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Coasts & Oceans

Featured Cases:

  • Balancing Conservation and Fishing Interests in Hawaii

  • Sustaining Shorelines for the Hudson River

  • Restoring Eelgrass in the Mid-Atlantic

The Challenge

The demands on coasts and oceans grow each year, fueling unprecedented conflicts over access to these limited natural resources. More residents than ever live and recreate on our coasts.  Sea level rise and more intense storms threaten both natural and human assets.  Efforts to gain greater energy independence are sparking interest in off-shore renewable energy. Vessel traffic is increasing, putting marine mammals at greater risk.  Fishermen struggle to make a livelihood while aquaculture holds promise to feed a hungry world but also poses risks.

Our Approach

Our mediators have extensive experience helping parties build agreements on coast and ocean issues at the local, state, and federal levels. While we custom design our engagements, our mediators draw on several core approaches:

  • Building parties’ shared understanding of complex systems by jointly defining and researching data that is essential to decision-making
  • Helping parties consider risks and uncertainties, as they face changes in and related to climate
  • Conducting outreach to and engaging affected communities
  • Bringing stakeholders together in structured dialogues to understand each another’s interests, evaluate data, set priorities, and invent solutions

From working with coastal communities to prepare for rising sea levels to supporting planning efforts in New England that resulted in the first ocean plan in the country, we have helped advance progress on challenging, contentious coastal and ocean issues.  

Areas of Expertise
  • Ocean and coastal planning
  • Fisheries management
  • Protected resources and species
  • Coastal climate change/sea level rise adaptation 
  • Offshore energy development
  • Coastal fresh and estuarine water quality
  • Ecosystem restoration
View cases & related resources
  • CBI was a great thought partner in a complicated situation – helping us bridge differences among competing interests for use of New England waters. CBI mediators quickly identified the heart of issues and helped us design an effective collaboration. They didn’t process for the sake of process, but instead kept a laser focus on getting us to our desired endpoint, which was the first regional ocean plan in the country – a major accomplishment.

    John Weber

    Executive Director

    Northeast Regional Ocean Council

Get In Touch

CBI Experts:

  • Bennett Brooks Senior Mediator
  • Ona Ferguson Senior Mediator
  • Linkedin

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