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LMMA Related Events at the WCC Forum

A number of events relevant to locally-managed marine areas and their partner organizations will be happening at the forum leading up to the congress. These include the following:

• Reception 1076 “Linking-up local marine managers,”
  
• Session 1036 "Inter-cultural dialogue on marine protected areas: can locally-managed marine areas provide a foundation for national MPA networks?"
  
• Workshop 0757 “Locally managed marine areas, towards a global learning network”
• Pavilion Event 1036 “Inter-cultural dialogue on marine protected areas: Can locally managed marine areas provide a foundation for national MPA networks?
• Poster 559 “The locally managed marine area network- keeping it simple and sustainable”

More information on these sessions, can be found in the WCC online programme, here: http://events.iucn.org/wcc2012/official_programme

About the event

Every four years the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) holds a World Conservation Congress (WCC), bringing together representatives of government, the scientific community, and conservationists from around the world to share experiences and discuss the future of conservation. This congress is the world’s largest gathering of conservationists, and is pivotal in shaping policy and global strategy for the effective protection of biodiversity and safeguarding of livelihoods. This year’s event will be held in Jeju, South Korea from September 6th-15th, with the theme being “Nature+”.

At this year’s WCC, the NGO Blue Ventures, the Pacific LMMA Network, and the NGO CORDIO will be hosting a special side event, showcasing the emerging Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) movement. In recent years, LMMAs have emerged as an innovative, cost-effective way to tackle some of the challenges of coastal and marine resource management commonly faced by fishing communities in developing countries.

LMMAs are defined as one or more communities joined together in an official association for the main purpose of managing marine and coastal resources in collaboration with local authorities. Indigenous marine conservation areas, community-managed marine protected areas also fall under the LMMA definition and will be included in the event.

The objectives of this workshop are to:

• To raise awareness and garner support among the international conservation community for the growing LMMA movement
• Bring together representatives from LMMAs and regional LMMA networks in order to facilitate exchanges of ideas on best practices, lessons learned, common challenges and new approaches
• To develop the foundations for a global virtual LMMA community, both documenting the scope of the global LMMA movement, as well as developing linkages for on-going communication and information exchange

About the Travel Scholarship

Blue Ventures, thanks to a generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation, is pleased to announce the availability of a limited number of travel scholarships, which will allow representatives of LMMAs (and similar organisations) to participate in this side event. Representatives will be selected from the tropical developing countries.

Candidates must meet the following requirements for eligibility for the travel scholarship:

• Be a representative of a locally managed marine area/community managed marine area/indigenous marine protected area
• Be able to understand and speak English fluently OR will be accompanied at the conference by someone who can translate for you (scholarships not available for translators)
• Be able to speak comfortably in front of a group
• Be ready to share experiences about your community’s efforts with sustainable marine and coastal resource management

LMMA representatives receiving the travel scholarship will be expected to actively participate in the side event, as well as any other informal events that may be organized around the LMMA theme. They will also be expected to submit information regarding their LMMA prior to the event, as well as complete feedback surveys during and after the event.

Successful candidates will demonstrate a strong understanding, rooted in first-hand knowledge, of their community’s efforts at LMMA establishment, a willingness to share these experiences with others from around the world, and a desire to learn from others’ experiences and share with their community following the event.

The scholarship is designed to cover the successful candidates’ registration fees, travel expenses, and food/lodging.

The deadline for application for the scholarship has now closed. Winners have been selected and can be found here: https://sites.google.com/a/livewiththesea.org/wcc/home/scholarship-winners