On the 5th of November 2024, many project members met on Zoom to catch up and share our activities since the last meeting. These are updates from the meeting.
Project Updates: Teams presented progress on various research activities, highlighting data collection, modeling efforts, work on papers, and field workshops. Notable updates include:
- A new PhD student, Alfred Paarlberg, joined Rob’s team to work on scenario synthesis for food systems in the Netherlands.
- Tayler’s team is progressing with river modeling and social workshops for their case study.
- Nicole welcomed a new master’s student to her team who will assist with data collection.
- Daniel has drafted a manuscript exploring the climate mitigation and water regulation potential of seaweed farming.
- William provided an update on his visit to Xiamen University in China, fostering potential collaborations on aquaculture research.
- Wisdom presented insights from his work investigating the impact of fishing gear regulations and illegal fishing activities in Ghana.
- Senakpon Tcheton shared his research on the food-climate-biodiversity nexus in the Mono transboundary biosphere reserve.
- Vinolia Pawar announced her upcoming PhD research on IUU fishing, climate change, and food security in Ghana.
- The West African team highlighted their work on the FCB project, including an inception workshop held last month.
- Wisdom discussed using video data to assess compliance with fishing regulations. His team is trying to see whether they can get data to perform analysis and determine to what extent the installation of those video devices impact on compliance, relative to the previous catches that the vessels were making.
Costa Rica Meeting: Discussions focused on the upcoming in-person meeting in Costa Rica (Feb 10-13, 2025), addressing the agenda, logistics, and potential funding challenges.
- A draft agenda was presented, with two days dedicated to meetings and one day for a field trip to the Gulf of Nicoya.
- Funding for keynote speakers is uncertain due to administrative issues. Alternative funding sources are being explored.
- Visa requirements for some West African team members present a significant hurdle, with the closest visa processing center located in Kenya. The team is actively seeking solutions to facilitate travel.
- Flight booking processes were discussed, aiming for a more streamlined approach through a travel agent.
Modeling Workshop: Pre-conference modeling workshops are being organized to enhance collaboration and address specific team needs.
- A successful workshop was conducted with the West African team, serving as a model for future engagements.
- Additional pre-conference activities will be scheduled to ensure effective use of in-person meeting time.
Communications and Outreach: Updates were shared on ongoing communication initiatives, including:
- A new work-learn student will conduct interviews with case study teams.
- AI is being used to generate podcast versions of core publications.
- Team members were reminded to share news items, publications, and conference presentations for website and project CV updates.
- Strategies to encourage wider participation and contributions from all team members, particularly early-career researchers, were highlighted as an area for improvement.
Action Items:
- Secure funding for keynote speakers for the Costa Rica meeting.
- Address visa challenges for West African team members.
- Finalize agenda and logistics for the Costa Rica meeting.
- Schedule and conduct pre-conference modeling workshops with all case study teams.
- Develop strategies to encourage broader participation and contributions from all team members.
Next Steps
- A follow-up meeting will be held next week to finalize pre-conference activity plans.
- Jill will continue to provide updates on logistics for the Costa Rica meeting.
- Team leads will work to address challenges and implement action items.
