Management Effectiveness for MPAs Mentored Online Course – Virtual, 2025

From November 10 – December 20, 2025, the Reef Resilience Network hosted a mentored version of the new Management Effectiveness for Marine Protected Areas Online Course. During the five-week course, 491 people from 96 countries and territories received training through self-paced online lessons, online forums, and live webinars and video calls with course mentors. 

Participants explored key factors for effectiveness throughout the management cycle, helping them to understand what drives MPA effectiveness, the critical components of success, and how assessments and best practices can be applied to local contexts to improve the chances of achieving long-term conservation and socio-economic outcomes. The lessons, which were available in five languages, included: Assessing the MPA Context, MPA Planning, MPA Implementation, and Adaptive MPA Management.  

In collaboration with the Coral Triangle Center (CTC), the Network developed and ran a special course room where participants could access the course lessons, join curated discussion forums, connect with CTC mentors during office hours, and attend an additional webinar, all in Bahasa Indonesia.  

The Management Effectiveness for Marine Protected Areas Online Course is free, self-paced, and open to all in English, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, French, and Spanish.  

We’d like to thank the many export mentors and webinar presenters who contributed to this course: Meghan Gombos, Tazmin Falan, Natasha Gorong, Debra Laan, Ntombovuyo Madlokazi, Yonela Mahamba, Nick Salafsky, Lauren Wenzel, Dr. Hesti Widodo, and Anthony Yalan. 

This course was developed with support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program and is based on foundational materials co-developed with the United Nations Environment Programme.