Last week, the Ashoka blog for social change at Forbes, wrote about The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a Harlem-based organization dedicated to helping kids by strengthening community ties, and teaching critical thinking, conflict resolution, and leadership skills. Creative expression and individual empowerment? What's not to like?
Summer of Fire
Fire is an important part of nature. Knowing when and how to fight forest fires can be difficult. The New York Times Retro Report video series takes a look at the Yellowstone fire of 1988 and US fire policy. Even if you grew up in fire country and understand why it's vital to let some fires burn, this video is worth ten minutes of your time.
Mapping Entrepreneurs
Map of entrepreneurial personalities. The darker the state, the more entrepreneurial traits. From Staffan's Personality Blog.
There's some interesting personality research these days exploring the traits which make us good leaders or successful entrepreneurs. Staffan's Personality blog explores what we assume makes a good entrepreneur on a state-by-state basis.
The map above shows us where we are more likely to meet entrepreneurs, based on higher concentrations of extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness, and lower concentrations of agreeableness and neuroticism.
The map below shows us the extent to which people are actually engaged in entrepreneurial activity.
Assuming the personality research is correct, the real story these maps could tell is one of policy impacts. As Staffan points out, these maps are fairly crude representations of some pretty raw data. We probably have a good understanding of what legal and economic conditions foster the right environment for successful new business ventures, but there is still much work to be done to understand what it takes to make a successful entrepreneur -- other than hard work and determination.
Map of entrepreneurial activity. The darker the state, the more startups and self-employed. Also from Staffan's Personality Blog.
the best leaders are usually humble
Are women more likely to adopt more effective leadership strategies than men? This post at the HBR blog discusses leadership qualities and suggests that women are more likely to "approach problem-solving in a more flexible and creative way."
The analysis of gender differences is interesting, but the key finding, in my mind, is this:
Arrogance and overconfidence are inversely related to leadership talent — the ability to build and maintain high-performing teams, and to inspire followers to set aside their selfish agendas in order to work for the common interest of the group. Indeed, whether in spots, politics or business, the best leaders are usually humble.
Learning How to FIsh
Fishers like Jesus Sucajel from Hambongan Island, Inabanga, Philippines, do not need charts and statistics to validate the depletion of marine resources. He sees it in diminishing daily catches, lost income and increases in illegal fishing methods like those using dynamite and cyanide.
(from the Rare Blog)
The UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy has just published an excellent overview of various approaches to fisheries management. The authors, Jonathan Adler and Nathaniel Stewart, look at various top-down regulatory approaches to fisheries protection, many of which have failed. They also examine the results of various catch share approaches to fishery management, concluding that such property-based solutions generally lead to better resource management.
Read the paper to better understand the importance of aligning economic and ecological incentives, and explore ways that long-term security of fishing rights can help prevent overfishing and promote ecological stewardship.
it all started with catch share
When catch shares were first into place, California's fishermen were limited to certain numbers of certain species and would end up throwing perfectly good fish overboard, logging it as dead bycatch in order to avoid punitive fines. Now, the catch-share program has aligned incentives, allowing fishermen to trade species they've already caught. These tradeable quotas allow fishermen to avoid punitive fines, thereby ensuring less waste in terms of biomass.
To complement the shift in policy, one fisherman has designed new trawling equipment to further minimize the environmental impact of his trade. Giuseppe Pennisi has designed light-trawl gear which floats just above the sea floor, rather than dragging across the bottom. Thanks to the reduced drag, this new method reduces fuel costs while preserving bottom-dwelling fauna.
Read more about it at the Monterey County Weekly.
Seafood Shares
Community Seafood now has Sunday pickups at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.
This community-supported fishery (CSF) out of Santa Barbara is modeled after community-supported agricultural programs (CSAs). The founder is a Bren School alum who launched her business with a group of local fishermen and help from a UCSB Coastal Fund. Their goal is help seafood harvested in the Santa Barbara channel stay in Santa Barbara. Before they got started, most folks in Santa Barbara were buying seafood caught elsewhere and most Santa Barbara-based fishermen had a 90% exportation rate. Now, the fishermen make more money and folks in Santa Barbara (and now Santa Monica) have more direct access to locally harvested fish.
