CRC produces fisheries and aquaculture guidebook

The Coastal Resources Center at GSO worked with the United States Agency for International Development and other partners to develop a comprehensive guidebook, “Sustainable Fisheries and Responsible Aquaculture: A Guide for USAID Staff and Partners.” The publication was created as part of the SUCCESS 2009-2014 USAID project. You can find it here.

Climate change workshop draws several West African nations

Some of the participants at the Climate Change Adaptation workshop in Ghana in June.
Some of the participants at the Climate Change Adaptation workshop in Ghana in June.

The CRC, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Economic Community of West African States hosted a three-day workshop last week in Accra, Ghana, on Climate Change and National Adaptation Planning in the coastal zone of West Africa. Ghana resident Adiza Ama Owusu, who recently received her master’s degree from URI through a CRC sponsorship, assisted with coordination of the workshop. Several regional organizations were in attendance, as well as the key country designate from each of 11 coastal West African nations that are part of The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The workshop focused on ways to integrate climate change adaption into national and regional planning objectives and resulted in preliminary action plans for participants. Lessons learned and best practices will be shared globally through international forums by CRC and its global partners.

CRC work in North Kingstown gets media notice

With help from a CRC and R.I. Sea Grant-led project, the town of North Kingstown, R.I., is one of only three communities in the nation chosen to receive technical assistance from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help apply smart-growth approaches to improve its economy and create jobs while also protecting public health and the environment, ECORI News reported June 18.

“We are eager to understand how communities can begin to discuss the economic tradeoffs to inform adaptation decisions for a future that looks very different from today,” Pam Rubinoff, coastal manager at the CRC, told ECORI News.

To read the whole article click here.

CRC’s founding director honored

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Stephen Olsen
Stephen Olsen

URI President David M. Dooley and other dignitaries from the university and the state inducted several retired University employees with 40 or more years into the Lifetime Service Society Monday in Kingston. Among those honored at the celebration, which included the unveiling of commemorative bricks, was Prof. Stephen B. Olsen, founding director of the Coastal Resources Center (CRC). Stephen, of Wakefield, R.I., is the only person to lead the CRC since its inception in 1971. A search committee is currently seeking to fill the position he held for 41 years. In the meantime Dr. Brian Crawford, director of international programs at the CRC, is serving as interim director.

 

RI Ocean SAMP Practitioner’s Guide is here


Fresh off the presses is the CRC/RI Sea Grant’s latest publication, A Practitioner’s Guide to Managing Ocean Resources Through Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning.

This new guide describes Rhode Island’s experience in developing the Ocean Special Area Management Plan, a national model for planning how ocean resources should be used and shared to ensure economic and environmental viability of coastal communities for years to come.

The document examines the Ocean SAMP planning process and presents some of the strategies that were applied to achieve its goals — key of which is sharing our lessons learned with others and helping them to create their own marine spatial planning efforts. You can read the guide here.