Research Reports

Sharks play an essential role in the marine ecosystem. As predators, they help to maintain balance in the food chain, eliminate sick and weak animals, and ensure species diversity; and may play a role in protecting coral reefs.

Over the last couple of decades, ocean stewardship efforts have turned to focus on several key approaches, such as the implementation of sustainable fisheries practices, including small-scale fisheries (SSF) co-management. This Toolkit presents a methodology for assessing the reform needs to strengthen SSF governance, along with examples of model regulatory language for the core governance elements.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charting a new pathway for the use of citizen science. In recent years, the EPA has played an active role in sharing knowledge of and promoting the use of citizen science at state, tribal, and local environmental agencies. A new agency-wide strategy for citizen science is presently under development. To help inform this strategy, the EPA recognized the need to learn about the uptake of citizen science at state, tribal and local environmental agencies and to determine current best practices.

The ability of the public to collect and report reliable data on local conditions has great potential for strengthening environmental protection and supporting the work of environmental agencies. Citizen science can be used to fill information gaps, define research agendas, monitor environmental changes, and define the concerns of environmental justice communities. Increasingly, environmental agencies at the state, tribal, and local level are developing new citizen science approaches.

This paper outlines key issue areas and makes strategic recommendations to the U.S. EPA and their partners on how to facilitate the uptake of citizen science and sustain its use across state, tribal and local environmental agencies and their programs.