[Coral-List] Upcoming OCTO EBMTools Webinars

[Raye Evrard]

Dear Coral List,

OCTO and the EBMTools Network have some upcoming webinars that I thought
you would be interested in. The first is a webinar on how the harvesting of
giant clam shells significantly damages coral reefs and how a "peace park"
could aid in protecting these important ecosystems. This webinar will be
tomorrow, Thursday, June 13, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC.

The second webinar is "Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management
with Tourism-Related Tools" which is the part two of three. The first of
this series was held last week and a recording can be found at
https://oct.to/financewebinar. The first part of this series focused on an
overview of tools for financing MPAs and the second part will be specific
to tourism-related tools. The Finance webinar will be held at two different
times to take in multiple time-zones. More information on both of these
webinars and to register can be found below.

*Webinar: **Massively Destructive Coral Reef Damage from Giant Clam Shell
Digging in the South China Sea: Birth, Death and Rebirth*
<https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O8QrDeMmQFi-QGg9mu8mkw>

*Presented by:* *John McManus of the University of Miami*

*Date/Time:* *Thursday, June 13, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC*
<https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O8QrDeMmQFi-QGg9mu8mkw>

*Description:* The South China Sea supplies approximately 15% of the
world’s fish and helps support ~272 million coastal residents. Part of this
production system includes more than 3,800 square kilometers of the world’s
most diverse offshore coral reefs. Since 2011, many of the reef flats have
been severely damaged by small boats from China digging up giant clams for
the billion-dollar shell carving trade. This practice was not widely known
until 2016 when negative publicity led the Chinese government to ban this
activity. For the past few years, there have been only occasional reports
of the practice continuing. As of 2019, however, a modified version of the
practice has emerged in the Pratas Islands and Scarborough Atoll. This talk
will describe the current situation and present a proposal for a peace park
for the globally-unique Scarborough Atoll to help ensure its protection.

*Co-sponsors:* OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News) and the EBM Tools
Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe)

*Register: **https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O8QrDeMmQFi-QGg9mu8mkw *
<https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O8QrDeMmQFi-QGg9mu8mkw>



*Webinar: **Financing Coral Reef Conservation and Management with
Tourism-Related Tools*

*Presented by**: David Meyers of the Conservation Finance Alliance*

*This webinar will be offered at two different times**:*

   - Viewing 1: *Wednesday, July 17, Noon US EDT/9 am US PDT/4 pm UTC*
   <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jNI0kihxTYuh6Je3MGFalg>
   - Viewing 2: *Wednesday, July 17, 9 pm US EDT/6 pm US PDT (Thursday,
   July 18, 9 am Australian WST/11 am Australian EST/1 am UTC)*
   <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5Wf9DQjtToCWS-SCe_PbIg>

*Description:* Coral reefs provide enormous economic value to humanity, and
their value for recreation is one of the easiest to capture financially.
This webinar will explore the range of existing and emerging tools that
protected areas and site managers can use to capture funds from tourism for
conservation and management. Specifically the webinar will discuss the use
of: 1) entry, activity, and special use fees; 2) commercial concessions; 3)
departure taxes; 4) partnerships with hotels; and 5) voluntary donations.
This webinar is sponsored by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)
<http://www.icriforum.org/>, an informal partnership which strives to
preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems around the world, as part of
its collaboration with the Conservation Finance Alliance for promoting
innovative financing for coral reef conservation.

*Co-sponsors:* OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News), the EBM Tools
Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe), and the Reef Resilience
Network

*Register:*

   - Viewing 1: *https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jNI0kihxTYuh6Je3MGFalg*
   <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jNI0kihxTYuh6Je3MGFalg>
   - Viewing 2: *https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5Wf9DQjtToCWS-SCe_PbIg*
   <https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5Wf9DQjtToCWS-SCe_PbIg>


Best,
Raye

-- 
Raye Evrard, MMA
Project Manager
OCTO | Open Communications for The Ocean
https://www.octogroup.org | https://www.openchannels.org
raye at octogroup.org
Seattle, Washington, USA (UTC-7)