Vallée de Mai science coordinator attends systematic adaptive management training |13 November 2017

The Vallée de Mai science coordinator recently attended the Systematic Adaptive Management (SAM) training for the Western Indian Ocean marine protected areas.

The course was organised by the Seychelles National Park Authority (SNPA) and held on Curieuse Island for four days.

The participating organisations were SNPA, Island Conservation Society, the Ministry of Environment, and SIF.

This course was a follow-up course from the one held in August 2016, and was facilitated by Dr Jennifer O’Leary, the SAM Leader, who was also one of the facilitators for the 2016 edition.

The course was organised in order to increase capacity for participants to practice adaptive management in their respective marine protected area.

Participants were taught about SMART goals – that is Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time bound – and how these can help the management of marine protected areas.

Participants were also advised on how to better assess their managements action through a model; setting objectives, assessing whether objectives were met or not, and resetting the objectives if not met.

There were also practical sessions, participants practiced sea grass monitoring and coral monitoring in the Curieuse marine park.

By the end of the training each participant was awarded a certificate for the completion of the course.