The Foundation is in the process of ramping down our five-year Ecosystem-based Management (EBM) Initiative. We will be making our final EBM Initiative grants during remainder of 2009. Please see below for more information on our history of EBM grant-making and ongoing commitment to the field.

We are currently revising the rest of the Science grantmaking portfolio and information about a new Science strategy will be posted in the coming months. Currently, we are only accepting solicited proposals.

The Packard Foundation EBM Initiative

In early 2003, the Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative for Sustainable Coastal and Marine Systems was launched by the Packard Foundation board as a $30 million, five-year strategy. The goal of the strategy was “to create, and ensure the use of, the knowledge, tools, and skills needed to manage coastal-marine systems sustainably.”

We sought to achieve this goal in three ways:

• Supporting grantees’ efforts to develop the knowledge and tools needed for effective ecosystem-based management (EBM).
• Piloting the application of EBM in the Western Pacific, the Gulf of California, and the Central California Coast.
• Fostering the growth of an EBM community of practice to help jumpstart learning and exchange within the field.

The Foundation is proud of the Progress our grantees have made toward achieving our goal. Learn more about the EBM Initiative Evaluation, the Next Steps for the Science program, and about our Ongoing Commitment to EBM.

Progress

Our grantees have made significant progress towards this goal. For example:

• The EBM Tools Network has spearheaded the development of technical tools for EBM and tool experts and users regularly engage in webinars and on-line discussion groups. http://www.ebmtools.org/
• The web-based mapping tool, “Marine Map,” has helped engage stakeholders in the marine protected area process and is a resource for fisheries and marine scientists, fisheries managers and coastal communities. http://www.marinemap.org/
• Foundations of Success developed Miradi, a software tool to assist in the design, management and monitoring of conservation projects, which is being used by the Packard Foundation’s EBM regional initiatives for strategic planning. https://miradi.org/
• Ecotrust has developed an award-winning toolkit that builds transparency into the marine spatial planning process by incorporating fishermen's knowledge about the economic importance of fishing grounds into the decision process. http://www.ecotrust.org/ocean/
• The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis convened cross-disciplinary working groups that have helped to build the knowledge base for EBM, including “Marine EBM: From characterization to implementation” by Arkema et al., published in Frontiers. http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/crmp
• Morro Bay, one of the Packard Foundation’s EBM regional initiatives, identified key bio-indicators of nitrogen stress, established baselines of economic uses for the estuary and coast and recruited resource managers to actively participate in the science research agenda. http://www.slosea.org/
• PANGAS, a regional initiative in the Gulf of California, developed hydrodynamic and ecosystem models to inform management decisions and has engaged in formal relationships with regional fishery and marine conservation groups. http://pangas.arizona.edu/es/inicio
• In the Bird’s Head Seascape, Indonesia, an EBM Regional Initiative site, the number of MPAs has increased from 2 to 10 since 2003, including anetwork of 7 multiple-use MPAs totaling 1,172,314 hectares and encompassing the world’s most diverse coral reefs. The project incorporates ecological, socio-economic and governance aspects of conservation and natural resource management, which will directly inform spatial planning and fisheries policy at Regency, Provincial and National levels.
• Ecosystem-Based Management for the Oceans, the first comprehensive guide to the science and practice of marine EBM, was written by grantees Karen McLeod (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea - COMPASS) and Heather Leslie (Brown University) with a foreword by Jane Lubchenco (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA).

Evaluating the Initiative

An evaluation carried out in the final year of the initiative found that the work supported by this strategy has helped to promote a much broader acceptance of the need to manage coastal ecosystems with an ecosystem approach. It showed that the field has made progress in the development of science and tools for EBM, but that major efforts are still needed to bring about the institutional and policy changes necessary to push EBM into practice. 

Next steps for the Packard Foundation

Over the past year, the Foundation has been exploring the potential for continuing a specific EBM grantmaking strategy. During this exploratory process, it became apparent that the steps needed to promote broad scale institutional and policy change would require a significant financial commitment to be effective. These next steps lie beyond the resources and scope of the Science program. Given the current economic situation, we are not able to commit that level of resources. Over the course of 2009, we are making our final grants under the EBM initiative.

Ongoing Commitment to EBM

The Packard Foundation is still deeply committed to EBM as a marine conservation approach – and will continue to support targeted work to help turn the concept of EBM into changes in management and practice. For example, we are supporting:

• Efforts to bring an ecosystem perspective into the management of the refuge created to save the endangered Colorado River dolphin (vaquita) in the Gulf of California through the Gulf of California sub-program.
• The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans’ (PISCO) efforts to promote the development and use of ecosystem science in the California Current, through the Science sub-program.
• The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative's effort to support ocean policy reform at all levels of decision making through the Fisheries sub-program.
• The conservation of forage fisheries along the West Coast through the Fisheries sub-program.
• Efforts in Palau and Fiji to improve local watershed and coastal zone management in order to increase the effectiveness of marine conservation through the Western Pacific sub-program.
• Marine protected area networks in California through the Marine Life Protection Act process through the California Coastal and Marine Initiative.

Our Science subprogram will also continue to explore ways to support targeted work to bridge the gap between science and action.

The Foundation is currently revising the Science grantmaking portfolio and updated information will be posted over the next few months.  Currently we are only accepting solicited proposals.