PRE AND POST IMCC Workshop & Focus Group Summary Descriptions
All pre/post workshops and focus groups will be held at the University of Victoria Campus. Room numbers and locations will be sent to registered participants.
Please don't register for concurrent events on the same day, especially if you register for the Marxan workshops on a separate website.
Please see additional accommodation information for information about on-campus accommodation during the pre/post congress workshops the pre/post congress workshops or contact IMCC.Victoria@gmail.com for more information.
Friday May 13, 2011
Full Day Workshops & Focus Groups
(8:30AM - 5:00PM) includes lunch
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WS 13 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 40 |
Since early 2005, The Nature Conservancy, has worked with partners to train coral reef managers on methods of building resilience into the design and management of MPA networks in the face of global climate change. Over the past two years, these trainings have expanded to the development of an online course, a training of trainers workshop in addition to the continued expansion of the Reef Resilience Toolkit. Prior to 2009, over 300 managers participated in in-person trainings on how to build resilience into their network designs, zoning schemes, monitoring and other management activities. A network of practitioners has formed as a result of these trainings. During 2009-2010, these trainings expanded into an online course where over 360 marine conservation professionals enrolled. In addition, 26 conservation professionals from over 20 Caribbean countries became Reef Resilience local trainers. The workshop will begin with an introduction to the Reef Resilience Toolkit (www.reefresilience.org). We will then move into four case studies provided by professionals who have been trained as trainers by our program. The workshop will also feature case studies on the application of Reef Resilience principles, including examples from Indonesia and the Virgin Islands. Finally, the workshop will also feature a discussion on the expansion of the Reef Resilience program.
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WS 36 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 30 |
The North American Arctic is one of the last places on the planet that has not experienced large-scale commercial fishing. Managing a potential fishery poses a major challenge for government agencies, Aboriginal organizations, and scientists: how do we develop and implement an ecosystem-based fisheries management regime for Arctic waters in a time of rapid change, with limited scientific knowledge of the ecosystem in question? The proposed two-day workshop begins by analyzing two recent, innovative Arctic fisheries ecosystem-based fisheries management regimes: the Fisheries Management Plan for the United States Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and the Integrated Fisheries Management Framework for the Canadian Beaufort Sea. Day One will take place before the Congress and provides an opportunity to bring together scientists and community members from the United States and Canada. The group will review what has been done, what is planned, and what else is needed to implement each fisheries ecosystem-based management regime. Day Two will be a 2-hour symposium during the Congress. A panel of marine science, policy, and conservation experts will place the outcomes from Day One into the wider context of Arctic and global fisheries management, identifying common lessons and evaluating the likely effectiveness of the approaches underway in the two case study regions.
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WS 56 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 15 |
Through presentations, discussions and, most importantly, hands on exercises, this workshop introduces participants to tools and practices of collaborative GIS for exploring marine conservation and marine spatial planning. By necessity marine spatial planning involves an array of government and non-government stakeholders. GIS and spatial algorithms such as Marxan and Marxan with Zones are now standard in the spatial planning toolbox. Science-based Ecosystem Based Management must underlie marine spatial planning. Collaborative GIS weaves together these imperatives, facilitating the direct and joint involvement of stakeholders in-group spatial decision processes. Participants will work in small groups and interact with a multi-touch panel to collaboratively and interactively explore various marine spatial planning scenarios (e.g., zoning) that require designating areas for marine conservation. Tools will include ESRI ArcMap and Marxan with Zones. Participants will explore spatial data for a case study area in British Columbia and together generate planning scenarios. The scenarios will be assessed and compared against ecological and social criteria, and all the group’s scenarios will be displayed on a video wall for comparison and discussion. New scenarios will be generated for comparison. This workshop complements the post conference workshop Building Web-Based and Map-Centric Coastal Stewardship Toolboxes Using Open-Standards Precepts and Open-Source Code.
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WS 63 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 35 |
At a time when funding for conservation efforts is become more scarce, resources allocated to outreach and education must be considered against a more rigorous cost/benefit analysis. While outreach and education must remain priority considerations and many efforts involve significant activity, too little data exists on what specifically is achieved as long-term, meaningful outcomes as a result of these efforts. Formative and summative evaluation and assessment of learning outcomes must receive closer attention and employment by conservation practitioners. This workshop will explore informal learning theory, pedagogic skills, and provide a continuum of evaluation and assessment approaches, from basic to more comprehensive, in an effort to provide participants with a practical and immediately useful criteria for determining how to incorporate educational assessment into any outreach effort.
