Oak Foundation’s North American Marine Conservation Programme vision:

To use ecosystem-based approaches to build socio-ecological resilience and to promote sustainable use and conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems, especially in areas in the US and Canada with high biodiversity and a long-standing cultural heritage.

Key geographical areas:

Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea, the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea

High priority areas:

1. To build resilience through sustainable use initiatives that reduce over-fishing and foster community-based stewardship of ocean resources.

• Promote healthy fisheries by reducing by-catch, protecting sea floor habitat, and supporting innovative community-based conservation initiatives
• Build capacity of indigenous environmental stewardship programmes and efforts to implement co-management of subsistence resources
• Implement innovative market-based strategies that invest in triple bottom line approaches that yield substantive ecological, economic and social returns
• Abate large scale industrialisation of the region through effective advocacy and litigation

2. To increase marine environmental and subsistence harvest protection from large-scale industrialisation.

• Identify and prioritise important cultural and ecological areas by linking scientific and local ecological knowledge
• Advocate for cultural and ecological protection in design, planning and implementation within integrative management areas
• Monitor and adaptively co-manage protected area integrity using the best available science and local ecological knowledge

3. To improve ocean governance through integrated management approaches

• Support integrative management initiatives in key geographic areas
• Develop comprehensive marine spatial planning databases that promote adaptive management
• Advocate for policy reform that supports integrative management recommendations
• Participation in Arctic Council activities that promote environmental protection of marine resources

Bering Sea and North Pacific Programme Grants (2007)

• Alaska Marine Conservation Council

  To secure permanent protection for Bristol Bay from offshore oil and gas development and secure funding for alternative energy projects.

• Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

  To secure permanent protection from federal and state offshore oil and gas leasing for Alaska's Bristol Bay by working to restore the annual legislative Outer Continental Shelf moratorium in the US Congress and establishing a cohesive coalition of fishing/Alaska Native interests opposed to drilling. (Over two years)

• Marine Conservation Biology Institute

  To provide small research grants to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who are studying historical marine ecology in the United States and who have been identified as the next generation of world leaders in marine conservation biology. (Over three years)

• The Nature Conservancy

  To advance coastal and marine conservation in Alaska’s Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas by developing market-based methods to reduce the impact of the groundfish trawl fishery; developing strategies to conserve biologically important areas in the face of resource extraction and climate change; strengthening the knowledge base in support of efforts to establish marine protected areas; and educating and mobilising Alaska’s leaders to help develop key policies to reduce global carbon inputs into the atmosphere. (Over two years)

• Ocean Champions

  To support continued public education and advocacy programmes in the United States in order to build momentum for ocean governance reform. Its primary objective is to advance pro-ocean policies in the US Congress through the development of "The Ocean Health Plan" and to establish a nexus between global warming and oceans issues. (Over three years)

• Oceana Inc

  To address immediate threats to large Arctic marine ecosystems in the United States by establishing a fisheries ecosystem plan for the Aleutian Islands that can be used as a model for other areas in the Arctic; protecting the Bering Sea and Arctic seafloor from destructive bottom trawling; identifying important ecological areas in the US Arctic; and maintaining a strong Arctic constituency made up of interested members of the public, conservation organisations, commercial fishermen, native groups, local communities, and policy makers. (Over three years)

• University of British Columbia

  To continue to provide the SeaLifeBase with relevant data on non-fish marine organisms and to strengthen this database to become a sustainable initiative. To help build the database, a consortium of organisations will be created, comprising a committed community of experts and users that will ensure a flow of information and funding. (Over two years)

• World Media Foundation Inc

  To expand Living on Earth’s environmental broadcast to include: issues of equity and social justice as they relate to climate change; track the United States’ position on international agreements to counter global climate change; examine how United States decisions affect the greater global community; and report on regions of the world where the negligence of industrialised nations has threatened the livelihood of local communities. (Over two years)

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