been set as part of a collaborative project involving the province of British Columbia and 18 coastal First Nations (aboriginal Canadian peoples). The...
Letter to the editor: Turning science into policy
Dear MEAM,
I'm writing with regard to your article "Turning science into policy: What scientists should (and should not) do when talking to policy-makers" (MEAM 8: 3).
Career scientists may have a pretty high comfort level with placing some theoretical constructs between the data and their functional interpretation. It's one of the best ways to make a career, in fact. However, in the policy-making world, the comfort level with such practices is much lower. There are several reasons, although "policy-makers are just not smart enough to understand ecological theory" is not one of them. Part of the reason is just the opposite: policy-makers feel that may be just as good as scientists at filtering data through theoretical constructs.