New Monthly Report

May 2009                                                                                                                            mai 2009

 

Greetings Members and Friends of the OMRN!

Special Welcome to our New OMRN Coordinator – Kaitlin Fahey

s  The OMRN Secretariat extends a most special welcome to Kaitlin Fahey who is assuming the position of OMRN Coordinator. Kaitlin recently completed her Master of Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University and did her master’s thesis on international conservation efforts for leatherback turtles. Her most recent position before moving to Ottawa was Office Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Nature Trust.

s  We wish former OMRN Coordinator Sandra Clark all the best in her new job as Research Promotion Coordinator in the Research Office of the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa.  On behalf of all OMRN members, we say thank you Sandra for all your dedication, hard work, and contribution to the OMRN and continued success in all you do!

 

News from the OMRN Network Secretariat

s  Maureen Woodrow, Executive Director of the OMRN represented the OMRN at a Conservation Workshop sponsored by NSERC under the Strategic Workshop Grant program and the Carthy and Wilburforce foundations.  The workshop convened approximately 40 decision makers, managers, staff of non-governmental organizations, and academics who were concerned with conservation science and its application in Canada. The objective was to initiate a network to increase the provision of evidence-based natural and social conservation science to managers and policy makers in Canada.

s  Dan Lane, OMRN Chair won an NSERC Strategic Workshop Grant award as OMRN representative and academic Principal Investigator to hold a workshop that was held April 5-7 in Ottawa together with collaborators Patrick McGuinness, President of the Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC), and Marc Allain, representative of the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters (CCPFH). The Workshop brought together over 40 members of the Canadian fisheries sector, federal government fisheries scientists, NSERC representatives, and academics across the country to discuss the formation of a national capture fisheries research network for Canada. The Workshop focused on the preparation of the formal call for the industry-driven NSERC-funded Fisheries Network. The OMRN was presented at the Workshop as an example of an existing network template for the fisheries discussion. Lane also represents the OMRN as a member of the Network Steering Committee with Allain, McGuinness, and Dave Gillis, DFO Science (Ottawa). Further details of the Workshop including the Network report are available from Dan Lane (dlane@uottawa.ca).

s  Derek Smith (Carleton University), Maureen Woodrow (University of Ottawa) and Kelly Vodden (Memorial University) partnered with the town of Change Islands on a SSHRC application in the SSHRC Special Environmental Call, Public Outreach program to produce tools in the form of  interactive maps, a website, and policy briefs that focus on the value of local environmental knowledge and the capacity of coastal communities to take on a much greater role in natural resource management. The project investigators in collaboration with local residents hope to provide an example of how social science research can lead to new forms of governance that help rural communities prosper while respecting the precautionary principle of ocean conservation. OMRN contributed to the project to enable the addition of fishing grounds to the community-based map completed in 2008.  Melanie Wiber, OMRN leader of the Socio-economics of Integrated Management Working Group also contributed to the completion of the 2008 community based map.

Please click here for the full report...

 

---

More news