Massachusetts Ocean Partnership Fund: Convening Report

The Massachusetts Ocean Partnership Fund (MOPF) is a multi-stakeholder initiative underway in Massachusetts to establish a public/private partnership and funding entity with the goal of improving the health, management and understanding of marine and coastal resources in order to ensure thriving ocean ecosystems and their continued capacity to serve vital ecological, economic, recreational and other needs. This Draft Convening Report provides a summary of the important developments to-date toward launching MOPF, and an overview of the proposed stakeholder process.

This report is being distributed to members of the planning groups - the Strategic Planning Group and the Science/Technical Group – who have agreed to participate in this effort through June 2007, the duration of the initial planning period. Once reviewed by the SPG, the Convening Report will also be distributed to a wide range of stakeholders who expressed interest in MOPF, many of whom were interviewed earlier this summer and offered valuable input on both process and substantive issues. The document will soon be available to the public at www.maopf.org, or by contacting the MOPF Project Coordinator.