Upcoming EBM Tools Network Training Opportunities

Technology Tools for Ecosystem-Based Management of Coral Reefs to be held at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, July 12, 2008, 8:30 - 11:30 am

This training workshop will provide an overview of recently-developed technology tools and methods for facilitating Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) of coral reef ecosystems.  In particular, we will focus on tools and methods that can help resource managers and policymakers collect, visualize, analyze, and integrate diverse types of information (such as information on the coral reef ecosystem and human communities that depend on it); provide decision support for common coral reef conservation, restoration, and resource management decisions; and help engage communities and stakeholders in the decision making process.  For more information, contact the EBM Tools Network Research Assistant Lindsay Elder at lindsay_elder@natureserve.org.

Tools and Methods for Integrated Land-Sea Planning to be held at the Society for Conservation Biology Meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 13, 2008, 8 am - 5 pm

This training workshop will use a selection of current case studies (from a rural area of Texas; an urban area in Charleston, South Carolina; and paired work in coastal Oregon and North Queensland, Australia) to educate participants about tools and methods that can be employed to conduct integrated land-sea planning.  The full-day workshop will also allow enough time for participants to describe their proposed or desired integrated land-sea planning work and discuss different ways to conduct this work with workshop organizers and each other. For more information, contact the EBM Tools Network Research Assistant Lindsay Elder at lindsay_elder@natureserve.org.

Technology Tools for Coastal-Marine Ecosystem Based Management to be held at the Coast to Coast Conference in Darwin, Australia, August 21, 2008, ½-day Workshop

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) of coastal and marine environments requires the integration of information about a vast array of environmental and human systems. A variety of software tools have been developed to help policymakers and managers collect, visualize, and analyze this information and engage stakeholders in the EBM decision making process. This workshop will provide an overview of existing tools that can be used for EBM in coastal and marine environments (including live demonstrations of key tools), describe projects which have used these tools, provide guidance on what a coastal manager needs to consider when selecting a tool for his or her project, and point managers in the direction of additional resources to find out more about tools. We will also seek input from participants on the types of tools that would be useful for their EBM projects and what they would like to see in an expanded EBM tools training course. For more information, contact the EBM Tools Network Coordinator Sarah Carr at sarah_carr@natureserve.org.