Stories and Solutions

A Home for HOME GRID-Arendal is leading the development of a two-year Masters Programme in Holistic Ocean Management (HOME) with the University of Agder and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. HOME is intended to provide a place for students to explore and specialize in ocean governance while taking into account different social and cultural perspectives that influence how decisions are made. Graduates of the programme will have an ability to think and collaborate in a way that generates a more holistic approach to decision making than a conventional academic education can produce. Be ResponSEAble ResponSEAble – Ocean Literacy in the EU supports the emergence of an effective and dynamic European ocean knowledge system that contributes to raising awareness about everybody’s responsibility and interest in a healthy and sustainable ocean. The kick-off meeting was held in Plymouth, England in May and the project runs until 2019. Reports and Publications Tackling complex environmental issues means countries need new policies based on up-to-date and concrete information on the state of their environment, the threats they face, and how they can be reduced. This is exactly what a new report called Sierra Leone – State of the Marine Environment achieves, which was the result of the workshop held in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2014. In this publication, Sierra Leone’s marine habitats, biodiversity, and physical and chemical processes are described and assessed.

Draft online State of the Environment reports for Cote

d’Ivore, Gabon and Congo have been produced based on a

workshop held in Cote d’Ivore in 2013. GRID-Arendal has

been developing an “expert elicitation” (EE) approach to

gather the necessary environmental data for these reports.

The EE approach is essentially a scientific consensus

methodology, aimed at generating an assessment of any

chosen set of parameters by synthesising information

available in existing assessments, scientific publications

and data in conjunction with the subjective judgment of

experts across a broad base of evidence related to those

parameters.

A scientific paper is in preparation reporting on an

assessment of the environmental status of the proposed

Raet National Park, located in southern Norway, based

on an expert elicitation (EE) workshop conducted

during August 2014, facilitated by GRID-Arendal. The

workshop was conducted using software developed by

GRID-Arendal, which applies the EE methodology in

real time.

Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, in the

Preface to Sierra Leone – State of the Marine Environment

“The current SoME report is part of the regular

process in assessing the state of the global marine

environment. This assessment is also in response

to the identified threats facing the country’s coastal

and marine environment and attempts to address

the causes and effects of such threats and other

emerging issues. […] My government remains

committed to providing the political leadership

towards addressing the issues and challenges

confronting the marine and coastal environments

of Sierra Leone.”

Children in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: iStock/Abenaa

Expert elicitation workshop hosted by GRID-Arendal.