18th annual Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture, 25 October
IOI Canada’s 18th annual Elisabeth Mann Borgese Ocean Lecture took place at Dalhousie on 25th October and featured a panel discussion on Small-Scale Fisheries: Food Security, Social Justice and Biodiversity. Editrudith Lukanga, Founder & Executive Director of the Environmental Management and Economic Development Organisation in Tanzania was joined by Evan Andrews, Postdoctoral Fellow, Ocean Frontier Institute and Anthony Charles, Director, School of the Environment, Saint Mary's University. With 2024 marking the 10th anniversary of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, the panel members shared their experience and perspectives on the instrument, addressing key issues in different small-scale fisheries in Canada and internationally. Ratana Chuenpagdee, IOI Canada Senior Research Fellow and Director, TBTI Global acted as moderator for the presentations and the lively discussion period which followed. Check out the YouTube recording (although the beginning and end are audio only).
A reception followed the panel and enabled audience members to continue the discussions and networking over refreshments. This public event in celebration of the life and work of the founder of IOI was organised in partnership with TBTI Global and Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI Module I), with support from the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership and Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University and a contribution from IOI Headquarters.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY FOR TEACHERS-IN-TRAINING, 19 October
Following the success of the professional development day for school teachers in March, IOI Canada held a second PD day on The Ocean and Us in an Era of Climate Change in October. This one was designed for local Bachelor of Education students, and was duly attended by 34 teachers-in-training and some observers. As before, it featured seven specialist speakers – both academics and practitioners – and was designed and organised in collaboration with the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and a local non-profit, the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership (BoFEP).
Once again, emphasis was placed on how the participants could actually use the information they were provided with. Each presentation was therefore followed by a Q&A period, and related classroom exercises were demonstrated and discussed in both the morning and afternoon. The attendees also received a specially developed 100+ page teacher guide on “The Ocean and Us in an Era of Climate Change” which had been primarily prepared and reviewed by experienced local teachers, with input from IOI and BoFEP. This guide used terminology and teaching protocols familiar within the Nova Scotia educational system and was also aligned with the provincial science curriculum, while highlighting the connections to multiple courses across the final five years of schooling.
This one-day workshop therefore provided the trainee teachers with important knowledge, valuable contacts and very practical tools to draw on in their future classrooms. As such, it served both to inspire and equip them at the start of their careers to increase the next generation’s understanding of issues, threats and possible solutions around climate change and the ocean.