To bolster the resources available to managers and marine users to effectively manage Marine Protected Areas (MPA) for the benefit of marine mammals, the Marine Mammal Twinning has launched the fifth core component of the Marine Mammals Management Toolkit – the SAT-LITE. As the reduced version of the already established Self-Assessment Tool, the SAT-LITE bridges the gap between continuous monitoring and needing to quickly understand the strengths and weaknesses of an MPA’s management plan.
The Marine Mammal Twinning recognised the need to develop an intermediary resource that would not only enable managers to undertake quick, short assessments of their management plans in-between full-assessments during Monitoring and Evaluation processes, but to also guide managers on whether a full-assessment was recommended. As such, the SAT-LITE was developed, unlocking a more efficient use of resources. The new resource is composed of approximately 50 short, multiple-choice questions across the same five core themes of the toolkit: Management Framework; Addressing activities & threats; Research & Monitoring; Outreach & Engagement; and Management effectiveness. As with the full Self-Assessment Tool, the answers are assigned a value of which are analysed and displayed in an intuitive dashboard which demonstrates any immediate gaps in MPA management plans as well as notifying the user if a full-assessment is recommended.
Complementing the full SAT, the SAT-LITE has been created for MPA managers, stakeholders and any other relevant parties to preliminary assess the extent to which marine mammals are included in their management plans. With MPA managers often faced with limited resources and time capacity, the SAT-LITE allows for a rapid way to obtain a comprehensive snapshot of the MPAs strengths and weaknesses, signposting to the related factsheets to strengthen the MPAs effectiveness and protection of marine mammals.
To support its use, managers are encouraged to join the Community of Practice and engage with like-minded managers to share successes and lessons learnt, as well as reach out to the Marine Mammal Twinning team for support, or to arrange tailored training sessions, via the Contact Us page.
The SAT-LITE is available offline as a downloadable Excel file and is currently available in English, with Spanish and French versions in development. The SAT-LITE can be downloaded here: https://marine-mammals.info/sat-lite/
Why should you use the SAT-LITE, Self-Assessment Tool, and the wider Toolkit?
Check out this informative introduction to the toolkit to find out!
