Webinars

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Presented by: Lina Gutierrez Cala and Bhawishya Junega of Global Fishing Watch. Description: With less than 5 years to achieve the global commitment of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, transparency and accountability are more important than ever. Access to reliable information about human activity at sea is essential to support the decision-making processes required to meet this ambitious target. This webinar will introduce the Marine Manager platform, developed by Global Fishing Watch in partnership with Donna Bertarelli Philanthropy. The free and open platform serves datasets on vessel activity and presence derived from satellite tracking and imagery sources, as well as environmental datasets. By making these datasets publicly available and easy to visualize and interact with, Marine Manager supports the development and implementation of effective conservation schemes with tangible outcomes, while helping address challenges such as “paper parks” – protected areas that lack the required management and monitoring tools to meet their mandates. As of today, Marine Manager has supported multiple processes, including the designation of critical biodiversity areas, the design and implementation of management plans, and ongoing monitoring efforts. The tool complements local partners’ resources to enhance the protection of key biodiversity areas in the regions in which Global Fishing Watch operates. Through the Marine Manager platform, Global Fishing Watch aims to provide transparent, reliable and accessible information that supports informed decisions and safeguards the ocean for the well-being of the communities that depend on it.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, April 23, 2026. Presented by: Roland Cormier and Michael Elliott of International Estuarine & Coastal Specialists (IECS). Description: There is long history of multi-disciplinary research dedicated to Ecosystem-based Approaches (EBA) for environmental policies and management plans – these combine to create Ecosystem-based Management (EBM). Research provides valuable insights into environmental impacts and their effects on biodiversity through ecosystem status overviews, impact assessments, and environmental quality reports generated from large data sets and models using conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative methods. Since policies establish the reasons for action and management outlines the priorities to be addressed, it is ultimately technical measures (Ecosystem-based Technical Measures, EBTM) that specify how managers of human activities can best reduce pressures on ecosystems. An applied science approach – Ecosystem-based Science (EBS) – is needed to inform the reliability and effectiveness of such technical measures. This talk will present this EBA-EBM-EBTM-EBS continuum and build on a previous talk given last year on recent advances in environmental science for management (see OCTO webinar July 2025 https://octogroup.org/recent-developments-in-the-sustainable-management-of-marine-resources). Most initiatives and examples presented will be related to marine environments, but some from other aquatic environments will also be used.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, April 16, 2026. Presented by: Kostas Topouzelis of Scidrones. Description: Marine litter is a significant environmental problem that can dramatically affect flora and fauna and have severe economic impacts on coastal communities, tourism, and fisheries. Currently, most mapping protocols for marine litter in the coastal environment rely on conventional on-site sampling, with limited ability to spatially display concentrations of coastal zone marine waste. To provide real-time, actionable data, Scidrones has created the Coastal Marine Litter Observatory (CMLO), an online platform that detects, maps, and monitors marine litter in the coastal zone using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and machine learning. UAS aerial images – collected using the Scidrones data acquisition protocol and uploaded to the CMLO platform – provide wide area coverage of actual litter, and machine learning algorithms are used to detect marine litter and categorize it (i.e., plastic, paper, metal, cloth, glass and ceramic, rubber, and wood). Marine debris in the coastal zone is then visualized through high-resolution density maps and spatiotemporal analytics, enabling scalable, operational monitoring and empowering stakeholders to take precise, data-driven action for cleaner beaches and coastlines. A free trial covering 1 km of coastline is available, allowing users to test and explore the platform’s capabilities.

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. Presented by: Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics. Description: Marine and coastal ecosystems provide many ecosystem services that are essential to human communities, including food, recreational opportunities, and protection of infrastructure from natural disasters. These benefits are not often framed in economic terms, which can lead to them being overlooked in decision-making. Communicating ecosystem services in economic terms can support more holistic decision-making that accounts for the full range of benefits these systems provide. In this webinar, Angela Fletcher and Glen Delaney of Earth Economics will introduce the fundamentals of ecosystem service valuation and demonstrate how they have applied these methods in marine and coastal contexts. Earth Economics is a nonprofit economic consultancy with 26 years of experience applying valuation techniques in decision-making, policy, and project implementation. They will begin with a brief overview of ecosystem services and valuation basics, then walk through three real-world case studies that illustrate how valuation can inform conservation, restoration, and policy decisions: a valuation study of kelp forests along the California coast; the use of valuation to inform a National Marine Sanctuary application for the St. George Unangan Heritage site; and how valuation can support funding for salmon habitat restoration in the Duckabush Estuary in Washington State.

This webinar originally aired on hursday, March 26, 2026. Presented by: Beth Pike, Jessica MacCarthy, and Nikki Harasta of the Marine Conservation Institute. Description: Where does the “3% of MPAs are effective” statistic come from? Would your work benefit from being able to see the number of fully and highly protected MPAs in different countries? Do you wish there was a platform for viewing High Seas MPAs? Maybe you want to see how many MPAs are protected from anchoring and aquaculture in addition to fishing, or maybe you want to view global MPAs by size class. Do you want to download the list of countries and the amount of EEZ that is fully or highly protected? Or do you want that list aggregated by sovereignty? The Marine Protection Atlas (MPAtlas) website has been tracking MPA effectiveness since 2012, but many folks do not know that it can do all this and more! Join this webinar to learn how to leverage this open access downloadable data for your conservation needs.

