International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources-United States

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) designs and hosts the World Parks Congress every ten years; the next one is scheduled for November 2014 in Sydney, Australia. This global forum on protected areas is the world’s most influential gathering of people involved in protected area management and sets the global agenda for the following decade. This grant supports general preparation of the Congress as well as convening of the World Leaders’ Dialogues, lively debates on questions of global consumption patterns, drawing linkages between consumer choice and issues of global hunger, and poverty and inequality in the context of protected areas.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources is the world’s largest global environmental organization. The Global Marine and Polar Program addresses key global challenges in the marine and polar environment. Shipping activity has increased in the Bering Strait region as a consequence of receding sea ice and the potential for natural resource development. Increased vessel traffic carries with it associated risks of ship groundings, noise and disturbance, oil spills, foreign species introductions, and ship strikes of marine mammals. This project seeks to develop a set of possible voluntary measures for shipping in the Bering Strait region through two workshops with broad stakeholder engagement from the Russian Federation and the United States.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Global Marine Program is based in the United States and focuses on climate change mitigation and adaptation, marine protected areas (MPA), ocean governance, fisheries management issues, UN oceans debates, as well as Arctic and Antarctic marine conservation. The purpose of this project is to identify and facilitate implementation of options for national and international protective measures to mitigate the forecasted impacts of increased shipping and other marine activities on ecologically and culturally important areas of the Bering Strait.

To undertake a rapid assessment of bleaching resistance and resilience of coral reefs in the Caribbean, East Africa and South Pacific (over two years).

To facilitate the exchange of scientific ideas and generation of new management tools effecting coral reef ecosystems that are under stress due to the effects of global climate change (over three years).