Congress Program
Congress Proceedings: Searchable program with extended
abstracts of presentations.
PDF of
Program Book
Opening Address and Reception (20 May)
Dr. Daniel Pauly, Professor
and Director, Fisheries Centre,
University of British Columbia
Toward
a Conservation Ethic for the Sea: Steps in a Personal and Intellectual
Odyssey
Since
1971,
when
I did my first intercontinental travel (from Germany, where
I was studying, to Ghana, to do the field work for my Masters), I had
the
privilege of experiencing a multitude of countries, cultures, and modes
of
exploiting aquatic ecosystems in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
(This came along with a huge carbon footprint, as I now know.)
As a student, I learnt that we can 'manage' fisheries, and hence I saw
my
role as fisheries scientist (but also as a citizen of the world) and
contributing to the progressive mastery that such management implies.
Such
mastery, one should think, should lead to a mosaic of management
outcomes,
depending on the local culture, and hence management choices. The
resource
declines I saw in various countries were boringly similar between
countries,
however, except for the fact that they sometimes were lagging in time,
depending on the country's 'development'.
The 1980s and 1990s were also the period when science established the
recent
emergence of Homo sapiens,
along with the descent of all non-Africans, from
a small group which left Africa some 70,000 years ago. This re-enforced
my
belief in a basic similarity of the way humans interact with nature
("eat it
if you can"), beyond superficial differences dues to local constraints.
Now that our technology has essentially removed all constraints
(distance
offshore, depth, unpredictable storms, perishability of the catch,
inability
to accumulate capital, etc.) which earlier, along with limited markets,
constrained fisheries, the way we interact with nature has been
simplified
("eat it"), and we are at the onset of a catastrophic decline of marine
biodiversity.
We are, however, a species that believes in and acts on myths (as
evidenced
by those that define our tribal, 'racial' or religious identity), and I
believe that we will get out of the biodiversity crisis we are in only
if we
embed the fauna and flora around us into a mythology, a shared ethics
of the
sea, one that could be shared among all people on Earth, and which also
could motivate political action (as myths generally do). This, I
suggest,
has the potential to reach beyond narcissistic consumers in rich
countries,
the present targets of our 'market-based' initiatives. This is where I
am
now.
Confirmed Plenary
Talks (08:30-09:30)
May 21: Dr. Ratana
Cheunpagdee, Canada
Research Chair in Natural
Resource Sustainability and Community Development, Memorial University
CHAIN
ANALYSIS OF POVERTY AND GLOBALIZATION: CONSERVATION CHALLENGES AND
GOVERNANCE IMPLICATIONS
Poverty and globalization can affect
marine conservation by both contributing to the decline in marine
biodiversity and fisheries and by constraining conservation efforts.
Yet, the relationship between poverty and globalization and marine
conservation is so complex that it could easily be misinterpreted,
leading consequently to inappropriate policy responses. This
presentation will employ the production chain analysis to
systematically examine causes and effects of poverty and globalization
using case studies of fisheries in both developed and developing
countries. Drawing from the interactive governance framework, the
presentation will also discuss governing limits and potentials for
marine conservation in light of poverty and globalization.
May 22: Dr.
Rod
Fujita, Director of Ocean Innovations, Environmental Defense
Fund
CREATING MARKETS TO
PROTECT AND VALUE MARINE ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES
One
of
the
drivers of marine ecosystem degradation in its many forms –
overfishing, habitat damage, and pollution – is the fact that while
profits from the use and extraction of ecosystem goods and services
accrue to certain individuals and groups, the costs of pollution and
resource degradation are passed on to everyone, including future
generations. Many ecosystem goods and services send no price
signals to markets, and thus their value is not accounted for in
business decisions that dominate how ocean resources are used or
misused. One approach to solving this problem is to simply argue
that these non-market values ought to be accounted for and
protected. This approach may be more effective if new results in
cognitive science and linguistics are applied. Another is to
compute the monetary value of ecosystem goods and services, and then
attempt to persuade policymakers, firms, and individuals to account for
the loss in ecosystem value attributable to their activities, or
conversely, the gain in value due to stewardship activities. The
effectiveness of this approach will depend on the credibility of the
analysis and results. In this presentation, I will discuss the
performance of more direct methods to ensure that policymakers,
individuals, and firms account for ecosystem goods and services now and
in the future -- the creation of markets specifically to send price
signals from ecosystem goods and services to individuals and groups
that use them. To illustrate this approach, I will describe a
market for fishing privileges created through a private buyout
specifically to leverage conservation gains and create a more
sustainable fishery; a market for shares of allowable fish catch
created to internalize the long term value of sustainable fish
populations and catches into current value; and a potential market for
the privilege of experiencing an intact kelp forest within a marine
reserve, designed to make the marine reserve and the protection of all
of its goods and services economically rational.
