In 2005, the foundation launched our Marine Conservation Initiative to support work toward “healthy marine ecosystems in North America that support sustainable use.” Initially authorized for 10.5 years (2005-2016) and $146 million, the initiative set out to reduce overfishing and habitat degradation in North America through the alignment of conservation outcomes, and economic and social incentives. To achieve these goals, the initiative had awarded $253 million in grants to 135 organizations by early 2016. Grantmaking had focused on two main strategies:
- Ocean planning. Supporting the development of science-based “ocean planning,” which achieves conservation results by spatially dividing the marine environment into a variety of compatible, holistically-planned and sited uses, in order to account for and mitigate ecosystem stressors.
- Reforming fisheries management. Aligning economic incentives with conservation outcomes, developing and taking up conservation-oriented technologies and practices, and promoting scientifically sound, total allowable catch limits that account for ecosystem considerations, in order to manage fisheries more sustainably. A key component of this strategy supported “catch shares” to improve efficiency and promote conservation by guaranteeing fishermen a share of the total allowable catch.
In keeping with the foundation’s commitment to using evaluative processes to aid learning and decision making, the initiative has undergone several external evaluations since its inception. In March 2016, we engaged Abt Associates to conduct an external evaluation of the initiative, with three main goals in mind:
- Objectively assessing the initiative’s strategies and sub-strategies with respect to the desired outcomes for the work;
- Recommending adjustments in tactics, timing and funding for the strategies;
- Capturing lessons and best practices in program design and implementation for the foundation, as well as the fields of philanthropy and marine conservation.
In the context of that third goal, an executive summary was prepared to pull together the lessons and best practices that should be most informative to those broader fields. The summary also points to the actions the initiative took following the evaluation and in response to its findings.
Evaluation methodology and findings:
The 2016 evaluation built on findings and lessons captured by the 2009 external evaluation, conducted by the same lead evaluator. The methodology for the 2016 evaluation was developed to obtain both qualitative and quantitative information, including activities such as archival research and analysis of program files, a survey of all relevant grantees, site visits, and interviews with selected experts on marine conservation. Throughout the evaluation, the Abt evaluation team worked closely with a panel of marine conservation experts, which provided critical input on research methods and reviewed and commented on findings.
The evaluation found the initiative’s targeted interventions indicated instances of positive change in conservation dynamics, and noted this represented “a major achievement, worthy of the Moore Foundation’s investment” in the initiative. The evaluation determined that, without the initiative, the New England and West Coast groundfish fisheries might have remained collapsed, and ocean planning in North America might have remained only an untested concept in the scientific and policy literature, without implementation anywhere in U.S. or Canadian waters. At the same time, several lines of evidence support the evaluation findings as well as marine conservation staff assertions that ocean planning is not yet consistently the “norm” or default model of marine resource management in the United States or Canada.
Informing a renewed commitment to oceans
In August 2017, the foundation renewed its commitment to marine conservation with a seven-year, $152 million plan to focus on the waters of the North American Arctic, British Columbia and U.S. West Coast. Shaped in part by an affirmation of the efficacy of activities evaluated by Abt and supported through the initiative’s grantmaking—for research, capacity-building, policymaking and coordination of partners in geographic regions and at the national scale—the recommitted Marine Conservation Initiative aims by 2024 to achieve protection of important marine habitats and sustainable management of fisheries in high-priority North American ocean geographies, supported by enabling conditions needed to achieve these outcomes.
Consistent with the foundation’s approach to philanthropy, we understand that evidence and rigorous inquiry are key to gaining valuable perspective, to adapting and learning, and to achieving the outcomes we seek, and we will therefore continue to conduct regular reviews of this work.
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