Dr. Jerry Meral has joined NHI as Director of the California Water Program. 

From 2011 to 2013 Dr. Meral served as Deputy Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, in charge of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.  The Plan is a habitat conservation plan developed to preserve more than 50 rare, endangered, and other species under the federal Endangered Species Act, and under the California Natural Community Conservation Planning Act.  It covers the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.  NHI served on the steering committee for the development of the plan for many years.  The Plan and accompanying Environmental Impact Statement and Report was recently released in the federal register for public comment.

Dr. Meral previously served as Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League, a California statewide conservation group, from 1983-2003.  He developed a variety of statewide conservation and health measures which produced more than $20 billion in new statewide programs, and directed the League's program of conservation legislation.

Prior to that, he served as Deputy Director of the California Department of Water Resources from 1975-1983, where he directed the statewide water planning and energy programs.  He also served as Director of Western Water Programs for the Environmental Defense Fund from 1971 to 1975.  He holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Meral will represent NHI on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, California groundwater, water quality related to transportation projects, and other California water issues.  He can be reached at jerry.meral(at)gmail.com or 415-717-8412.

In 2014, NHI will be partnering with the Development and Environmental Law Center (DELC) in Madagascar to empower and build the capacity of traditional fishermen to play an active role in protecting and managing their fisheries. This is the third phase of a project started in 2008 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation.  DELC was recently awarded a new 2-year grant from the same foundation, which will enable it to build on lessons learned over the past five years.  Under the initial grant, NHI produced an educational video that could be used as an advocacy tool by DELC in their work with small-scale fishermen in Antongil Bay, Mahajanga and South and North Toliara, Madagascar.  The video provided some illustrative case studies of community-based marine resource management from several coastal countries with similar fisheries management problems as Madagascar. It also described the solution strategies they employed.  The purpose was to extract lessons that DELC can use to assist in implementing a successful community-based management system in Madagascar.  

Now, NHI and DELC will produce a new version of the video to reflect the current situation of traditional fishermen in Madagascar and carry out additional research on community-based fisheries management practices in at least two other sites, to include in the video.  This visual learning tool will provide a platform for capacity building and discussions on decision-making and legal frameworks for small-scale fisheries management. In addition, DELC and NHI hope that their work will contribute to the development of a fisheries network in the West Indian Ocean, which is being lead by the West Indian Ocean Marine Science Association and Blue Ventures.  Jessica Peyla Nagtalon will oversee NHI's participation in the project.