May 23: Dorothy
Childers,
Program
Director, Alaska Marine
Conservation Council, and Muriel
Morse, Western Alaska Outreach
Coordinator, Alaska Marine Conservation Council
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE BERING SEA: PROTECTING ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL
VALUES AS FISHERIES MOVE NORTH
The Bering
Sea is warming. Alaska Native peoples living on the coast, keen
observers of the world around us, are witnessing many changes in sea
ice and animals. Commercially valuable fish species are beginning to
occupy increasingly more northern waters, inviting fleets to expand
trawling into new habitats and sensitive areas. With guidance from the
Bering Sea Elders Advisory Group, conservation perspective from tribal
governments and collaboration with scientists, we have an opportunity
to apply the best science and traditional knowledge toward management
solutions that protect ecological and cultural integrity of the
northern Bering Sea.
May 24: Dr.
Sylvia
Earle,
Explorer-in-residence at the National
Geographical
Society and founder
of the Deep
Search Foundation
NO BLUE, NO GREEN:
WHY CARING FOR THE OCEAN MATTERS TO EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS TO YOU
Headlines feature trends toward a "green
economy," "green energy," even green agriculture. Meanwhile, the state
of the ocean is being seriously neglected. Consideration will be
given in this presentation to why and how the ocean connects to the
economy, health, security, and the underpinnings of life itself, and
the urgency of developing appropriate policies and designating national
and international networks of protected areas in the sea that can help
stabilize the effects of destructive practices.
Final Dinner and the Dr. Ransom A.
Myers Memorial Lecture (24 May)
Dr. Callum Roberts,
Professor of Marine Conservation, Environment
Department, University of York
SUSTAINING OCEAN LIFE
THROUGH THE NEXT 100 YEARS
The oceans are now changing
faster and in a greater variety of ways than at any other time in human
history. Predicting the outcome of these changes is difficult, which
makes designing management responses to them problematic. In the face
of such uncertainty, how can we best assure that ocean life persists,
adapts and continues to fulfill critical roles in support of human life
and planetary biogeochemical cycles? Our conservation efforts today
often focus on preventing extinction, the final, irrevocable
disappearance of species and their evolutionary lineages. We spend a
disproportionate amount of our limited conservation capital protecting
the variety of life. But in doing so, we have failed to address the
rapid fall in the quantity of life. As Ram Myers and colleagues pointed
out, the quantity of many life forms in the sea has fallen by an order
of magnitude and more over the past century. It is right that we do our
utmost to prevent extinctions, but it is wrong to forget the central
importance of quantity to the business of life on Earth. It is animals
and plants, multiplied in their millions across sea and land that keep
the engine of life running on this planet. If marine life is to remain
viable through the next 100 years we need to embrace a view of ocean
management that puts rebuilding the quantity of life as well as its
variety at the heart of policy. That view must extend beyond protected
species and areas to encompass the full sweep of life in the sea and
all of the human activities that affect it.
Special Events (see the program for a
full listing of special events held at the IMCC)
MPA-U: A
series of courses for MPA
managers, specialists,
practitioners, and decision-makers.
[visit here for information on the courses
being offered].
Beyond the Obituaries: Success Stories
in Marine Conservation
[public program, Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History]
Description: This day-long
symposium highlighted ocean conservation efforts that are making a
difference around the world and allowed conservation professionals to
share their successes with each other and the public (http://ocean.si.edu/ocean_hall/success_stories.html).
This event was held at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural
History and was open to IMCC attendees and the general public. Dr.
Daniel Pauly, Director of the Fisheries Centre at the University of
British Columbia, gave the opening talk and a
reception for IMCC participants immediately followed.
Video of the presentations can be found here
IMCC Film
Night: Featuring the Winners from Ocean Film Festivals across the
U.S. Location:
Johnson Center Cinema
[visit here for more information]
