The first Global Marine Protected Areas Partner Summit was held in Redlands, California November 2-3. The meeting was convened by Marine Conservation Institute (a High Seas Alliance member organization) and hosted by Esri, the world’s leading vendor of geographic information systems, to bring together marine conservation organizations and prominent scientists, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, to explore opportunities for collaboration and new tools for enhancing marine protected area efforts around the world.
The two-day meeting focused on the Global Ocean Refuge System (GLORES) initiative as a leading tool to support global conservation efforts and catalyze strong protection for at least 20-30% of the ecosystems in each marine biogeographic region of the world’s oceans by 2030. Developed and led by Marine Conservation Institute, GLORES is designed to incentivize countries and communities to strongly protect their marine resources by awarding deserving protected areas gold, silver and bronze “Global Ocean Refuge” status using scientific criteria to distinguish top-tier marine protected areas (MPAs).
For more information about MCI, the Summit or GLORES, please contact Vienna Saccomanno.
Cover photo by Pierre Leverrier on Unsplash