Each year, Save The Waves accepts one new World Surfing Reserve from surf communities all around the world. The application process requires significant work from local communities and their inquiry is based on the following core criteria: 

1) Quality and consistency of the wave(s);

2) Important environmental characteristics;

3) Culture and surf history;

4) Governance capacity and local support;

5) Priority Conservation Area

Each application is reviewed by an indepedent Vision Council made up of professionals in the conservation, business, nonprofit, and surf fields. Once the World Surfing Reserve is selected based on the rigorous criteria, they undergo the Stewardship Planning Process and the other building blocks to formally dedicate the World Surfing Reserve.

A Local Stewardship Council (LSC) is the main representative of a World Surfing Reserve and is in charge of implementing the Local Stewardship Plan. The LSC works together with Save The Waves Coalition to Protect, Steward, and Defend their surf ecosystem.

LSC members work on the ground and with the local community to carry out activities that result in the long-term conservation of the reserve as well as celebrate and honor the tradition of surfing and ocean recreation.  The Stewardship Planning Process brings together the LSC and important community members to map out the the critical threats to the region and come up with long term goals and objectives for permanent protection.  

The Stewardship Planning Process generally follows the outline in "Measures of Success" that includes building a Conceptual Model, developing a management plan that identifies goals, objectives, actions and timelines based on the threats to address.

The tubular nets technology was co-designed with women producers themselves to ensure it was adapted to their needs and became theirs.

Several tests were necessary to determine the optimal length of the nets (15m instead of 30m), and how to harvest them (opening them to remove the seaweed instead of cutting the seaweed outgrowth). This ensured the nets were adapted to the women's needs. 

In 2020, CORAL and the Polo’s Water Board commissioned a third-party consultant to assess the WWTP's performance and necessary improvements. Identifying improvement areas to achieve continued compliance with high water quality standards and a wastewater treatment capacity for the projected population growth of the greater West End area and its tourism industry until the year 2040.

The result is an investment gap of approximately USD 300,000.00. However, phased investment is considered in the fundraising strategy.

Projected Investments (currently in fundraising stage)

By 2022: Replacements in the aeration system, going from aerator pumps to a fine bubble diffuser system.  

By 2030: Addition of a new anoxic tank for denitrification.

By 2040: Addition of a new decanter and mechanical sludge dehydrator. 

The projection for 2040 is based on population growth/requirements as a tourist destination/compliance with national & international water quality regulations). The estimated average daily flow will be 612 m3/day. 

Partnership in the recycling industry enhances success in the business. Arena's recycling industry duty is to collect plastic wastes as raw materials which is why they have been able to enter into a partnership with Coca-Cola because they have common goals and interests. Coca-Cola is producing a lot of plastic packaging items which are raw materials for Arena. Likewise, Arena is in the process of establishing collaboration with all the companies that produce plastic products. The aim is to enter into an agreement that all the garbage produced at any of their events must come to Arena.

A diagnostic and reflexive approach on values, knowledge and expectations at individual level is a useful baseline to prepare the group interactions and to balance representativeness and synergies in pluralistic settings

Eliciting perspectives and systems understandings from a larger group of people in a systematic way to better understand the key issues that the process is framed around. Key issues are useful entry points to start entangling system dynamics - What are useful entry points in your case and to whom? This phase also asks the question of what is already known about the system by the stakeholders and what are uncertainties according to the stakeholders?

A harvesting strategy is a set of formally or traditionally agreed upon tools used to ensure good utilization of the resource. In the fish fishery, it is a challenge to define these strategies and evaluate whether they work or not, since this activity usually involves a large number of species with different biological characteristics.

In order to identify the capture strategies used in the fish fishery, a fishery monitoring system was implemented through logbooks. These include information on catches, effort, fishing gear, and catch size and weight. The information collected in the logbooks is analyzed every six months to learn about the fishery and identify opportunities for improvement. Two examples of improvements made by fishing communities have been to modify the fishing gear in order to have a more selective fishery. They have also decided to establish minimum catch size agreements for fish species. This information recorded by the fishermen is shared with the government sector in order to have more information to know the state of the fisheries and define sustainable management strategies.

La PEM aporta un enfoque de gobernanza oceánica integrado, novedoso a nivel de la Macaronesia. La decisión política y la participación pública son elementos fundamentales en esta política, que necesita del entendimiento de la PEM tanto a nivel de cada archipiélago como a escala transfronteriza.

Las guías de PEM de la Macaronesia europea pretenden informar y apoyar respectivamente a decisores políticos y partes interesadas en su importante papel en la PEM, incluyendo su participación activa en la preparación y desarrollo de los planes. Ambas guías hacen un repaso sintético de varios elementos importantes en esta materia:

• La Macaronesia como región biogeográfica y sus componentes clave;
• La PEM como política emergente;
• El marco legal de la PEM en España y Portugal;
• Los contenidos fundamentales de los planes de cada región;
• Desafíos y oportunidades que presenta la Macaronesia.

Las guías también aportan información sobre los beneficios que conlleva participar en el proceso para los actores, así como los principios que orientan la toma de decisiones. Por último, se proporcionan recomendaciones de futuro para la participación y la toma de decisiones en Azores, Madeira y Canarias a partir de lo aprendido durante el proyecto.

People who live in the Denali region are connected by their shared appreciation for the landscape, resulting in tight-knit communities. For the project to succeed, it was important that the research team establish a mutual understanding and trust based on local partnerships. These relationships have helped to ground the project in a relevant and regional context, provide insight into what matters most to local residents, and guide various phases of the project:

1. A local Executive Committee consisting of ten stakeholders who represent a diversity of perspectives from the region was formed to build local partnerships.
2. The project hired a local resident to be a research technician and community advocate for the project to assist with data collection, entry, project design, information dissemination, and communicating research findings.
3. A series of informal interviews and listening sessions were conducted to start the process of creating a shared understanding of change within the Denali region.