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OR&R Facilitates Marine Protected Areas Capacity Building Program
JUNE 17, 2024 — This month, the NOAA Marine Debris Program's Chief Scientist, Amy V. Uhrin, recently traveled to Baler, Aurora Province, Philippines to support both the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ (ONMS) International Marine Protected Areas Capacity Building Team (IMPACT) and the Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS), Marine Protected Areas Capacity Building Program as a co-facilitator for their training workshop on Assessing Benefits and Threats in Marine Ecosystems, with a focus on seagrass.
The training is grounded in the theory of change, which describes the sequence of outcomes that is expected to occur as a result of a management intervention. The training is designed to guide participants in the development of a results chain wherein a series of direct “if…then” relationships describes how a project team believes a specific management intervention will influence indirect and direct threats to have a positive impact on MPA resources of interest.
During the training, Uhrin gave two training-specific presentations and also developed and presented two separate case studies on marine debris impacts to seagrass and vessel grounding impacts to seagrass. In addition, she helped guide participants through the various training modules for developing a regional-specific results chain and assisted with a seagrass field activity. This program is supported through the USAID-US NOAA Mission Support Partnership.