Skip to content Skip to footer

Marine OECM Tool

Indigenous knowledge in evaluating effectiveness of OECMs in the ocean.

A new collaboration has been initiated between the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) and the Oregon State University (OSU) researchers.

OSU and IIFB are facilitating a series of dialogues to co-create a new tool to identify, understand, and track the conservation outcomes of OECMs and other effectively conserved areas in the ocean, beyond MPAs (hereafter, “the marine OECM tool”).

The marine OECM tool is intended to be easy to use, practical, and complementary to ongoing efforts to evaluate marine OECMs and other areas. The tool will focus on marine OECMs and other effectively conserved areas. It will help to clarify the activities that support biodiversity and the expected outcomes of different types of effective conservation.

IIFB and OSU will partner in this effort, and the collaboration will ensure that traditional knowledge and wisdom, innovations, rights, practices, and worldviews of Indigenous Peoples and local communities play a key role in the co-creation of the marine OECM tool. It will focus on ensuring thought leadership and attendance of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in this series of meetings, with representation across diverse sectors spanning leaders in Indigenous ocean practices, other rights holders and community members with interest and expertise in marine areas, policy experts, scientists, conservationists, and fisheries management experts. The IIFB collaborators will help integrate traditional knowledge, contributing to the co-creation of expanded guidance about best practices and effective conserved areas.

This initiative aligns with the Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ contribution to achieve Target 3, particularly the recognition of indigenous and traditional territories (ITT) as the third pathway.

A series of webinars on the Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) evaluation tool was organized in December 2024 by OSU and IIFB. Learn more on these events following this link.