Promoting sustainable marine resource livelihoods in
post-conflict/civil unrest settings
MMS is proud to work directly with post-conflict coastal residents—including ex-combatants—under post-war and disarmament, emobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs to build local capacity for environmentally and economically sustainable marine resource livelihoods. This includes community organizing and planning for artisanal and small-scale fisheries management that reduces fisheries conflict, supports peace and order, and promotes a return to the rule of law.
Capacity building for community-based and collaborative
marine resource management
MMS supports their clients in the development and improved performance of marine resource management efforts, particularly where such efforts include the participation of local communities and other stakeholders who live and work along the coast. Such efforts may include: (a) the design, planning, and implementation of community-based and collaboratively-managed marine protected areas; (b) building the local adaptive capacity to address and reduce the negative impacts of climate change under collaborative partnership with government; and (c) initiating community action that supports government-led enforcement and improves local compliance levels with existing marine resource rules and regulations
Capacity building for adaptive and collaborative small-scale
fisheries management
Capacity building of national and local governments and non-governmental partners in their design and implementation of small-scale fisheries collaborative management (co-management) programs. Such fisheries programs are designed around the principles of adaptive management and an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
Capacity building for the design, planning, and evaluation of marine protected
area (MPA) sites and networks
Capacity building of national and local governments and non-governmental partners in their design, planning, implementation, and evaluation of MPA sites and networks. Related services include the assessment and evaluation of MPA management effectiveness.
Measurement of management effectiveness and conservation impact
This includes conservation and management program impact measurement, management effectiveness evaluation at the site- or multi-site level, and assessment of organizational progress made against stated strategic and/or operational plans.
Facilitation of agency/organization strategic planning, program development,
and project design
This includes group/team facilitation through the strategic planning process, adaptive management planning (monitoring and evaluation framework design), and training of staff in the various components of project management and program evaluation.
Conducting applied, interdisciplinary research to investigate the conditions
under which marine management solutions are most effective
MMS designs and conducts innovative, applied research projects with international partners to investigate pressing socio-ecological questions and identify the conditions under which specific marine management interventions are most effective. Research efforts undertaken by MMS are empirically rigorous and interdisciplinary in nature.
All services provided by MMS are grounded in the following operating principles:
- Active community involvement and participation by in the management and decision-making of local marine resources, including by impoverished or marginalized stakeholders
- Local empowerment that encourages self-determination, improved well being, community integrity and resilience;
- A collaborative approach to resource management in order to reduce conflict, encourage peace and order, and promote the rule of law;
- Ethnic, gender, and intergenerational equity to ensure all voices are heard and all experience and knowledge can be applied;
- A commitment to being critical and objective in nature so that qualitative and quantitative information relating to pressing socio-ecological questions can generate results and solutions that are rigorously and collaboratively investigated and identified.
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