First
Biennial Ocean Climate Summit: Finding Solutions for San Francisco Bay
Area's Coast and Ocean
Kelley Higgason1, Maria Brown1
1Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
On
April 29, 2008, Gulf
of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary held
the "First Biennial Ocean Climate Summit" for the San Francisco Bay
Area's coast and ocean environment. The goal of the summit was to
address potential climate change impacts for local coastal and open
ocean ecosystems through fostering awareness, advocating solutions, and
promoting action amongst government agencies, public organizations,
private corporations, and individuals in order to build ecosystem
resilience and sustainability. To achieve this goal, the following
summit objectives were established for the Bay Area's coast and ocean
environment: identify key climate change drivers and impacts affecting
the area; discuss the steps in research, outreach, and policy reform
needed to address the carbon footprint affecting this area; determine
how existing climate change programs can collaborate to help support
the
needs of this area; identify the important critical marine habitats
within the area that must be managed for resilience and sustainability;
and promote partnerships amongst agencies, non-profit organizations,
private businesses, and stakeholders. The desired summit outcomes
included developing strategies for an Action Plan to establish the
"Climate Solutions Initiative" for the Bay Area marine environment and
serving as a pilot program for implementing localized climate change
initiatives amongst NOAA's national marine sanctuary system. Over 100
participants from numerous federal, state, and local agencies,
non-profit organizations, foundations, academic institutions, and the
business community attended the meeting. For more information click here then click on "2008
Ocean Climate Summit" or contact
kelley.higgason@noaa.gov.
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