The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) is a group of fishermen, conservationists, educators, resource managers and others who are determined to improve current marine resource management in the Northwest Atlantic region. NAMA's purpose is to restore and enhance an enduring Northwest Atlantic Marine System supporting a healthy diversity and abundance of marine life and human uses through a self-organizing and self-governing organization.
NAMA uses a self-organizing institutional design it created in partnership with The Chaordic Alliance to weave together its diverse participants into "Community Alliances," "Regional Alliances" and "Community of Interest Alliances". These Alliances will work together to resolve issues and create opportunities at local, state and regional levels in ways that reflect and further their shared purpose and principles.
The first years of NAMA's existence were spent developing common ground among opposing factions within the New England fisheries. NAMA is now operational and is engaged in activities such as:
- Managing local conflict over fisheries issues;
- Acting as a facilitator for conference about fisheries;
- Coordinating disbursements of federal disaster funds aimed at providing relief for losses due to declining fish stocks;
- Linking researchers with fishermen and their vessels for hire.
NAMA exemplifies how chaordic organizing principles can apply to systemic resource management issues by helping all relevant and affected parties find innovative solutions in a manner that all judge to be more trustworthy and equitable.
Website: http://www.namanet.org
E-mail: nama@namanet.org |
