Webinars

This webinar originally aired Thursday, December 12, 2024. Presented by: Ioannis Pappas and Tiffany Chan of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Description: The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) establishes and manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, known as the GSTC Criteria. The GSTC’s Destination Criteria for public policymakers and destination managers provide basic guidelines for destinations that wish to become more sustainable and offer governments, NGOs, and the private sector a starting point for developing sustainable tourism requirements. This webinar will present the GSTC’s resources for assessing the sustainability of coastal tourism and takeaways from destination assessments in coastal areas, including Heraklion, Corfu, Athens, Dubrovnik, and Kotor.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Presented by: Shaila Huq, Eric Teller, Kris Moreau, and Jona Raphael from SkyTruth. Description: Ocean oil pollution can have devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and the coastal communities that depend on them. Cerulean, developed by SkyTruth, is a new system to monitor the global ocean for oil pollution by detecting oil slicks in satellite imagery and identifying nearby vessels and offshore oil and gas infrastructure that could be the source of those slicks. Cerulean can support climate and marine conservation organizations, journalists, enforcement agencies, and individuals or agencies that want to protect their waters from oil pollution. Users can find potential slicks on a simple, map-based interface and generate reports showing likely sources of observed pollution, or use Cerulean’s API to integrate pollution data into their own maritime observation platforms. In addition to this incident-focused work, Cerulean is also starting to provide a broader picture of chronic oil pollution globally – the initial six-month pilot suggested that ships may be dumping more than 1.8 million barrels of oil per year into the ocean. This webinar will present Cerulean, how to use it, and early results on global hotspots for vessel and infrastructure oil slicks.

This webinar originally aired on Monday, November 4, 2024. Presented by: Milica Stankovic of Prince of Songkla University. Description: Southeast Asia’s seagrass ecosystems are highly diverse and productive and are potential global hotspots for carbon sequestration and storage. This webinar will summarize recent research and remaining knowledge gaps on the distribution, extent, species diversity, and carbon storage potential of seagrasses in Southeast Asia. It will also cover recent work on seagrass restoration in Thailand – including successes at increasing seagrass meadow areas and seagrass coverage over the past decades and more recent worrying declines in seagrass coverage and health.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. Presented by: Samantha King and Brendan Tougher of ProtectedSeas Marine Monitor (M2). Description: The ProtectedSeas Marine Monitor (M2) system is a shore-based monitoring platform that integrates X-band marine radar, AIS, and optical cameras with custom software to autonomously track and report on vessel activity in nearshore coastal environments. M2 is used for a variety of applications by government agencies, law enforcement personnel, researchers, and NGOs to better inform decision making related to human use in and around marine managed areas. M2 has over 250 unique users from 70 organizations and has been deployed to over 30 locations in 12 countries. This webinar will present an overview of the system and some current applications and answer questions about how it can be deployed in new areas.

