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News

Celebrating success at 2nd Annual Progress Meeting

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During the first 2 weeks of August, Blue Communities held its second Annual Progress Meeting, which was jointly hosted by Plymouth Marine Laboratory and University of Plymouth.

The first two days were the progress meeting itself, when over 80 delegates from eight countries came together to hear about the headway made by the partners in SE Asia and across the 12 interdisciplinary research projects that make up Blue Communities. The visiting partners showcased the research that has been undertaken, stakeholder engagement activities in case study sites, capacity building accomplishments, additional grant successes and further collaborations with other related projects.

Following the presentations there were a range of interactive sessions on cross-cutting activities, such as publications, ethics, data management, communication strategies and the Early Career Researchers Network (ECRN). The objective of the plenary part of the meeting was to ensure integration, cohesion and effective interactions across projects, institutes and countries.

The group then took a field trip to North Devon where they were guided around the UK case study site, the UNESCO North Devon Biosphere Reserve. During this fascinating day the group learnt about the highly biodiverse ecosystem and management of Braunton Burrows, comprising shifting sand dunes, grass lands, dense scrub and ponds. Moving onto the Northam Burrows, an environmental management expert from the Biosphere Reserve explained about the complex governance of the area and balancing the needs of such a diverse range of different stakeholders.

Once back in Plymouth, the full agenda of training workshops began, including mentoring in: statistical analysis; Bayesian Belief Networks and conceptual modelling; scenario development and application; evidence synthesis; critical analysis of marine planning, and ecosystems services and values.

A participant of the Project 2 (Critical analysis of marine planning model applications) training workshop, led by the University of Exeter, fed back:

“How easily the facilitators train participants in such a way that they are having fun and learning at the same time. The way you also encourage countries to collaborate among themselves and giving safe spaces for early career researchers is commendable.”

Dr Ana Queirós, Project 11 (Ecosystem-level policy and management options) lead and Senior Benthic Ecologist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory commented:

“The Project 11 workshops were a fantastic opportunity to co-develop climate-ready strategies for marine spatial planning with each of our case-study partner teams, and to really bring out their multi-disciplinary expertise.”

“A highlight for me was gaining a better understanding of the major differences in scale and context between regions, as well as what issues affect climate resilience and planning, what sectors are important, and how priorities line up. This is an excellent demonstrator of the global challenges affecting the creation of climate-ready marine management options, and it is a testament to the real-life applicability of the Blue Communities program, which is really at the leading edge in this regard.”

“The contributions of the Advisory Board, as well as from the Programme Director and other project leads, to the workshops were also very well received. The P11 Jupyter Notebook workshop was a success in terms of scientific and stakeholder engagement, with over 30 people attending and working on P11 modelling and GIS datasets simultaneously. Well done everyone!”

Following the launch of the Blue Communities ECRN website in June, the group had a day to explore opportunities, challenges and development needs for early career researchers alongside allocated mentors, including: how to develop a research proposal; how to manage a research project, and potential project ideas. On the same day the young Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, arrived in Plymouth before her voyage across the Atlantic. The ECRN invited Greta to join their dinner plans that evening, however, this was thwarted by her extremely tight schedule.

Towards the end of the week of workshops, the conference dinner was hosted at the Marine Biological Association, providing great food and a wonderful view of the British Firework Championships.

Overall, it has been a real privilege to welcome our partners from SE Asia to the UK, endeavouring to return the favour of the exemplary hospitality shown to the UK teams during their visits to the Case Study Partners, and show the visitors the delights of Devon and Cornwall, including the weekend excursions to the Eden Project, South Devon Chilli Farm and Mount Edgcumbe. The fortnight has been extremely busy with such a packed agenda but a tremendous amount of progress has been made and many lasting collaborations have been forged.

The next meet is planned for 2020 in Vietnam, which will have a focus on outputs and maximising the impact of Blue Communities research.

Source: blue-communities.org

News

First Annual Meeting GCRF BC

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Recently the Blue Communities team met in Palawan, Philippines for its first programme-wide progress meeting.  Over 60 scientists from the UK, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam enjoyed a packed agenda of project and case study site updates, interspersed with interactive sessions over the 3-day meeting.

