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Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Forum:
Challenges and Opportunities
The Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy at the University of Delaware, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, Monmouth University, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, the Coastal States Organization, and the Environmental Law Institute, co-organized the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Forum, held December 1-2, 2008 at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Participants included ocean and coastal experts from federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, industry, the private sector, and academia, representing diverse backgrounds and ideas. The Forum focused on four objectives: promote dialogue and exchange of information among state, federal, industry, academic, and nongovernmental participants about regional ocean issues; clarify issues and stakeholder perspectives regarding potential benefits from coordinated actions and regional approaches; assess the status of regional ocean research, mapping, and information systems and tools; and share lessons learned from other regional initiatives and pilot projects and identify avenues for continued dialogue, future information sharing, and cooperation among Mid-Atlantic entities and stakeholders. Panels were organized around a number of themes, including Economic and Ecosystem Values of the Mid-Atlantic Region, Applying Ecosystem-Based Approaches and Marine Spatial Planning in the Mid-Atlantic Region, Climate Change in the Mid-Atlantic, Regional Offshore Energy, and Sustainability of Living Marine Resources and Habitats. Subsequent breakout sessions offered an opportunity for further discussions on the challenges facing the Mid-Atlantic region and allowed participants to identify possible next steps to improve information sharing and increase cooperation within the Mid-Atlantic region on priority issues. (continued)
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Highlighting UD’s Role in Global Education,
UD Center Organizes International Oceans Conference in Vietnam
The Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy at the University of Delaware organized the Fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands: Advancing Ecosystem Management and Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management by 2010 in the Context of Climate Change, which took place April 7-11, 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The conference was hosted by the Vietnamese government at the highest policy level and assessed essential issues in the governance of the world’s oceans, with a focus on moving toward an ecosystem-based and integrated approach to oceans governance at national, regional, and global levels. For the first time, a concerted effort was made to bring oceans policy together with climate change issues, which, as indicated in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will have profound effects on ecosystems and coastal populations around the world, especially among the poorest people on Earth and in small island developing States. (continued)
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Biliana Cicin-Sain receives the
Elisabeth-Mann-Borgese Meerespreis (“Prize of the Sea”)
Biliana Cicin-Sain, director of the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy and Professor of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware’s College of Earth and Marine Studies, has been awarded the Elisabeth-Mann-Borgese Meerespreis (“Prize of the Sea”) by the Ministry of Science, Economics and Transport of the Land Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.
The prize is awarded to prominent personalities that advocate the protection and preservation of the sea in politics and society. In 2006, the first time it was given, Professor Klaus Topfer, former director of the United Nations (U.N.) Environment Programme and German Minister for the Environment, received the prize.
The Meerepreis is named after Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, known as “the Mother of the Oceans.” The daughter of noted German writer Thomas Mann, Professor Borgese worked incessantly to promote integrated management of oceans as the “common heritage of mankind” and to build the capacity of developing nations to manage their ocean resources. She had a major impact on the U.N. Convention on Law of the Sea and was the founder of the International Ocean Institute, with 25 teaching centers around the world... (continued)
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Fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands set April 7-11, 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam
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The Fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands: Advancing Ecosystem Management and Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management by 2010 in the Context of Climate Change will take place April 7-11, 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Conference will mobilize high-level policy attention, topical working groups, analytical papers, and other contributions to provide a review of progress achieved (or lack thereof) in advancing ecosystem management and integrated coastal and ocean management by 2010 at national and regional (transboundary) levels, and in the 64% of the ocean beyond national jurisdiction, and on the allied goals of reducing marine biodiversity loss by 2010 and of establishing networks of marine protected areas by 2012 (goals adopted by the world's political leaders at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development). These goals are considered in the context of climate change, which, as indicated in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will have profound effects on ecosystems and coastal populations around the world.
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| For more information on the Conference, please visit the Conference web site at:
http://www.globaloceans.org/globalconferences/2008/index.html
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