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As part of its work plan, PacMARA identified five priority projects. These projects are currently in various states of completion: completed, underway, and planned to begin in the future.
In addition, we are exploring opportunities for joint initiatives with other related groups such as COINPacific, an ocean information network in BC established with funding from the BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management and the federal GeoConnections program. For more information about projects, contact projects@pacmara.org. Marxan Best Practices Workshop and Handbook (underway) Workshop: 3 – 6 April, 2007, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. The purpose of the workshop was to develop a best practices guide for Marxan and its soon-to-be released successor, MarZone. It is a two-stage project, with initial draft text available electronically by the end of 2007; and a finalized, peer-reviewed publication to be released in 2008. Marine Experts Workshop (completed Nov. 2005) PacMARA partnered with the B.C. Conservation Planning Tools Committee (CPTC) for the workshop with a goal to review the current and planned marine biodiversity spatial analyses and/or conservation planning assessment projects (tools) available in BC and to identify how the tools can be used individually and together as an assessment “system” of the status of marine biodiversity and as a foundation of a conceptual framework to guide conservation planning in BC. Workshop Summary can be downloaded here: (Word doc) or (PDF doc)
Data Gaps Inventory (future) The Data Gaps Inventory project will resume in 2007 based on an initial scoping study completed in 2004. It will identify major gaps in marine data in BC. There have been several studies in BC commenting on data gaps in various fields, but no effort has yet been made to tie these together in one comprehensive document. Furthermore, there has been no attempt to strategically analyse how to address these numerous gaps. The goal of the Data Gaps Inventory is to identify what data currently exist in BC and where they can be found, as well as where the knowledge gaps lie. The emphasis is on geo-referenced datasets such as GIS, or those that could easily be imported into a GIS. The Inventory also identifies older datasets that are not in an accessible electronic format, since they could be valuable sources of data in the future if funding becomes available to convert them into electronic format. Generally, the digitization of data is much less expensive than new surveys, and can add historical perspective. This analysis will help direct future marine research and digitization priorities in BC. Delineation of Pacific North Coast The purpose of this project was to identify an appropriate boundary for the Central and North Coast Fisheries and Oceans Canada planning area. Several boundaries have been suggested, and PacMARA was approached by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to evaluate them and make recommendations. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Collaborative Science Initiatives in North America (completed) Project Lead/Contact: Michele Patterson A mix of agencies and organizations in many sectors and disciplines currently make contributions in science, research and analysis to marine management in BC. However, these are not well integrated or coordinated, and many information gaps exist. This research analyses the literature around collaboration and the role of science in policy development in order to discover whether collaborations are actually better at asking and answering the questions needed to inform an ecosystem-based approach to planning and decision making. Four collaborative science organizations in Canada and the USA are also being evaluated in order to discover critical elements of successful science collaborations.
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