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WS 84 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 70 |
Citizen Science can be valuable method for establishing and expanding public engagement in marine conservation. Citizen science can help to: * Educate people about what MPAs are and why they are important * Overcome resistance to establishment of MPAs * Provide additional resources for management * Improve public understanding of, and connection to, MPAs There are many examples of where citizen science has contributed to the establishment, management and monitoring of MPAs globally. However, there have been relatively few efforts to systematically evaluate how effective these programs have been and what might be done to improve citizen science efforts in MPAs. This workshop will invite short case studie presentations of citizen science efforts in support of marine conservation and then focus group discussions that seek to establish: a) examples of good practice(s) that have led to positive MPA management outcomes b) examples of approaches and methods that have failed to deliver useful MPA management outcomes; and c) identify areas of emerging MPA management practice where citizen science might be deployed in future. Outcomes will be compiled in a booklet and online publication that can be shared with citizen science practitioners and MPA managers.
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FG 52 MAX PARTICPANTS: 30 |
Structure-forming deep corals have been shown to provide important ecosystem functions in the deep-sea environment, but they are generally slow growing and fragile, making them and their associated communities vulnerable to human-induced impacts, particularly physical disturbance, the State of Deep Coral Ecosystems of the United States: 2007 report found. Since then, there has not been a comprehensive status review of US deep-sea corals. How much has deep-sea coral science advanced over the years? Do we know more about deep-sea corals distribution, life history, and ecological value? What have the fieldwork and lab work since 2007 told us about the status of deep-sea corals? How has the level of protection for deep-sea corals changed? This focus group session will delve into such questions across the US region by region to take a fresh look at the important yet vulnerable living structures and the biodiversity they support. The session, organized by NOAA's Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program, will establish the current level of understanding on deep-sea coral ecosystems "from their biology to the threats they face" and recommend approaches for periodic reporting on the status of these resources. The output will be a revised status review to be published in 2012. It will directly inform NOAA's management actions for deep-sea coral ecosystems, making marine science matter.
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FG 79 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 25 |
Building capacity for marine resource management from within country is long recognized as a major challenge to marine conservation, particularly in tropical developing countries such as small island states that may lack access to traditional educational institutions. In 2009, Conservation Biology published an article titled, One hundred questions of Importance to the Conservation of Biological Diversity. Question number 69 is What is the cost effectiveness of different approaches for rapidly expanding professional conservation capacity, and how does this vary with circumstances and among countries? This focus group seeks to make progress towards answering this question by drawing lessons learned from programs around the world focused on building capacity in marine conservation professionals. Included in the focus group would be marine conservation professionals who have coordinated large-scale capacity building programs throughout the world, including the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Coral Triangle Region, and the Pacific Islands. Also included in the discussion will be participants in various capacity building programs who are now working locally to pay their education forward. We would discuss the lessons learned from each of several different approaches to building capacity, including long-term success, cost effectiveness, and applicability for expansion into different regions.
MARXAN WORKSHOPS (also at the University of Victoria)
PLEASE REGISTER FOR THESE WORKSHOPS AT http://pacmara.org/events-workshops
12 May
MAX PARTICIPANTS: 30
Marxan for Managers (why and when to use decision support tools for marine
conservation planning)
PacMARA (Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association), EBM Tools
Network
This lecture and discussion-based workshop will cover (1) international marine conservation planning approaches with a focus on Canadian national policy, successes and lessons learned; (2) the use and appropriateness of a variety of decision support tools for marine planning processes (e.g., tools for site selection, tropic modelling, ecosystem modelling, management planning, and ecosystem services), and how suitable toolkits can be assembled; (3) Marxan/Marxan with Zones - how the tool works, what it does, strengths, limitations, and why and when to use it; (4) case study presentations from the BCMCA (BC Marine Conservation Analysis) and Parks Canada. Group discussions on relevant topics will also be held throughout the workshop by each session leader.