The interactive sessions included a highly engaging stakeholder role-play activity, led by researchers from the University of Exeter, and a ‘guess the habitat from space’ game, led by researchers from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, which helped demonstrate the different resolution levels of satellite sensors. Other workshops included information gathering for ecosystem services at the case study sites, and stakeholder communication methods, both of which resulted in some intriguing and unexpected intelligence, such as using music to convey marine management messages to the local coastal communities.

Discussing ways to use satellite data for marine managementThere was a highly pertinent panel discussion on research ethics including: how to conduct research ethically and responsibly; the procedure for an ethics approval application, and what to do if unethical practices are witnessed. This fascinating exploration of the issues surrounding research ethics demonstrated a real interest and desire to discuss further. Consequently, more capacity building in research ethics for all researchers participating in the projects within the Blue Communities programme is being planned. Other training needs identified included evaluation of research outcomes and impact, stakeholder engagement and ‘training the trainer’ workshops.

This meeting also provided the opportunity for the Blue Communities Early Career Researchers (ECR) Network to hold its first meeting. The network has been created to support ECRs across Blue Communities and offered a peer-to-peer forum to exchange knowledge on career development, challenges, collaborations, training needs, mentoring and communication ideas.

Training workshops either side of the progress meeting were also held at the Western Philippines University, covering the topics of Earth observation, ecosystem services, evidence synthesis, climate modelling and developing future scenarios that form key elements of several of the sub-projects within the Blue Communities programme. These training sessions were very well received and there are plans for wider roll-out.

As the overall progress meeting drew to a close, discussion turned to where the next meeting will be held. It is hoped that this will be in the South West of the UK, offering the opportunity for Case Study partners to visit research institutes in the UK whilst returning the favour of the wonderful hosting by the Western Philippines University and University of Malaya partners for this very well-received meeting and the successful kick-off meeting in Kuala Lumpur last January.

Source: www.blue-communities.org

Projects

GCRF Blue Communities: Project 2 Introduction

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Tropical marine and coastal ecosystems – coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses – are vital for the livelihoods, food security and well-being of millions of people in Southeast Asia. However, many families are locked in poverty as the marine resources that they depend on dwindle due to destructive practices, overharvesting and the deterioration of ecosystems. Clearly the current way we manage tropical marine resources is not working. We therefore need new or improved approaches to – or innovations in – marine management.

In Project 2 of Blue Communities, we are analysing promising marine planning models in three UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, and a large marine park in Malaysian Borneo. Using a newly designed Participatory Marine Governance Analysis toolkit, we are seeking to discover the ingredients of – and obstacles to – success so that we can find opportunities to improve management of these reserves and parks. And then share this learning across the reserves and parks, and more widely. By understanding this, we can reveal how the Blue Communities programme can add value to existing efforts and investments in marine management in the region.

Blue Communities researchers in each country invited key practitioners managing the reserves to be part of their project 2 team. The practitioners offer an insider’s perspective on the workings of the reserve and increase the chances that the findings of project 2 will be acted upon.

At an event in Kuala Lumpur, these practitioner and academic teams received training from UK researchers in participatory methods, which help those involved in implementing a new marine management approach to reflect on what has worked, what has not worked, and what could be done better in the future. Each team is now planning their research in their case study marine reserve.

The Western Philippines University (WPU) project 2 team began field activities in October 2018, studying the Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN) in the province of Palawan, an island in the west of the Philippines. Through the ECAN, the seas of Palawan are being designated as biologically important core zones, where human activity is prohibited, and multi-use zones, where limited small-scale fishing, mariculture, recreation and education and research activities are permitted. The team sought to learn from its implementation so far to support future zoning efforts.

