11-07, 12:15– (Australia/Hobart), Main Auditorium
Protection of the oceans needs to grow rapidly to reach the global target of 30% by 2030. I will demonstrate a reproducible workflow that uses the R coding language and freely available data and is being applied to small island nations deciding which ocean areas to protect
Only 8% of ocean area is protected. To get to the globally agreed target of 30% protection by 2030 there needs to be a rapid increase in the number and extent of marine protected areas. I will showcase how we are using the R package prioritizr to help small island nations in Oceania and other regions decide which areas of their waters are best to protect to maximize biodiversity conservation while minimizing conflict with human activities. To assist our workflow, we have created a new R package, oceandatr, that simplifies the process of obtaining geospatial data in a standardized format. The workflow and tools demonstrated are all free and open source, and so can be used by anyone to help decide which ocean areas to protect.
I am a Project Researcher at the Environmental Market Solutions Lab (emLab) at the University of California, Santa Barbara working on marine spatial planning and coastal and fisheries management on islands in the Caribbean, Pacific, and Western Indian Ocean. I work with emLab’s partners at the Waitt Institute on their work with the Blue Prosperity Coalition. My work has helped guide marine spatial planning in Montserrat, Bermuda, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and inform fisheries management in Barbuda, Curacao, the Maldives, and Montserrat.