4.3 Outreach

1. MCA Field Guide
2. MCA Field Guide Checklist
3. Phase 4: Implementation Checklist
4. 4.1 Administration accounted for
5. 4.2 Planning initiated
6. 4.3 Outreach planned and begun
7. 4.4 Science program established
8. 4.5 Enforcement needs assessed and met
9. 4.6 Public uses promoted and managed
10. 4.7 Livelihoods identified
11. 4.8 Habitat management needs realized
12. 4.9 Maintenance identified and scheduled
13. 4.10 Funding needs assessed and acquired for the long-term

Outreach activities undertaken for Marine Conservation Agreement (MCA) projects are critically important before and during project implementation, especially in areas where the project is setting a new precedent, is controversial, or where the local community is involved. Outreach may also be the one implementation activity that should be done at several levels even when no other activities (such as science, habitat management, maintenance, public uses or enforcement) are being undertaken.

An active outreach effort can:

• Educate stakeholders about conservation issues related to sites, organizations, and marine protection
• Encourage stakeholders to report violations and problems observed while on sites
• Gain stakeholder support and funding for individual projects and organizational efforts
• Recruit volunteers for site maintenance, science, and habitat activities
• Reduce impacts from stakeholder activities

Besides maintaining consistent communications with right-holders and other direct stakeholders, implementers will benefit from reaching out to indirect stakeholders, such as agencies, other organizations, neighbors, politicians, and the public, to inform and engage them during planning processes.

Direct and Indirect Stakeholders

Immediate Actions: As soon as possible after the MCA is signed, the lead conservation organization (whether the implementer or not) should ensure that all parties to the agreement (direct stakeholders) understand the deliverables and obligations (e.g., rangers have an obligation to conduct specified number of patrols, community leaders must be present when aquacultural technical assistance is provided).

Months 1-6 Actions: The implementer must soon ensure that all other, indirect stakeholders are aware of the MCA, including the commitments, roles, and responsibilities.

Year One-Plus Actions: As a means to reinforce the long-term sustainability of the MCA, implementers should undertake the following outreach activities to all direct and indirect stakeholders throughout the duration of the MCA:

• Encourage acknowledgement of the direct advantages provided by the MCA, such as financial and in-kind value of the benefits themselves, access to a reliable stream of benefits not tied to outside markets, and access to technical assistance and public services through the relationship with the lead conservation organization and other partners.
• Encourage recognition of direct and indirect benefits generated by resource conservation, such as ecosystem services from conserved resources, avoided negative social impacts often linked to destructive resource use (e.g., loss of traditional values, alcoholism, spread of disease), and protection of cultural and religious values linked to healthy resource base.
• Promote embracing of biodiversity as a value (e.g., building pride).

Local Community

Reaching out to the local community (including adjacent landowners and lessees, as well as landowners within the watershed) is critical to the long-term success of most MCAs, specifically those that lie within ecologically functional distances to shorelines and those that are closely tied to the community through social, cultural and economic means. Activities that local communities undertake may impact MCA projects which typically lie at the bottom of watersheds, below the high tide line along coastal areas. Neighboring structures and activities such as clear-cutting, burning, dynamiting, shoreline armoring and development, recreational piers, chemical treatments on lawns, and septic systems can jeopardize the success of MCA projects.

Providing local communities with information on best management practices (for example, see the Shoreline Landowner’s Education Toolkit) and funding for shoreline improvement projects creates goodwill and improves the likelihood of project success.

Immediate Actions: As soon as possible after the MCA is signed, the implementer should, if possible and not already done, identify a community “champion” for the project. This person’s role may range from formal community liaison with the MCA project to consensus building among community groups to promote the MCA among local stakeholders.

Agencies

Implementers can use their new status as vested stakeholders to get seats at negotiation tables when agencies are contemplating decisions that will affect their sites or the marine environment at-large. When conservation organizations are the implementers, they can use these opportunities to suggest approaches such as resilience planning, ecoregional assessments, marine spatial planning, and ecosystem-based management. Organizations can also use their sites as case studies of effective area-based management, new restoration techniques, scientific discoveries, and compatible public use, among others.

Conservation Organizations

Other conservation organizations may be interested to know how they could apply similar MCA strategies in ocean and coastal waters. When an organization enters into an MCA, it is in a unique position to reach out to other conservation organizations as a means to achieve greater conservation and also to bolster MCAs as a widely understood and comprehensively applied strategy. When additional conservation organizations use MCAs, overall acceptance and success of the strategy will improve.

Politicians

Working within ocean and coastal environments can be extremely controversial due to the multitude of stakeholders, the complicated management framework, and the fluidity of the environment. As such, MCA implementers may be affected by controversies through political decision-making. Given this, implementers may not only benefit from understanding the political climate related to such work in the relevant locations, they may also benefit from actively reaching out to local, state, and federal politicians to educate them about the in-water conservation projects. When working with politicians, however, non-profit conservation organizations must understand and follow all applicable guidelines associated with lobbying.

Public Users

Public users in and around MCA sites can be both a blessing and a curse. To make them a blessing, some sort of outreach is likely needed. Informational signs placed on or adjacent to sites is a passive approach that is often used on protected areas which are open to the public. However, the effectiveness of this approach is questionable as the public often does not have the time or desire to pause their activities and educate themselves about the possible impacts they are causing. As such, MCA implementers should consider whether an active approach to public outreach is a cost-effective means to achieve their conservation goals.

Next Sub-step

Using science to establish and monitor biological and socio-economic conditions before, during and after the MCA will ultimately be important to several outreach activities.

Proceed to 4.4 Science

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