International Expert Working Meeting on Assessing Climate Vulnerability Across Global Marine Protected Areas

This International Expert Working Meeting represents a key milestone of the UNESCO project 'Towards Climate Solutions for the Safeguarding of Marine Protected Areas', supported by the VELUX FOUNDATION. The meeting will take place from 5 to 8 October 2026 in Helsingør, Denmark, in cooperation with the IOC Science and Communication Centre on Harmful Algae at the Marine Biological Section, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.

 

The working meeting will bring together members of the project’s International Advisory Board and representatives from the project’s pilot marine protected areas (MPAs), with other MPA practitioners, experts in biodiversity, climate vulnerability, adaptation and resilience and representatives of local and indigenous communities. Together, participants will develop the first draft of global climate vulnerability assessment guidelines for MPAs, ensuring that the guidance reflects best practice science and local and indigenous knowledge approaches and delivers results with global relevance and impact.

 

Discussions will focus on ocean–climate interactions, the identification of data baselines for effectively assessing the climate vulnerability of both people and nature, combining local, Indigenous and scientific knowledge, translating science into on-the-ground action, and monitoring, evaluating and financing resilience action.