A workshop was held with provincial level actors and a workshop in the municipality of Aborlan, which has been a frontrunner in implementing ECAN at the local level. Firstly, participants at each workshop conducted an innovation history analysis, whereby timelines of the establishment and implementation of ECAN were co-created by stakeholders, who then discussed what lessons could be learnt so far. Secondly, they mapped on flip chart paper the key people and organisations involved in or affected by ECAN, the important and challenging relationships between them, and created towers to represent how influential they perceived each actor to be on the successful implementation of ECAN. The team is currently analysing the results, but some previously unrecognised challenges were identified that are likely to have major implications for how ECAN is rolled out across marine areas of Palawan.

Fieldwork begins in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam over the next three months, with Project 2 research promising to make significant contributions to helping stakeholders in each case to understand issues with, and opportunities to improve, their current governance approaches. We hope for the teams to share what they have learnt from their cases with each other at the Blue Communities annual meeting in 2019.

By Dr Matt Fortnam, University of Exeter

Source: www.blue-communities.org

News

Kick-Off Meeting GCRF Blue Communities Programme

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During January 2018 world-class experts from the South West UK attended the Kick-Off meeting for the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Blue Communities Programme, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Hosted by the University of Malaya and organised by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Exeter and Plymouth University, this meeting was the first opportunity for all international programme partners to meet face-to-face and discuss the details of the ambitious work plan over the next four years.

The GCRF Blue Communities programme is funded through the 5-year £1.5Bn Research Council UK (RCUK) GCRF ‘Building Capacity’ funding call, to encourage collaboration and exchange with international partners in tackling global challenges in the national interest. Blue Communities aims to mutually exchange knowledge, experience and best practice between the UK and SE Asia on marine planning and sustainable resource use to help improve the health, well-being and livelihoods of coastal communities in SE Asia case study sites.

Each of the countries in the SE Asia region relies on marine and coastal ecosystems for food, employment and their general well-being. However, the marine environment is under immense pressure from the multiple, and often conflicting, needs of the people that use it. Marine spatial planning involving coordinated decision-making has been highlighted as a key requirement for a sustainable future in the region.

The meeting was well attended with over 50 delegates from the partner countries; UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Enthusiasm for such a collaborative programme shone through as participants networked, explored case study site issues and opportunities together, identified training needs, and co-created meaningful and realistic work plans to achieve the programme’s goals.

The importance of such a meeting was evident as participants from different counties and cultures were able to tease out and discuss the plethora of issues facing various regions and communities, allowing a deeper understanding of the societal context in which Blue Communities research will be undertaken. This is vital if the aim of a lasting impact is to be achieved.

The Blue Communities programme will focus on four case study sites, three of which are UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserves and one a Marine Protected Area. Using such structures that are already in place helps researchers engage existing networks and groups in the region, which will help facilitate the multiple conversations that will be needed for the project partners to collect information and communicate findings to those who would benefit directly.

Professor Mel Austen, GCRF Blue Communities Programme Leader and a Head of Science at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, commented: “It was inspiring to see so many people from different countries, cultures and scientific disciplines come together collaboratively to work on this common goal; improving lives through scientific and societal understanding. By combining marine science, social issues and health aspects, this new approach to collaborative working will help Blue Communities create a lasting legacy for the benefit of coastal communities in the target regions, as well as the scientific partners in South East Asia and the UK. There was such a buzz of enthusiasm among all the people at this first Blue Communities meeting that I felt that we had to be on the right path towards these goals!”

Professor Lora Fleming, GCRF Blue Communities Project Leader and Director of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School, said: “I’m delighted to be mutually sharing knowledge with our partners in South West and South East Asia on these important issues. This is a region where people’s health and well-being are fundamentally interconnected with the marine environment. Each country has its own specific needs and expertise, and it’s so important to bring everyone together to collaborate to address these.”

Dr Sabine Pahl, GCRF Blue Communities Project Leader and Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said: “Environmental Science has provided us with the evidence as to the scale of the issues we are facing, and behavioural science can help us to understand the human dimension in providing the solutions. In bringing together these complementary disciplines, we have a great chance of addressing some of these challenges relating to the natural environment and the well-being of people depending upon it in so many ways.”

Source: www.blue-communities.org