13 May
MAX PARTICIPANTS: 24
Intermediate Marxan Training (including a Marxan with Zones Forum)
PacMARA (Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association)
This interactive course will be somewhat open to areas of interest to participants, but will be based on the following topics: (1) Selecting planning units, including the benefits, deficiencies and influences of each type; (2) Calibration beyond species penalty factor and boundary length modifier; (3) Sensitivity testing, including the influence of a data layer and of planning units; (4) Communication with stakeholders; (5) Developing a cost layer; (6) Selecting features; (7) Selecting targets; (8) Data processing considerations; and (9) Marxan with Zones. Please note that Marxan experience is required.
Friday May 13, 2011
Half Day Morning Workshops & Focus Groups
(8:30AM - 12:00PM)
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WS 29 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 40 |
The recently released U.S. Ocean Policy, including the Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, calls for the development of regional data portals and analytical tools designed to support comprehensive Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP). CMSP will require a robust national and regional spatial data framework to inform analyses, as well as intuitive and effective decision support tools, that enable science-based spatial management. This workshop will focus on partnership and audience needs for CMSP portal development at the regional and national levels and will identify common threads that can be used to build a geospatial technology support network for regional CMSP.
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WS 42 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 50 |
Mapping and modeling ecosystem services can elucidate the true costs and beneï¬ts of natural resource management options, and can lead to improved decision-making and outcomes for people and the ecosystems on which we depend. Marine environments provide a number of important benefits and services, which are increasingly compromised by a variety of human activities. Despite their importance, the ecosystem processes that people rely on for food, recreation, and coastal protection are poorly understood, scarcely monitored and challenging to include in decision-making. The Marine Initiative of the Natural Capital Project is dedicated to using the framework of ecosystem services to inform management of marine and coastal waters. Our team has developed Marine InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs), an ArcGIS tool to support integration of these values into decision-making. In this workshop, participants will be shown how Marine InVEST is used to map ecosystem services, from details of model formulation to implementation in ArcGIS. The following types of services will be addressed: fisheries, aquaculture, wave energy generation, coastal protection, recreation, and habitat and water quality. We will walk through exercises with sample data for the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, and also discuss application of the tool in Belize, Puget Sound, and Chesapeake and Galveston Bays.
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WS 51 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 40 |
This focus group will address quantitative bycatch limits of long-lived marine vertebrates (i.e. marine megafauna) in national and international commercial fisheries. The organizers are involved in developing new tools to quantify population impacts of take on data-poor marine megafauna. The IMCC provides a unique opportunity to bring together leading international scientists, managers, and policy experts to focus on three objectives: (1) to educate scientists and managers about the availability of these tools, (2) to gain insights from managers concerning obstacles and solutions to implementing these tools, and (3) to promote adoption of quantitative take limits across activities and political boundaries. Bycatch mortality is one of the most serious threats for many populations of marine megafauna. However, effective management is challenging due to multi-jurisdictional species’ ranges and fisheries, multiple threats, and data-poor populations. Consequently, the effects of many bycatch policies on recovery or maintenance of populations has not been quantified. We need the combined expertise of fisheries scientists, field biologists and theoretical ecologists to develop appropriate bycatch limits that are based on life history considerations. At the same time, effective implementation requires input from management and policy: what level of monitoring and data evaluation are feasible, and what tools are likely to be both useful and acceptable to stakeholders?
Friday May 13, 2011
Half Day Afternoon Workshops & Focus Groups
(1:30PM - 5:00PM)
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WS 1 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 30 |
Science blogs are a fun and effective way for scientists to educate the public about important issues. David Shiffman blogs about shark science and conservation for the marine biology blog SouthernFriedScience.com, and will be teaching participants how to write their own science blogs. By the end of this workshop, participants will know how to write a science blog, and everyone will leave with their own fully-functional science blog! Bring a laptop and a name for your blog.
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WS 19 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 40 |
As marine spatial planning (MSP) becomes a priority for the United States, an increasing number of states, and multiple nations around the world, there is a real need to: (1) identify the visualization and decision support tools (collectively referred to here as DSTs) that are currently available to ocean and coastal planners and managers (users); (2) understand why they were developed and where they have been used; (3) characterize how current DSTs can be used in MSP processes; (4) identify synergies between tools; and (5) identify groups of tools “MSP toolboxes” that could work in tandem throughout a MSP process; and (6) bring these toolboxes to the user community. Moving the DST developer and user communities into better alignment will be critical for getting ecosystem-based MSP efforts off the ground. The Center for Ocean Solution (COS) convened a series of workshops to help fill these needs by building an understanding of the DSTs that are available to aid in the implementation of marine spatial planning (MSP). One of the outputs from these workshops is a DST toolbox for MSP that is designed to help planners and managers decide what tools are most useful and appropriate as they begin to implement MSP in their respective geographies. COS and 6-8 tool developers will showcase available DSTs, illustrate how they can be applied in an MSP process, and answer questions about their application to those who are undergoing or are interested in the MSP implementation process.
