Applied Marine Management with Volunteered Geographic Information

Methods for identifying spatially referenced conservation needs and opportunities

“…We collected spatial data by using SeaSketch, a web-based participatory planning platform that permits remote data collection and participant interaction and has been used successfully in collaborative design of MPAs (Goldberg et al, 2016;Johnson et al, 2020;SeaSketch Training Manual, 2014). We then provided participants with clear definitions of conservation need and conservation opportunity, step-by-step instructions on how to complete the mapping exercise and (within the SeaSketch platform) spatial reference data (e.g., management boundaries, research stations, bathymetry) to help participants orient themselves along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.…”

“…This suggests that additional definitional clarity is needed prior to future applications of the framework and efforts to collect spatially referenced conservation opportunity data. Interrogating the framework also emphasized some of the difficulties that conservation practitioners might encounter when delineating spatially referenced conservation opportunities (Brown and Kyttä, 2018;Fauna & Flora International, 2013;Goldberg et al, 2016). Asking them to identify areas of potential opportunity requires practitioners to: 1) identify a potential factor or event that could shape future opportunities (e.g.…”