I'm really excited to join the
CSF. It's a great way to support the people earning their livelihoods in
the waters around California's Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and I'm
eager to see communities benefit from the increased biodiversity and
ecosystem health promised by MPAs.
I'm
always interested in an empirical approach to understanding where my
food comes from. I think tracking your food back to the source is an
excellent way to learn about geography, ecology, and agriculture. The
"eat local" movement has been really interesting to watch over the years
and it has helped bolster various groups of growers and producers as
well as an awareness of agricultural, environmental, and economic
issues, which is great.
While people in colder climates may not be able to enjoy a varied diet of fresh foods and eat local, I'm glad to be in Mediterranean climate where I have an abundance of fresh, local options available to me year round. Of course, my coffee always comes from farther afield. This isn't the tropics.
Pictured above: This is not a CSF dinner, but it is a Channel Islands dinner. You're looking at grouper & sand dabs grilled and served on a bed of grilled green tomatoes drizzled with bourbon-basil butter.
MPA Watching
It was another great day aboard the LA Waterkeeper boat, monitoring activity in and around the Point Dume SMCA** and SMR**. We saw dolphins today, but the video above is actually from a July 25th MPA watch.
It's always nice to see people recreating in Marine Protected Areas and fishing in the waters just outside of them, but today it was especially satisfying given yesterday's NatGeo post about two recent studies suggesting that MPAs not only *quickly* contribute to higher fish yields, but also that the cost of implementing MPAs can be recouped by the fishing communities themselves within five years. These correspond to findings in a study of the impacts of California's MPA policy published earlier this year.
Many people in California's fishing communities were understandably concerned about how MPAs would affect their livelihoods, especially when it became clear no-take zones would be put in place in January 2012. There are always transition costs with new policies (especially bans on commercial activities), and California's fishermen shouldered most of the burden of implementing limited and no-take zones, but based on February's Marine Protected Areas Report -- and anecdotal stories from LA Waterkeeper's outreach guru -- they appear to be doing okay less than two years out. Let's hope California's coastal ecosystems and economies are not just recovering, but flourishing, well in advance of the five-year mark.
**MPA Designations
State Marine Reserve (SMR): fishing/harvest of all marine resources is prohibited
No-Take State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA): fishing/harvest of all marine resources is prohibited.
State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA): fishing/harvest of some marine resources permitted (specific take policy varies from one SMCA to the next)
Can California save the ocean?
healthy kelp, part of the kelp restoration project in the SoCal MPAs
The diversity of stakeholders along California's coasts include those invested "in marine recreation, transportation, trade, energy, fishing, tourism and national defense, including America's two largest ports and second-largest naval base."
This makes California's coastal conservation policy unique, "because the state doesn't have any single industry or special interest dominating its marine policies like oil and gas in Louisiana, fishing in New England or real estate developers in Florida."
David Halberg waxes ecstatic about California's marine policy at the San Francisco Chronicle, though he does include a few caveats:
California's ocean policies are not perfect. There was the recent mystery of 1,200 stranded sea lion pups off Southern California, where surfers also are cautioned to wait 72 hours after a rainstorm before entering the water because of polluted runoff. Fierce debates also are under way about plans for desalination plants and relicensing of the state's last nuclear power plant on the coast.
We look forward to reading his book, The Golden Shore - California's Love Affair with the Sea.
The Moon in the Nautilus Shell
Ecologist Dan Botkin explains the natural phenomenon after which he named his new book, The Moon in the Nautilus Shell: Discordant Harmonies Reconsidered, and reminds us that we are deeply connected to nature.
will wetlands soften the blow of climate change?
The Smithsonian & Science Daily report that a recent study indicates that wetland plants can absorb nearly 1/3 more carbon dioxide than they currently do. Until recently, scientists assumed plants would reach a threshold and stop responding to rising levels of carbon dioxide. When it comes to wetland plants, that no longer appears to be the case. Evidence suggests wetlands might be Mother Nature's regulatory mechanism for managing increased levels of carbon in our atmosphere.
archives coming soon
We're in the process of migrating our blogs from our old hosts here. Stay tuned for more previous posts.