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Presented by: Vanessa Stelzenmüller of Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries. Description: Achieving both conservation and green energy goals demands new approaches that more effectively align marine spatial planning (MSP) with systematic conservation planning. As a forward-looking, integrative process, MSP is uniquely positioned to help deliver sustainable marine futures, especially when grounded in strong ecosystem considerations. Implementing an ecosystem-based approach to MSP (EB-MSP) is therefore essential. This webinar will present a stakeholder-informed Decision Support System (DSS) for EB-MSP developed through the Horizon Europe project MarinePlan (www.marineplan.eu). The DSS offers practical guidance for aligning MSP processes with spatial conservation and restoration priorities. This webinar will introduce core components, including the use of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) as a central driver of conservation planning, as well as standardized guidance for defining planning scenarios aimed at meeting global conservation targets protecting 30% of marine areas, with 10% under strict protection by 2030. Finally, the webinar will compare developed planning scenarios with current MSP practices and discuss key insights. Challenges, opportunities, and areas for improvement within existing governance processes to support more effective implementation of EB-MSP will all be highlighted.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 26, 2026. Presented by: Moderators Kayla Ripple and Nate Fedrizzi of Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation and panelists Ana Sequeira of Australian National University and MegaMove, Mark Erdmann of ReShark and Re:Wild, and Elizabeth Karan of Pew Charitable Trusts. Description: Selecting the right locations for high seas marine protected areas (MPAs) requires understanding where animals live and how they travel through the global ocean. A 2025 study provides timely insights into how many of the world’s most iconic marine species use international waters, and where protections could help them recover and thrive. The findings stem from a research project led by 2020 Pew Marine Fellow, Ana M.M. Sequeira, Associate Professor at the Australia National University and Research Director and Founder of MegaMove. This webinar will start with a short presentation highlighting key results from the study followed by an expert panel that will discuss how this information can help inform decision-making around the achievement of global conservation targets and the design of a future high seas MPA network.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 12, 2026. Presented by: Tom Hooper of Fishtek Marine Ltd & Eliot Miller of American Bird Conservancy. Description: The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Incubator supports innovative solutions that use finance, data, and economic tools to advance sustainable conservation outcomes. This webinar will highlight two conservation enterprises: one focused on enabling sustainable fisheries and the other on biodiversity measurement – both cases exploring how robust data, technology, and impact metrics can help make conservation enterprises investable, improve accountability, and mobilize capital for nature-positive outcomes. In the first half of the webinar, Tom Hooper of Fishtek Marine Ltd will talk about the development of an innovative, low-impact method for harvesting scallops using pots as an alternative to damaging dredging. Dredging currently accounts for the majority of scallop harvesting and is associated with high emissions and significant seabed damage. This project explores how investment coupled with the right incentives can support a transition toward lower-impact fisheries. A core focus of the work is to integrate robust, science-based models on social, economic and environmental costs and benefits to enhance investment and policy for this transformation. The project aims to enable investors and regulators to better evaluate and support sustainable fisheries transitions, with applications extending beyond the UK. In the second half of the webinar, Eliot Miller of American Bird Conservancy will present the BirdsPlus Index. The BirdsPlus Index is a science-based tool to measure, report, and validate biodiversity outcomes for conservation finance, impact investing, and nature-positive action. The Index combines data from acoustic recordings, AI-driven species identification, conservation value scoring, and remote sensing to generate site-level biodiversity insights and an overall ecological integrity score. By providing a scalable, credible, and on-the-ground approach to biodiversity measurement, the BirdsPlus Index addresses a critical gap in conservation finance: the need for efficient, reliable, and science-based outcome tracking.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Presented by: Judy Mann-Lang, Founder of MPA Day, and Katja Laingui, European Coordinator for MPA Day. Description: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are essential for conserving biodiversity, supporting sustainable livelihoods, and building climate resilience. MPA Day celebrated on August 1 annually is a coordinated global celebration to amplify collective efforts to protect the ocean. This webinar will highlight the evolution of MPA Day and its growing reach as more regions join in celebrating and promoting the value of MPAs. Judy Mann-Lang will discuss the origin of and motivation for MPA Day and its early growth, based on an understanding of the communication principles that underpin effective MPA management and public engagement. Katja Laingui will outline the steps taken to broaden MPA Day outreach into Europe and foster connections with emerging partners worldwide. Together, the speakers will share practical ways organizations and individuals can participate and help the initiative to grow in reach and impact.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, February 5, 2026. Presented by: Fernando Bretos of Cresta Coastal Network & Blanda Andrimamy and Léa Méléard of Miarakap. Description: The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Incubator supports the development of innovative finance solutions that deliver sustained conservation outcomes. This webinar showcases two trust-fund–based approaches that mobilize long-term capital for biodiversity conservation and climate resilience. In the first half of the webinar, Fernando Bretos of Cresta Coastal Network will present a pioneering effort to develop Cuba’s first debt conversion for nature and Conservation Trust Fund (CTF). This initiative aims to channel fiscal savings from debt relief into biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and sustainable fisheries management, benefiting more than 200 protected areas and critical coastal ecosystems. The creation of an independent CTF can ensure long-term financial sustainability and transparent governance. Building on successful debt conversions and other sustainable finance experiences in the Caribbean, the project seeks to strengthen ecosystem resilience, food security, and climate adaptation through durable, trust-based financing. In the second half of the webinar, Blanda Andrimamy and Léa Méléard of Miarakap will present the Mitsiry Biodiversity and Climate Technical Assistance Facility, a key part of a blended finance vehicle designed to support biodiversity-positive enterprises in Madagascar and Eastern and Southern Africa. The initiative combines a $50 million investment fund with a $5 million technical assistance facility (TAF) that provides grant-based technical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises. The TAF approach is designed to strengthen financial structuring, impact measurement, and governance, enabling businesses to scale while improving conservation outcomes. By aligning with global best practices in conservation finance, the TAF aims to attract donors and investors while catalyzing long-term, investment-ready conservation enterprises.