Webinars

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, June 9, 2026. Presented by: Helen Klimmek and Heather Bingham of UNEP-WCMC; Aishath Amal and Muhusina Abdul Rahman of the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy, Maldives; Uthpala Karunadipathi of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka; and Jamie Small, Holly Baigent, Beth Flavell, and Hannah Lawson of JNCC. Description: The Protected Planet Initiative plays a central role in tracking global progress towards Target 3 of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas (WDPCA) provides the official global indicator of progress towards the 30% coverage target… but how is the effectiveness of these areas tracked? This session spotlights the Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness (GD-PAME), which is hosted on protectedplanet.net alongside the WDPCA. The webinar will begin with a presentation from UNEP-WCMC summarizing the origins and evolution of the database and its role in collating data from diverse assessment tools and approaches. Then speakers from the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy, Maldives; Department of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka; and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), UK, will share firsthand their experiences of assessing the effectiveness of marine protected areas, including the process of reporting their findings to the global database. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session.

This webinar originally aired on Thursday, June 4, 2026. Presented by: Nik Strong-Cvetich and Diego Sancho-Gallegos of the Save The Waves Coalition. Description: Surf ecosystems – the land-to-sea interface that creates the conditions for breaking, rideable waves for surfing, and the flora, fauna, and human communities that depend on them – generate enormous economic and cultural value for coastal communities, yet they remain largely unrecognized as natural assets in coastal policy and planning. This webinar introduces Surfonomics – a methodology that quantifies the economic value derived from surfing in coastal communities – and illustrates how reframing a surf break as a natural asset can support coastal conservation. Drawing on Save The Waves Coalition’s work around the world, presenters will trace the evolution from economic valuation of surf breaks to include climate vulnerability assessments and the design of financial tools that can sustain surf-dependent economies under a changing climate. The featured case study focuses on Oriente Salvaje World Surfing Reserve in El Salvador, where the Save The Waves Coalition and partners are developing a parametric insurance pilot to protect surf ecosystems and the coastal communities that depend on them – the first of its kind. Attendees will come away with an understanding of natural resource valuation and its role in supporting conservation and the livelihoods that rely on the sustainable use of these resources.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Presented by: Wave Moretto of Oregon State University, Yudmila Chunguane of Love the Oceans, and Andrea de Moura Milanelli of The Thünen Institute. Description: Join us to hear from the winners of the 2026 Ocean Innovator Award opportunity, which recognizes and promotes innovative ocean-related research and applied solutions. Early career professionals from around the globe submitted creative presentations about their innovative projects related to coastal, ocean, and estuarine environments. The three winners were selected by a team of expert reviewers across several dimensions of the ocean and coastal career field. Winners include: 1st Place: Wave Moretto, “Fish, Kelp, and Habitat Health: Redefining how we monitor Oregon’s nearshore kelp forests”; 2nd Place: Yudmila Chunguane, “BEAM – Biodiversity Enhancement and Algal Management: Youth lead coral restoration in Jangamo Bay”; and 3rd Place: Andrea de Moura Milanelli, “PearlNet: An innovative gillnet modification to reduce bycatch of toothed whales in set net fisheries”.

This webinar originally aired on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Presented by: Jasmine Fournier of Ocean Sewage Alliance and Jenny Myton of Coral Reef Alliance. Description: Nearly half of the world’s wastewater flows untreated into our rivers and oceans, fueling biodiversity loss, threatening human health, and costing the global economy over $4 trillion annually. But here’s the good news: it’s solvable. Eliminating sewage pollution isn’t just good for the ocean; it’s good for business. Clean water supports healthier ecosystems, more resilient reefs, and sustainable coastal economies. It’s a win-win-win. This webinar brings together the vision for a Global Sewage Treaty with real-world experience from Coral Reef Alliance, an organization working at the intersection of marine conservation, wastewater management, and international policy. Jasmine Fournier, Executive Director of the Ocean Sewage Alliance, will lead the discussion on the Global Sewage Treaty, outlining the vision for a United Nations framework and the growing movement behind it. Joining the conversation is Jenny Myton, Global Lead, Protected Areas and Clean Water Solutions at Coral Reef Alliance. Drawing on her experience engaging with United Nations frameworks, including the Cartagena Convention, Jenny will share how global agreements can translate into local action. She will highlight Coral’s work in West End, Roatán, Honduras, where improved wastewater management has led to measurable gains in reef health and community resilience. Explore how a United Nations treaty could establish international standards, unlock financing, and support locally led solutions to end sewage pollution.

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.