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The Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association
Building Best Practices and Addressing
Knowledge Gaps
for Marine Planning in British Columbia
Latest News
- Senior job opportunity: PacMARA is now seeking
our first Executive Director (Science), to lead and manage the organization
and its staff, and to achieve the organization’s outcomes and
objectives. This opportunity would best suit a highly motivated, confident,
entrepreneurial leader with scientific credentials who enjoys new
challenges. This position closes 31 May 2008. For more information,
click here.
- New Marxan User’s Manual: is available
here for download (5 MB).
- Experimental on-line Marxan User's Manual (wiki site):
click here.
This is an experiment with the Marxan user community to offer the
opportunity to improve and revise the user manual. If you would like
to become a wiki editor of the manual, send a short email to us (info
at pacmara.org), with your contact info and please also very briefly
outline your marxan experience. We will then send you an editor-level
log-on and password so that you can join the list of esteemed editors!
Or, if you prefer anonymity, log-in as a user and you can post your
comment to one of the discussion forums (linked on the left-hand side
of the wiki page).
- Coming soon (April): [draft] Marxan Good Practices Handbook.
Experts pass on their experiences about how to conduct solid defensible
Marxan analyses. This draft handbook will invite critical comment
in preparation for its publication in late 2008 / early 2009.
- Presentation: Re-writing the Marxan manual, and
creating the Marxan Good Practices Handbook, are all part of PacMARA's
ongoing project to aid in marine planning and decision making good
practices. Like to know more? Here is a link to our
PowerPoint presentation (2.5 MB) given 12 Feb. 2008 as part of
the international launch of the new manual.
- To subscribe to the PacMARA list serve, (information
and news on ecosystem-based management, marine planning, information
management and marine protected areas) send a blank email to: PacMARA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Marine planning in British Columbia is a complex task. An expanding
economy is attracting many different – and often conflicting –
types of use to the coast, putting more pressure on over-stressed ecosystems.
At the same time, decision makers must deal with international competition
for fish stocks, pressure from conservation groups, uncertainty created
by First Nations’ treaty negotiations, and jurisdictional disputes
between different levels of government.
Good planning can’t happen without good data. Yet despite all
the agencies and organizations involved in marine planning, conservation
and resource use, there is a real lack of high-quality information that
decision makers can depend on as they tackle these difficult issues.
The stakes are high: poorly informed decisions can lead to confrontation,
political controversy, lengthy court cases, faltering economies, and
ecological damage.
The Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA) was
created to provide government, First Nations, businesses, NGOs and community
groups with the information they need to take an ecosystem-based approach
to marine decisions in BC.
We’re an impartial and independent network of researchers representing
a broad body of disciplines from natural sciences and social sciences,
working together to share information, develop high-quality analyses,
and fill the critical gaps in our knowledge of this complex coastal
and marine environment.
© PacMARA - Last updated April 2008
Photo Credits: Rockweed (Fucus): © PhotoDisc;
boat: © Bruce Burrows; Orca whales: © WWF-Canon / William
W. Rossiter; salmon: © WWF-Canon / Kevin Schafer
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