Submit Content (login required)
Last updated: 05/25/2010
The Practitioner's Toolkit for Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) provides information for local, national, and international organizations regarding a promising strategy to protect ocean and coastal biodiversity from degradation and depletion. The toolkit helps conservation organizations determine: 1) What MCAs are; 2) When MCAs can help abate threats to ocean and coastal species, habitats, and ecosystems; and 3) How to plan and proceed with MCA projects. MCAs include any formal or informal understanding between two or more parties in which the parties obligate themselves, for an exchange of benefits, to take certain actions, refrain from certain actions, or transfer certain rights and responsibilities to achieve agreed upon ocean or coastal conservation goals.
Stakeholder engagement and outreach tool (for participatory goal and priority setting and stakeholder education)
Decision support tool
Project management tool (for budgeting, scheduling, reporting, etc.)
Tool is web based
Tool handles socio-economic impacts
Technical expertise: Basic computer skills sufficient
Scientific expertise: General understanding of issues
Resource Requirements: Requires little staff time to review tool. To apply the tool to sites requires considerable time for feasibility analysis, stakeholder engagement and implementation.
Equipment needs: Basic computer and Internet access
Types of data input needed to use tool: Biodiversity targets and threats, conservation strategies, owner/manager/user information, stakeholder information, financial information
Input formats: User defined
Types of output data from tool: User created reports
Output formats: User defined
Website: www.mcatoolkit.org
Demo Website: www.mcatoolkit.org
Tool Cost: free
Developer: The Nature Conservancy
Tool contact: Jay Udelhoven
Email: judelhoven@tnc.org
Phone: 206-343-4345, ext. 339
Address: 1917 First Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101 U.S.A.
Technical Support: Tool is organized as a self-guided, on-line how-to manual. Support to understand the tool can be gained through the contact page. Support to implement the tool can be requested through the contact page.
Projects that have used this tool: The tool was created from the experiences of several projects, see www.mcatoolkit.org/Field_Projects/Field_Projects.htmlÂ