Dear MARMAM Colleagues, We are pleased to share with you a new article in Marine Policy that highlights the use of the Marine Mammals Management Toolkit (www.marine-mammals.info) to support marine managers, decision makers and Governments to increase the effectiveness of their conservation strategies in Area-based Management Tools for marine mammals while implementing their regional and international commitments. The Marine Mammals Management Toolkit, developed as part of the EU-funded Ocean Governance project’s Marine Mammal Twinning from 2020 to 2023, aimed strengthen the technical capacities of marine managers worldwide to effectively conserve marine mammals 🦭 LINK: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1k50t,714Munuz — Dallison, T; Manuel, S; Haskell, B; Staub, F. (2025). Effectively managing area-based management tools: A new toolkit for the conservation of Marine Mammals. Marine Policy. 172, S. 106492, doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2024.106492 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2024.106492>. Marine mammals play crucial roles in marine ecosystem function yet are threatened by increasing pressures from anthropogenic activities within marine ecosystems. Area-based Management Tools (ABMT) are key for their conservation and protection, yet their effectiveness is often hindered by lack of resources, technical capacity and political support. Yet, ABMTs are grounded in local, national, regional, and international agreements and policy frameworks including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). To support marine managers, the “Marine Mammals Management Toolkit” was developed and is composed of three core components, including the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT), founded on the Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME) framework, and is a multiple-choice tool that enables managers to evaluate the effectiveness of management plans regarding marine mammals through the production of a Management Effectiveness Score (MES). The SAT has been utilised across 24 MPAs in 18 countries. Two case studies are provided on its application. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) evaluated their existing management plan, and scored an MES value of 7.8 with the Bermuda Marine Mammal Sanctuary (BMMS) scoring 4.7. The results of the SAT enabled the Bermudian Government to make informed decisions in developing a Marine Spatial Plan for the BMMS, and enables SBNMS to set a baseline to track effectiveness over the life-time of SBNMS and respective management plans; guiding local and national policy, as well as enabling Bermuda and the United States of America to contribute to their international commitments. — Tom Dallison | Senior Project Manager  Services related to the conservation and sustainable use of natural - terrestrial, coastal and marine - resources M: +44 (0) 774 552 7003 | skype : thomas.dallison@blue-pangolin.net Email: thomas.dallison@blue-pangolin.net <mailto:thomas.dallison@blue-pangolin.net>| www.blue-pangolin.net <http://www.blue-pangolin.net/> | Follow us on LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-pangolin-consulting/> Blue Pangolin is the Designated Administrative Representative (DAR) to the International Coral Reef Initiative <http://www.icriforum.org/> (ICRI)
