Webinars

This webinar originally aired on March 16, 2022. Presented by: Sinclair Vincent, Anna Mortimer, and Kristen Linscott of Verra. Verra is a nonprofit organization that develops and provides standards that drive investment toward high-impact activities addressing environmental and social challenges across the globe. The rigorous process to meet Verra’s standards include independent verification and issuance of claims and credits. Verra’s standards are employed by a broad variety of governments, corporations and other private actors, and NGOs around the world. This webinar will present Verra’s programs in climate and sustainability focusing on standards in Blue Carbon to sequester carbon dioxide, Coastal Resilience to improve protection of human and environmental assets, and Plastic Waste Reduction to reduce waste ending up in the environment and incentivize recycling.

This webinar originally aired on March 1, 2022. Presented by: Ibon Galparsoro of AZTI. Marine renewable energies are gaining momentum around the world due to the need to develop safe energy sources that can help the world decarbonize and fight climate change. However, the full potential of energy from waves, currents and wind has yet to be tapped – in part due to uncertainty about how energy conversion devices may impact the marine environment. AZTI has developed a new tool – the WEC-ERA Tool – to assess the ecological risk of wave energy converters. This is an open-access tool for managers, decisionmakers, industry and others to evaluate the environmental risks associated with new wave energy projects. The tool evaluates how three different wave power conversion technologies – oscillating water column, oscillating wave surge converters, and wave turbines – affect the ecosystem. The system addresses all phases of the lifecycle of those power conversion technologies, from installation to operation to dismantling. This tool is intuitive and easy to use. The characteristics of the proposed installation are entered (i.e., number of units, total authorized surface, installed production capacity in megawatts, project lifespan in years, and area reserved for the equipment). Results consider possible impacts on the seabed and native bird, mammal, fish, reptile, and cephalopod species.

This webinar originally aired on February 24, 2022. Presented by: Steve Morrison of NOAA, Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia, and Keri Browder of the Ocean Conservancy. This webinar will present the NOAA Marine Debris Program and its partnerships to curb plastic waste. It will cover the program’s overarching portfolio and goals as well as one of its programs – Urban Ocean. Led by Ocean Conservancy and in close collaboration with University of Georgia’s New Materials Institute and Circularity Informatics Lab, Urban Ocean provides a platform for city governments to connect with one another as well as with community leaders, academia, and the private sector to develop, share, and scale solutions to the ocean plastics crisis while progressing their broader urban development priorities. The webinar will showcase Urban Ocean’s recent findings and outputs, including the results of the Circularity Assessment Protocol in each of the learning cities and the recently released Urban Ocean Toolkit.

This webinar originally aired on February 8, 2022. Presented by: Barbara Lausche of Mote Marine Laboratory and the IUCN-WCPA Marine Connectivity Working Group and Mary Collins of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. To help guide, enhance, and restore ecological connectivity of the ocean, the IUCN WCPA has released a new publication entitled “Marine Connectivity Conservation ‘Rules of Thumb’ for MPA and MPA Network Design.” This publication provides broadly applicable guidance on connectivity for MPA managers. This webinar will highlight several of the 13 ‘Rules of Thumb’ and how they can help guide integration of connectivity into conservation activities – ranging from interactions across the land-sea interface to the movement of currents and migratory species around the world and across political boundaries.

This webinar originally aired on 25 January 2022. Presented by: Allison Catalano from work conducted at Imperial College London. How does your organization handle failure? Failure or outcomes that are less than successful are not uncommon in conservation initiatives, yet we rarely discuss failure in systematic ways that make use of the learning opportunities failure presents. Here we will discuss alternate ways to think about failure and the individual and interpersonal dynamics that make it challenging.

This webinar originally aired on 17 November 2021. Presented by: Guillaume Le Port and Nastazia Femmami of BlueSeeds. The webinar described two support programs: visitor fees and concession agreements. These programs empower and build MPA staff’s capacity to manage their site or network’s local financing mechanisms over the long term.

This webinar originally aired on 13 October 2021. Presented by: Samuel Brody of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas at Texas A&M University at Galveston, Carlos Martin with the Brookings Institution’ Metropolitan Policy Program, and Carolyn Kousky of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Sea level rise will cause interrelated challenges in communities around the United States. The issues extend far beyond land use planning to affect housing policy, financing for public infrastructure, insurance, fostering healthier coastal ecosystems, and more.