IAN invited to Laguna de Bay Report Card Workshop in Philippines
Simon Costanzo and Dave Nemazie were invited to the Philippines in December 2013 to help guide the development of an ecosystem health report card for the largest lake in the Philippines - Laguna de Bay. The lake has over eight million people living within its watershed and is host to widespread aquaculture and is a source of drinking water for Metro Manila. The two-day workshop brought together participants from the Laguna Lake Development Authority, UNEP, national and international universities and various government agencies. The Chesapeake Bay Report Card in the USA, and the Chilika Lake Report Card in India, were used as case studies to provide context and catalyze development of the Laguna de Bay Report Card. The workshop was hosted by PEMSEA (Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia) in Tagaytay, southeast of Manila.
Ohio River Basin Workshop in Covington, Kentucky
IAN staff traveled to Covington, Kentucky (right across the river from downtown Cincinnati, Ohio) for the second of six sub-basin workshops for the Mississippi River Report Card project. This workshop focused on the Ohio River Basin, which covers a large swath from western New York, down through the Appalachians to Tennessee and west through Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. The two-day workshop brought together experts from natural resource science and management, engineering, and economic sectors. A key feature of this basin is the energy (coal and natural gas) resources and a key issue is the aging infrastructure of the lock and dam system. Workshop participants helped determine indicators that would be used to address the six goals (flood risk, transportation, ecosystems, economies, water supply, and recreation) of the Mississippi River report card. This report card is part of the America's Watershed Initiative.
9th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas
IAN staff attended the 9th Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas in Fiji in early December, setting up our first IAN conference booth. Our booth proved extremely popular, with almost all of our materials ravaged by the end of the first day! The conference itself was a fantastic opportunity to meet Pacific-based colleagues that we've worked with virtually, and to catch up with others. IAN diagrams and reports were featured in several keynote presentations and workshops throughout the conference, and we've started lining up potential new collaborations for the next few years. The word is getting out!
IAN welcomes Alexandra Schwaab
Ali Schwaab recently joined the IAN team at UMCES as a science communication intern. Ali graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2012 with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science and Policy. Previously, Ali worked as an Energy Policy Program Analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy on behalf of Energetics, Inc. and as a Constituent and Legislative Affairs intern for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at NOAA. She is particularly interested in oceans and sea level rise and is hoping to pursue a Masters degree in Oceanography in the fall of 2014. In her free time, Ali enjoys painting, running, reading, and watching soccer.