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Presented by: Daphne Lecellier and Audrey Hasson of Mercator Ocean International. Description: The Integrated Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS), supported by GEO Blue Planet and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), is establishing a global ocean observing system to provide open access data on marine litter and provide coordination and guidance for the global marine debris community. An integrated global marine debris observing system is essential for accurately assessing the extent of marine debris pollution and determining mitigation actions. In the context of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee developing an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, IMDOS will foster the delivery of the necessary data to inform effective actions, set realistic targets, and develop, implement, and adjust policies. In addition, projects working on the global observation, monitoring, and forecasting of marine litter can make their work visible in the IMDOS directory of initiatives. Being part of this directory will also give practitioners direct access to all news and events that IMDOS will be organizing. For more information on the Integrated Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS) and to add information on relevant projects and initiatives, please visit https://imdos.org.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Presented by: Peter Jones of University College London. Description: The MPA Governance Project has analyzed 50 MPA case studies in 24 countries (Open Access source here) and finds : 1) a strong correlation between the effectiveness of MPAs and the number of governance incentives used; 2) that combinations of economic, legal, communication, knowledge and participatory incentives are employed in effective MPAs and mostly needed in less effective MPAs; and 3) that there are no ‘magic wand’ incentives or ‘best practice’ combinations of incentives that guarantee MPA effectiveness. This webinar will provide an overview of the 50 case studies through the conceptual lens of coevolutionary governance of social-ecological systems, discussing generally applicable findings and the wider importance of functionally integrated combinations of diverse incentives. It will show that effectiveness is not determined by any specific governance approaches or incentives, but rather the combination of a diversity of functionally integrated incentives, which interact with and support one another to promote MPA effectiveness and resilience, i.e. diversity is the key to resilience, both of species in ecosystems and incentives in governance systems.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, September 19, 2024. Presented by: Caroly Shumway of the Center for Behavior and Climate (CBC). Description: How do you motivate people to respond to adaptation messages and reduce their risk? The key is to feel that they can actually do something and that their action matters — what behavioral scientists call perceived behavioral control and response efficacy, respectively. Three years ago, the Center for Behavior and Climate’s webinar described nine principles behind behavior change for climate action for the oceans and beyond. In this webinar, the Center for Behavior and Climate will show you how to incorporate behavioral tools into your coastal adaptation efforts to improve the likelihood of success for community projects and policy initiatives alike. After learning about the behavior change process, we will teach you five evidence-based techniques (social norms, efficacy, legacy motivation, nudge, and framing to reach different audiences). Synthesizing the latest behavioral science from academics to practitioners, this transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary webinar offers a preview of CBC’s first-of-its-kind online course on Behavior Change for Climate Adaptation. Expected outcomes are increased understanding of how to apply behavior change in your own work.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, September 17, 2024. Presented by: Lucía Prieto Fustes of the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and MEET Network. Description: Accurately measuring the environmental and social impact of tourism in protected areas is essential for preserving these sensitive ecosystems, but it remains a significant challenge. To support protected and conserved area managers in assessing and managing these impacts and creating the enabling conditions for ecotourism to thrive, the Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-Med), as Secretariat of the MEET Network association, has developed a comprehensive set of tools and indicators based on the MEET standard. These tools are integrated into an online Ecotourism Indicator Monitoring Platform, which comprises four key components: 1) The ecological footprint calculator evaluates the environmental impact of tourism services in an itinerary across four categories: accommodation, food and drinks, mobility, and activities and services. It helps stakeholders analyse the ecological footprint of ecotourism experiences within protected areas. 2) The social impact assessment of ecotourism suppliers quantifies the social impact generated by ecotourism service providers, suppliers, and facilities within an itinerary, focusing on the perspectives of workers, local communities, value chains, and visitors. 3) The enabling conditions assessment of the destination introduces a set of criteria for establishing sustainable tourism practices, aiming to protect natural resources, support local communities, and promote responsible ecotourism. This tool incorporates a simplified version of the IUCN Green List global standard for protected areas. 4) The product quality assessment of an ecotourism itinerary evaluates critical aspects related to product and itinerary design, safety protocols, supplier selection, and more.

This webinar originally aired on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. Presented by: Jenna Sullivan-Stack of Oregon State University, Steven Mana‘oakamai Johnson of Cornell University, Sylvaine Giakoumi of Sicily Marine Centre, and Beth Pike of Marine Conservation Institute. Description: In this webinar, experts from around the world will share insights from assessments of MPAs using The MPA Guide. The MPA Guide is a science-based, policy relevant framework that provides a common language about the expected biodiversity outcomes of MPAs based on their Stage of Establishment and Level of Protection considering key Enabling Conditions. Users from managers to decision-makers to researchers have applied The MPA Guide across more than 10 countries and territories to date. In this webinar, leaders from some of these assessments will share lessons learned and key needs for MPAs in these contexts, including the largest 100 MPAs globally.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, July 25, 2024. Presented by: Catarina Frazão Santos of the University of Lisbon. Description: Climate-smart marine spatial planning (MSP) is an idea whose time has come. Yet, it has not been implemented properly in national waters (with dynamic and forward-looking practices) and not at all on the high seas. A new five-year project (PLAnT) will explore how to plan for sustainable ocean use and conservation in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean under global change, using it as a testbed for climate-smart MSP for the high seas and national waters globally. This webinar will present key components of climate-smart MSP, together with the upcoming work to be developed under PLAnT. Work to be developed under PLAnT includes: 1) identifying existing conditions for ocean uses and resources; 2) imagining multiple futures using a mixed-methods approach; 3) identifying climate actions to be supported through MSP and ways to ensure dynamic and flexible governance and management approaches; 4) unravelling the political, social, and economic factors that influence (and limit) MSP development and implementation in Antarctica; and 5) exploring lessons learned to be applied to other regions on both climate-smart MSP and MSP in international waters.