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WS 93 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 45 |
Cultivation of marine ecosystems has a long tradition in the Pacific Northwest, including among coastal indigenous peoples from Northern California to Southeast Alaska. The vast majority of techniques employed--from transplantation of fish eggs to predator control to habitat enhancement--have been designed to make ecosystems more productive and optimally distributive for critical subsistence resources rather than merely to maximize extraction. This symposium will examine the range of practices employed, both historically and presently, by Northwest Coast groups with particular attention to where, why, and how they were developed as well as their scale and distribution. Further, the session will assess the efficacy of various cultivation practices and their potential utility for present marine conservation, ecosystem and livelihood resilience, and management needs.
Thursday May 19, 2011 (*& Friday May 20, 2011)
Full Day Workshops & Focus Groups
(8:30AM - 5:00PM) includes lunch
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WS 16 (*2 Days) MAX PARTICIPANTS: 50 |
In 2008/9 an exercise was conducted in the UK to parse a list of 100 urgent questions that need to be addressed in order to further conservation globally. The results of this exercise were published as an article in Conservation Biology (Sutherland et al. 2009. An assessment of the 100 questions of greatest importance to the conservation of global biodiversity. Conservation Biology 23(3): 557-567). This article became one of the most downloaded articles for Conservation Biology in 2009. During the exercise over 2000 questions were provided by a select group of academics, NGO representatives and agency representatives, which were then ordered by perceived priority during a two day workshop to come up with the final list 100 questions. Of these, many were related to issues that influence marine conservation, but only eight questions were specifically marine-oriented, and many of these questions were extremely general. Therefore we propose to hold a 2-day workshop to develop a list of questions specifically related to marine conservation.
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WS 38 (*2 Days) MAX PARTICIPANTS: 20 |
Marxan is a software program used to support the design of marine and terrestrial reserves worldwide. It is maintained by the University of Queensland in Australia and taught by UQ and PacMARA. Using Marxan, conservation planners can identify an efficient system of conservation sites that include a suite of biodiversity targets at a minimal cost. Marxan provides a unique method for designing reserves that is systematic and repeatable, and is the most utilized conservation planning tool worldwide. This hands-on course will provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to use Marxan in a marine conservation planning exercise. The following topics will be covered: Key concepts in systematic conservation planning; Creating planning units; Creating the essential Marxan input files; Parameter setting in Marxan; Understanding and using Marxan results; Using Zonae Cogito (decision support software); A brief introduction to Marxan with Zones. The course time will be split between lecture (~30%) and hands-on exercises (~70%). Please note that GIS and excel experience are required. REGISTER FOR THIS WORKSHOP AT http://pacmara.org/events-workshops
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WS 58 MAX PARTICIPANTS: 15 |
The role of community-based stewards as the key to ecosystem and socio-economic health on BC's coasts is increasing. Yet due to the regional scales of ecosystem services, the need for science-based decision-making, and legacy political structures, good stewardship more than ever requires active partnerships among communities and regional organizations and governments. How do we leverage legacy strengths in regional organizations while building capacity in community-based conservation? We believe that easier access to and training with tools for exploring geo-databases, doing analysis and modeling, and communication between stakeholders are a large part of the answer. This workshop complements the workshop entitled "Exploring Marine Conservation within Marine Spatial Planning with Interactive, Collaborative GIS". In this full-day workshop we continue to explore innovative methodologies and tools for getting marine science into the practice of conservation planning. This workshop focuses on what we call Stewardship Toolboxes, custom information systems coded using Open-Source code (PHP/Python, OpenLayers, Drupal, PostGIS) and adhering to Open Data Standards (OGC). They have the following functionality: (spatial, mobile) data collection, multimedia rich geo-database management tools, basic GIS analysis and modeling, automatic report generation, office file management, and advanced communication tracking.