This report examines how communication occurs between researchers and coastal communities during research focused on the Alaskan marine environment.
Government-to-government consultation is an opportunity for better U.S. Arctic management decisions that are built on an exchange of views and perspectives with Alaska Natives. However, our past research showed that consultation had often failed to live up to its potential. The Handbook attempts to change that by providing a tool to support Alaska Natives as they develop their own policies and procedures for consultation, with a specific focus on marine mammal issues.
The goal of our work on Consultation is to support the role of Alaska Natives in managing trust resources, and to help ensure that consultation is an effective, efficient, and meaningful process that actually leads to sustainable—and just—management.
The Ocean Program supports Barbuda Blue Halo Initiative, which empowers Barbudans to restore their coastal waters by developing a science-based Sustainable Coastal Policy. ELI drafted the framework report to support sustainable fisheries and coastal zoining in Barbuda.
“Geospatial NEPA” is designed to facilitate access and information sharing by aggregating NEPA documents and geospatial data in a map-based data system. ELI is developing the concept and drafted a report on approaches, policies, and possibilities for this new vision of NEPA review.
The first major report from Blue Halo Montserrat provides a strong legal foundation by exploring how existing legal authorities contribute to ocean management in Montserrat and how they can be used to support the Montserrat Sustainable Ocean Policy. The goal of the project is to ensure long-term health of Montserrat’s waters.
Bermuda's nearshore marine environment is a critical economic, environmental, and social resource for the Bermudian people. Bermuda can more effectively manage the uses of its marine environment by undertaking marine spatial planning (MSP) for its nearshore waters. MSP is a public process that organizes human activity in marine areas in time and space to meet environmental, economic, and social objectives.
Around the globe, nations are creating marine protected areas (MPAs) that prohibit some or all fishing and other potentially harmful activities. MPAs can allow sensitive habitats and ecosystems to prosper in a natural state and can enable recovery of commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, among other benefits. All too often, however, MPAs exist only on paper. These countries may lack strong legal authority to enable enforcement in their MPAs, further limiting their ability to detect and prosecute offenses.
