Webinars

Wednesday, April 2, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC/5 pm BST/6 pm CEST. Presented by: Bob Farrell, WildAid. Description: Enforcement is a critical, but often overlooked, component of properly managing priority marine areas. The cost of enforcement can also be of concern. We will discuss WildAid’s “BLUEPRINT for Marine Protection™” a highly effective tool designed to evaluate and focus capacity building effort for enforcement. We will also discuss the use of various technologies to enhance enforcement and mitigate cost. We will discuss the use of Skylight and Global Fishing Watch as potential sources of intelligence that are free to most users. We will also discuss our partnership with Open Ocean Robotics and the use of their on-water technology to support enforcement.

Wednesday, April 16, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC/5 pm BST/6 pm CEST. Presented by: Christine Ward-Paige of eOceans and Mike Appleton of Re:Wild. Description: Protected areas don’t protect themselves—dedicated people do. On land, the protected area workforce, including rangers, plays a critical role in safeguarding biodiversity, yet for decades their contributions were undervalued, leading to job insecurity, lack of resources, and limited career pathways. A global terrestrial workforce study has shown that the workforce is too small to deliver global expectations and has helped lead the way in defining who rangers are, quantifying their contributions, and advocating for better support, training, and rights. Now, we’re expanding this effort to the ocean. To achieve 30×30 — estimated at 345,000 new MPAs — the world needs a massive scale-up of skilled, high-quality jobs to manage and enforce Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) effectively, especially in the face of diversifying ocean economies and accelerating ocean warming and acidification. But how many people currently work in MPAs? What do they do? What challenges do they face? How do they overcome these challenges? And what will it take to build a workforce capable of managing a truly global MPA network? Join us to explore what we know so far, what we hope to uncover, and how you can get involved. Your input can help shape the future of the MPA workforce—and, ultimately, the success of ocean conservation worldwide.

Wednesday, May 14, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC. Presented by: Claire Colegrove and Alex Driedger of ProtectedSeas. Description: While hundreds of nations have committed to the global 30×30 target, much work remains to reach that goal and sustainably manage the remaining 70%. Regulatory protections are crucial for marine management efficacy, and accurate data on in-place management measures are essential for assessing existing marine protections and informing the creation of new areas. However, collecting and interpreting marine regulations can be challenging due to often unavailable or difficult-to-access legal instruments. Overlapping measures and siloed management add further complexities. ProtectedSeas Navigator contains data on worldwide regulations for MPAs, fishery management areas, and other place-based marine managed areas (MMAs) and considers restrictions cumulatively across overlapping areas using spatial aggregation techniques to provide insights into overall protection. This cumulative analysis of regulations in overlapping marine managed areas offers insights into overall uses and protection across ocean spaces, enabling better protection assessments, planning, and management. As an example, initial analysis in California revealed several ocean spaces where individual MMA protections were minimal, yet when combined with protections from other overlapping MMAs, resulted in more highly regulated spaces with enhanced protection.