Thursday, 4:30–5:30 pm
11 February 2010
School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
102 Fishery Sciences (auditorium)
1122 NE Boat Street (map)
University of Washington
Reception follows each talk
Marine Conservation Initiative Lead, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Marine conservation and fisheries management have been called a “wicked problem,” difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are complex, interdependent and hard to see. Often, reforms have suffered from an overly narrow and deterministic construction of the marine conservation “problem-shed.” Declines in many fisheries parallel the rise of science-based fisheries management, and it is easy to be discouraged by the trajectory of commercial and recreational fisheries. But achieving marine conservation goals, including sustainable fisheries, involves trade-offs among biophysical and socio-economic conditions. Our work through the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Marine Conservation Initiative aims to find viable solutions that achieve resilient and productive marine ecosystems in North America that are managed sustainably for current and future generations. To get there, we employ a Theory of Change with two primary strategies: Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Reforming Fisheries Management (RFM). Together, MSP and RFM can address two of the greatest yet most solvable threats to marine ecosystems: habitat alteration and overfishing. We consider a three-step approach to achieve our goals. The first step is a “science-based assessment” of potential conservation solutions to understand the spectrum of possibilities; this is the step that led to MSP and RFM as strategies. We follow this with on-the-ground “practice-based theory” to test the conservation solutions in a place and evaluate the outcomes. Finally, we use an “innovation-diffusion approach” to expand projects and tools beyond each place through strategic communications and policy. Lessons learned from the first four years of implementing this Initiative, as well as perspectives on the unique contributions and limitations of foundations to advancing on-the-water change in fisheries will be discussed.
Dr. Barry Gold is Director of the Marine Conservation Initiative (MCI) at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF), where he leads an effort to create resilient and productive marine ecosystems in North America managed sustainably for future generations; and their work linking science to policy.
Barry joined GBMF from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation where he developed and led their marine ecosystem-based management activities, as well as their efforts to link science with policy. Before joining the Packard Foundation, he was chief of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC), where he led an effort to understand and protect some of the most highly prized scenic and natural resources in the U.S. while balancing potentially conflicting social and political interests and demands upon the resource. Prior to GCMRC, he was part of the leadership team that created the National Biological Survey (NBS) within the U.S. Department of the Interior. During his time at DOI, Barry also served as Executive Secretary for the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (CENR).
Barry received a D.Sc. from Washington University, M.A from George Washington University, MS from the University of Connecticut and a BS from the University of Miami.