Global Gathering Advances Ocean Protection at Scale
Big Ocean in partnership with the Blue Nature Alliance hosted the 2022 Ocean Manager’s XCHANGE at Camp Mokulē'ia on the North Shore of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. The convening brought together 36 marine managers and practitioners from 17 countries working to collectively protect more than 8 million square kilometers of ocean.
On the heels of COVID-19 and in preparation for IMPAC5, the 5-day immersive experience seeded relationships vital to peer learning and fostered networking among those who are leading on-the-ground ocean conservation and governance efforts globally. Participants spent the week sharing lived experiences to cultivate knowledge, capacity, and authentic relationships on behalf of the marine areas and communities they work to protect.
Supporting peer learning between and amongst marine managers working at scale is a core activity for Big Ocean that is more important than ever. With a six- or seven-fold increase in the number of large-scale marine managed and protected areas sites since 2010, rethinking the format of capacity-building activities and multi-day convenings is essential.
Big Ocean and the Alliance remain committed to growing the capacity of the broader field through best practices that emerge from or are refined by multi-site exchanges. Participating sites have already expressed interest in future versions of XChange, which will ultimately be shaped by the longer-term outputs and benefits from this first gathering.
For the Blue Nature Alliance’s XCHANGE co-lead, Lihla Noori, the event provided an opportunity to share and capture insights from new and veteran protected areas managers that could significantly benefit the field of marine management in the years to come.
“Ensuring marine management capacity development programs are durable and inclusive is critical to effectively protecting 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030,” Noori said. “In the coming weeks, we look forward to amplifying the shared lessons that emerged from the XCHANGE so that marine managers around the world can learn from those best practices.”
On the heels of COVID-19 and in preparation for IMPAC5, the XCHANGE seeded relationships vital to peer learning and fostered networking among those who are leading on-the-ground ocean conservation and governance efforts globally. Conveners hope connections built during the XCHANGE will increase momentum toward shared commitments to expand marine protection by 2030.
The Blue Nature Alliance plans to seek future opportunities that build upon this inaugural gathering. “It’s critical to cultivate a self-sustaining support system for managers of large-scale marine areas to ensure that conservation work is effective long term,” said Laure Katz, co-lead of the Blue Nature Alliance. “We must expand the capacity of marine management teams and coastal communities to match the scope and scale of the challenge to heal our oceans for future generations.”