Voices in Ocean Planning

We are pleased to announce the release of six new videos in our Voices in Ocean Planning: Lessons from Leaders series!

You may learn about developing outreach materials for stakeholders, best practices for internal communication during an MSP process, communicating MSP through photos and maps, and many more tidbits of knowledge from leaders in the ocean planning field.

The Voices in Ocean Planning: Lessons from Leaders video series, produced by OpenChannels and PacMARA, offers wisdom and guidance on ocean management from experienced professionals in our field. You may view any of the 11 videos in the series at http://openchannels.org/videos/oc.

So far topics and speakers have included:

* Communication between stakeholders and the management authority: Giuseppe DiCarlo, Head of the Marine Protected Areas Program, WWF Mediterranean – Italy

* Ensuring active participation and engagement from stakeholders in the planning process: Rob Campellone, Landscape Conservation Design Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Washington, D.C.

* Needs assessments for marine protected area planning processes: Anne Walton, Program Director, International MPA Capacity Building Program, NOAA

* Presenting complicated information to stakeholders: Hedley Grantham, Director of Spatial Analysis and Planning, Conservation International – Washington, D.C.

* Management plans for planning processes and budgeting: Paul Hotham, Regional Director of the Eurasia Programme, Fauna & Flora International – Germany

* Developing outreach materials for stakeholders: Sean Weseloh McKeane, Coastal Advisor, Department of Fisheries & Aquaculture – Nova Scotia, Canada

* Internal communication during an MSP process: David Beauchesne, Research Professional/Assistant Coordinator for a Feasibility Study for a MPA in the Magdalen Islands – Quebec, Canada

* Harmonizing spatial data: Jan Tjalling van der Wal, Researcher/MESMA Project Leader: Ecotoxicology, Wageningen IMARES – The Netherlands

* Communicating Marine Spatial Planning through photos and maps: Lene Buhl-Mortensen, Senior Forsker, Institute of Marine Research – Bergen, Norway

* Building trust in a planning process: Karel Allard, Coordinator for Conservation Planning, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada – New Brunswick, Canada

* Why you should wait for good data: Celia Vassiliki, Hellenic Center for Marine Research – Athens, Greece

Thank you in advance for helping us get the word out!

Charting a Course for Sustainable Prosperity

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is critical to the sustainable use of natural resources; however, taking EBM from the conceptual to operational stage is daunting. “Charting a Course for Sustainable Prosperity” is an intuitive architecture to guide implementation of EBM. The Chart is intended to provide a framework for consistent legislation, planning, regulation, enforcement, monitoring and adaptive management, spanning jurisdictional and geographic scales. By outlining objectives relevant to marine multiple EBM efforts, the Chart acts as a guide for processes in different phases of defining, incorporating, planning, and implementing marine EBM.

The Chart describes strategic outcomes that depend on necessary and sufficient intermediate and primary outcomes. The ultimate desired outcome (i.e., the purpose of marine EBM) is to ensure “sustainable prosperity”. Strategic outcomes necessary to reach this goal have been grouped into the people, planet, and profit categories of the triple bottom-line, in this case termed Sustainable Economies, Human Well-being & Community Resilience, and Ecosystem Health. Enabling outcomes are included in (or between) the capacity areas of Governance, Natural Resources, Knowledge, and Capacity Building.

The architecture of the Chart has drawn upon success stories from the past to guide accomplishments of the future. It can be used in a number of ways, depending on the detail necessary for each management context. In its general form, the Chart can help governments and stakeholders examine key issues and align expectations around EBM components at a broad level. When further articulated in the context of a particular management problem, the Chart will help relate and explain specific aspects of resource use and conservation planning, identify and prioritise important linkages and dependencies, and direct the development of implementation plans.

MEBMI Chart

MEBMI Chart reduced +arrows

The Chart was refined from outputs of the Marine EBM Implementation Workshop by: Heather Coleman (PacMARA), Edward Gregr (UBC IRES), Melissa Evanson (Fisheries and Oceans Canada), Nicholas Irving (Parks Canada), Grant Murray (Vancouver Island University), James McIsaac (Commercial Fishing Caucus), Anoma Patirana (Environment Canada), and Norma Serra-Sogas (PacMARA).

To read a short overview of the purpose and how to use the Chart, please click here.

PacMARA Convenes Dialogue on Marine Ecosystem-based Management

On 9-10 March 2010, PacMARA held a Marine Ecosystem-based Management (EBM) Workshop for Canada’s Pacific coast and ocean in Sidney, BC.  Participants from academia, federal government, First Nations, industry, provincial government, and NGOs came together to contribute to the ongoing dialogue known as the Marine EBM Gaps Challenge Dialogue.

The workshop was successful in producing a set of guiding draft Marine EBM Principles relevant to British Columbia, a Logic Model that summarizes rationale, drivers and desired outcomes, and suggested innovative approaches to joint planning, shared governance and enhanced collaboration.

The Working Group was composed of:
Jon Chamberlain, BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands; Kai Chan, University of British Columbia; Heather Coleman, PacMARA; Steve Diggon, Coastal First Nations; Dan Edwards, Area A Crab Association; Kim Houston, Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Michelle Molnar and Bill Wareham, David Suzuki Foundation.

Documents available from the Marine EBM Gaps Workshop:

View the Workshop Summary.

View the DRAFT Marine EBM Logic Model

Marxan Good Practices Workshop and Report

PacMARA and the BCMCA (BC Marine Conservation Analysis) jointly hosted a workshop on 26-27 May 2009 at the University of British Columbia to assemble the best available information regarding Marxan analyses. The intent of the workshop was to draw on the knowledge and experience of Marxan experts representing a broad spectrum of application users and researchers.

