Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
The Community Voice Method: Amplifying community voices in decision making processes
Tuesday, September 29, 11 am US EDT/8 am US PDT/3 pm UTC/4 pm BST/5 pm CEST. Presented by: Amdeep Sanghera and Emily Bunce of Marine Conservation Society, UK. Description: For marine conservation initiatives to be effective and ethical, it is crucial that the views and ideas of local communities and resource users be represented in decision making. Community Voice Method (CVM) is a holistic and inclusive way of stimulating more meaningful and equitable community engagement in natural resource policy development, decision-making and management. Engaging with community members in a way that seeks their views and encourages discussion on marine issues, CVM combines arts-based social research with best practice in stakeholder engagement to deliver insights and conversations which can support positive, constructive, and enduring relationships and improved outcomes for people and nature. This webinar will present an overview of this film-based transdisciplinary approach, its origin, its application within the context of the UK and the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories, and its impact on people and nature. In addition, the webinar will feature an existing project in the Turks and Caicos where significant resources are being applied to the upskilling of local partners on the method, reducing the territory’s reliance on external researchers and resulting in a more locally-led project.
Seagrass Loss and Restoration: Case Studies from the Indo-Pacific
Wednesday, September 30, at 0400 UTC. Presented by: Dr. Rohani Ambo Rappe of Hasanuddin University and Dr. Jennifer Verduin of Murdoch University. Description: Seagrass meadows are vital to food security, livelihoods, and coastal resilience across the Indo-Pacific. They provide gleaning and small-scale fishing opportunities for the region’s most food-insecure households, as well as essential habitat for commercial fisheries. They also protect coastal communities by reducing wave energy and erosion, buffering storm surges, stabilizing sediments, and filtering pollutants, pathogens, and excess nutrients to improve water quality. Greater Southeast Asian has the largest global extent of tropical seagrass, but over half is degraded. Restoration projects are underway across the region, with varying degrees of success. A recent synthesis of this work identified several factors—including species, restoration methods, light levels, wave energy, and water depth—that are associated with greater survival and establishment of restored seagrass. In this webinar seagrass restoration experts Dr. Rohani Ambo-Rappe and Dr. Jennifer Verduin will share lessons from two of the most extensive and well-studied seagrass restoration programs in the region, including: 1) The use of simple, low-cost restoration methods in the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2) Work to replant foundational seagrass species in partnership with Indigenous traditional owners in Shark Bay, Western Australia. The presenters will discuss why seagrass loss occurred, describe the restoration approaches used and their successes and challenges, and share lessons learned about what works, what doesn’t, and why. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A, providing attendees an opportunity to ask the presenters questions.
Designing High Seas MPAs that work: Practical solutions for monitoring, control and surveillance
Thursday, October 8, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC/5 pm BST/6 pm CEST. Presented by: Klaudija Cremers, Julien Rochette, and Alexandra Oliveira Pinto of IDDRI. Description: The credibility of future high seas marine protected areas (HSMPAs) established under the BBNJ Agreement will depend on their effective implementation and enforcement. Experiences from existing MPAs and high seas governance show that monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) is a decisive factor for compliance and enforcement. While the remoteness of areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) poses major challenges, recent technological advances offer practical, scalable and cost-effective solutions, provided they are embedded in a broader compliance strategy. States and coalitions championing HSMPAs should therefore integrate a site-specific compliance strategy that includes MCS activities into their proposal from the outset, combining emerging technologies with complementary policy, legal, technical and cooperation measures. Over the past two years, IDDRI has conducted extensive research on MCS tools and services, including through interviews and expert consultations. This work resulted in a Guide that aims to support States and stakeholders in integrating MCS considerations into HSMPA proposals. This webinar will present the key findings of this work.
Past Webinars
Designing and Managing MPAs for Sharks and Rays
This webinar originally aired on 4 September, 2019. Overfishing is a major threat to the world’s 1,200+ species of sharks and rays, and many elasmobranch…
Sargassum Watch from Space
This webinar originally aired on 27 August, 2019 The Sargassum Watch System (SaWS) uses satellite data and numerical models to detect and track pelagic Sargassum…
New technologies to revolutionize sustainable fishing in the digital age: EDF’s Smart Boat Initiative
This webinar originally aired on 22 August, 2019. Pioneering technologies and new platforms can turn fishing vessels into “smart boats” and redefine fishing and how…
Management and evolution give hope to coral reefs facing the effects of climate change
This webinar originally aired on 1 August, 2019. A new study just published in Nature Climate Change shows that management that takes evolution and adaptation…
Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with Tourism-Related Tools
This webinar originally aired on 17 July, 2019. Coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity, and their value for recreation is one of the…
Conservation targets and how much of the world do we need to protect?
This webinar originally aired on 11 July, 2019. What should global conservation targets be beyond 2020? The Beyond the Aichi Targets Task Force, appointed by…
A Toolkit for Managing Cultural Resources in Marine Protected Areas
This webinar originally aired on 2 July, 2019. What are cultural resources anyway? Often MPA managers are experts in natural resources management, and lack background…
Massively Destructive Coral Reef Damage from Giant Clam Shell Digging in the South China Sea: Birth, Death and Rebirth
This webinar originally aired on 13 June, 2019. The South China Sea supplies approximately 15% of the world’s fish and helps support ~38 million coastal…
Finance Tools for Coral Reef Conservation: An Overview
This webinar originally aired on 05 June 2019. The Wildlife Conservation Society, in collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance and in support of the 50…
Building Knowledge, Capacity, and Collaborations to Develop Indicators for Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in Case Studies across the World
This webinar originally aired on 22 May 2019. This webinar was presented by Beth Fulton of CSIRO and Keith Sainsbury of the University of Tasmania…