CBE

Anonymous Donor Pledges $1.8 Million to Support Center for the Blue Economy

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu CBE, donors, Environment, Featured, Fellowships, IEP, newsroom

Trent Hodges.jpg

Student Trent Hodges’ summer 2014 fellowship working on ““surfonomics” with Save the Waves in Mexico was funded by generous supporters of the Center for the Blue Economy, and included the opportunity to participate in a “paddle out” ceremony.

The Monterey Institute has received a $1.8 million challenge gift that aims to both support and inspire the continued growth and expansion of the Institute’s ocean and coastal economics research and education center, the Center for the Blue Economy.

The gift has three components: a $600,000 outright gift in the first year (beginning July 1, 2014), and challenge matching gifts of $600,000 in each of the following two years, with the goal of generating at least $3 million for the center’s operations over the next three years.

“This generous challenge gift will help to ensure the continued vitality and growth of the Center for the Blue Economy over the next several years,” commented MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy. “It should serve to inspire other individuals, foundations, and grant-makers to meet this donor’s challenge and raise additional major support, including endowed funds, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Center. I look forward to working with potential supporters worldwide who care about the future of our oceans.”

CBE Director Jason Scorse, a MIIS professor who also chairs the school’s Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy program, said “this new gift and the challenge it kicks off will allow the CBE to build upon the strong momentum generated over the past two years. It will allow us to expand our economic databases and analyses into new and important policy areas where economic data is lacking. We will also launch our new Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics this year, expand our international efforts beyond Asia and Europe, and be able to provide significantly more financial support to students enrolling in the ocean and coastal resource management concentration in our International Environmental Policy program.”

“The CBE is uniquely positioned to make the economic case for ocean conservation and to better inform decision makers with important economic information long absent from policy dialogue,” added Scorse. “We hope to play a key role in helping to shape policies on ocean and coastal issues in the years ahead.”

New MIIS Report on U.S. Coastal Economies Lauded by Congressman Farr

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu CBE, Citizen Diplomacy, Environment, Featured, newsroom, research
National Ocean Economics Program

National Ocean Economics Program Director Dr. Judith Kildow, Congressman Sam Farr, and Center for the Blue Economy Director Dr. Jason Scorse, who also serves as program chair of the Institute‘s International Environmental Policy program.

Presenting the 2014 State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies report at a press conference in Monterey on Monday, Dr. Judith Kildow, director of the National Ocean Economics Program at the Monterey Institute‘s Center for the Blue Economy, noted the imbalance between the economic importance of coasts and coastal oceans and the federal support for stewardship of these resources. According to the report, coastal states supply over 81 percent of American jobs and contribute $13 trillion to the economy, or 84 percent of GDP.

Dr. Kildow presented the new report by the popular recreation trail along the coast in Monterey while competing with the sounds of a vibrant coastal community: bicycles wooshing by, people laughing, sea gulls cawing, and sea lions barking. Congressman Sam Farr noted that the trail, the most popular tourist attraction in the county, is on public land, just like the most popular tourist attraction in the United States, the beaches in Los Angeles. He warned that he could see “a train wreck coming,” unless there is an increase in federal funding for our coastal areas.

Rep. Farr lauded the NOEP report and said it was a very important contribution to the policy debate because it placed real economic value to our coastal resources. He said he was particularly happy that this important work was being done at the Monterey Institute, where he “went to study Spanish before joining the Peace Corps and going to Colombia.” Farr said there simply was “no place like MIIS anywhere.”

The press conference was covered by leading local news station KSBW and the Monterey County Weekly, and also mentioned in the Monterey Herald. For more on the the State of the U.S. Ocean and Coastal Economies 2014, visit oceaneconomics.org. The report can be downloaded here.