The workshop was attended by 29 invited experts and observers from Australia, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Washington DC, Victoria and Vancouver. The attendees included government staff, university researchers, graduate students, NGO staff, Marxan consultants, professional economists and climate change scientists. Attendees participated in one of three workshop sub-groups (robust analysis, human use, climate change) and periodically reported back on their progress during plenary sessions.

Objectives of the workshop were to:
1. Assess and report on the applicability of the Marxan Good Practices Handbook (MGPH) for the BCMCA project;
2. Encourage the use of good Marxan practices in BC in order to support ecosystem-based management and an integrated management approach;
3. Discuss and develop guidance on sections of the MGPH that currently do not provide sufficient or clear guidance;
4. Obtain expert guidance on proper and robust use of Marxan, specifically for the BCMCA project;
5. Obtain guidance on the robust development of cost layers (e.g., human uses) and how to best use Marxan’s cost function to achieve BCMCA’s scenario objectives.

View the Marxan Workshop Proceedings Report here.

Bowie Seamount Science Monitoring Workshop

Bowie Seamount is located 180 kilometres west of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in the northeast Pacific, off the coast of British Columbia. Also known by the Haida as Sgaan Kinghlas, which means “Supernatural Being Looking Outward,” Bowie Seamount is the shallowest known in Canada’s Pacific waters. It rises from a depth of approximately 3,000 metres to within 24 metres of the sea surface. A marine protected area in the vicinity of Bowie Seamount will protect a complex of three offshore seamounts – Bowie, Hodgkins and Davidson seamounts.

Download the scoping study for the development of scientific advice on Bowie Seamount here:Guénette, S. and Alder, J. 2008. Scoping study for the development of scientific advice on Bowie Seamount. Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association.

Working closely with DFO staff, PacMARA designed and delivered a workshop and generated a CSAS report on the establishment of a science monitoring program for the Bowie Seamount Marine Protected Area. This workshop was the first time that PacMARA used the innovative Challenge Dialogue for creating effective communication and structuring the response from the workshop.

PacMARA was assisted in this undertaking by Terje Vold (Innovation Expedition), Dave Nicolson (Black Coffee Consulting) and Caroline Dawe (WWF-Canada). Rosaline Canessa (CORAL – University of Victoria) spent considerable time editing the final report.

Marine Ecosystem Based Management Knowledge Gaps Study

The Data Gaps Inventory project identified major gaps in marine data in BC, and was based on an initial scoping study completed in 2004. The goal of this project has been to identify what data currently exist in BC and where they can be found (emphasizing geo-referenced datasets), as well as where the knowledge gaps lie.

The Inventory also identifies older datasets that are not in an accessible electronic format, since they could be valuable sources of data in the future if funding becomes available to convert them into electronic format. Generally, the digitization of data is much less expensive than new surveys, and can add historical perspective. This analysis will help direct future marine research and digitization priorities in BC.

Jacqueline Booth Consulting has completed a study and series of focus groups to determine the general state of readiness for marine EBM in BC. The objective of this report is to help inform the EBM community of practice about information and data gaps existing in the EBM framework in BC marine waters and plan to fill the gaps. Research indicates that gaps exist in the policy framework, management instruments, decision tools and methods and there is no formal performance evaluation framework.

This document provides background material for input to the PacMARA Marine EBM Gaps Workshops. During the workshops members of the marine EBM community of practice will work together to prioritize the gaps and issues that must be resolved to help move EBM forward in the BC marine environment. This document supports that objective employing a four step approach:

1. Identify knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to proceed with EBM in BC marine waters.
2. Catalogue what data / information are currently available to fill these needs for BC marine waters.
3. Determine what data / information gaps exist for implementation of EBM.
4. Research possible methods for addressing the knowledge gaps by prioritizing the filling of needed data / information.

Report: Marine Ecosystem Based Management Knowledge Gaps Study

Appendices: EBM Gaps Appendix A, EBM Gaps Appendix B

Database: EBM Knowledge Gaps Database
Instructions: This database contains the identified data gaps from the PNCIMA EAOR. The gaps can be sorted by topic (biodiversity, habitat, function, stressor, activity) or subtopic (pollutants, invasive species, noise etc).
The database also includes a list of possible participants for the workshops, which has been gleaned from the recent biodiversity and PNCIMA EBM workshops. There are report forms for displaying all of the information.

Marine Experts Workshop

PacMARA partnered with the B.C. Conservation Planning Tools Committee (CPTC) to lead a workshop with a goal of reviewing current and planned marine biodiversity spatial analyses and conservation planning assessment tools available in BC. The workshop was also held to identify how the tools can be used individually and together as an assessment “system” of the status of marine biodiversity and as a foundation of a conceptual framework to guide conservation planning in BC.

The workshop was funded by GeoConnections and Natural Resources Canada. The summary, completed in November 2005, can be downloaded here.

Coordinating BC Input to the Marine InVEST Program

Assisting in the development of strategies to develop and test methods for trade-offs analysis for ecosystem services (Marine InVEST).  PacMARA hosted a 2 day workshop to solicit input from a diverse set of stakeholders who were interested in the development of ecosystem service trade-off tools that could be used in BC.
Ed Gregr, Dave Nicolson and Michele Patterson played a key role in assisting the ED and program director deliver this workshop and associated report.  Former Board Member Nigel Haggan did exemplary service collecting notes and compiling the draft report.