From: Maria Martin

To: The Office for Coastal Management

Subject: Helping Countries Adopt Coastal Protection Initiatives

Dear Learning Services Division at the Office for Coastal Management,

As employees at the Office for Coastal Management, we all share a common goal of helping the
preservation of coastal communities. Many of us are here because we are passionate about this
topic, and want to play our part in the positive impacts this organization has on the coastal areas
in the United States. I feel that this organization has done an amazing job of following its
mission statement and I am so appreciative of the hard work that everyone puts in every day.
However, one thing that has stood out to me is the lack of organizations that share these same
goals in other coastal regions around the world. I believe that it could be an oversight on our part
as an organization to not address or act on the fact that new initiatives need to be started and
developed in other countries. The United States only makes up for a small percentage of coastal
communities around the world, and this organization can do so much more to help at a global
scale and leave a bigger impact.

The purpose of the Learning Services Division is to ensure that people are well educated about
coastal communities and their management. This is done through two different programs, the
Learning Product Development program, and the Engagement, Training, and Education
Program. Both of these are great resources at doing what they are intended, but they could have
such a bigger impact if there were also used globally to help other countries become more aware
about the preservation of coastal regions. The way that this can be done is by making programs
that don’t include any legislative policies specific to the use and instead make it purely
informational. Additionally, making this easily accessible in other languages could be a huge
benefit to reach those larger global audiences. It could also be a possibility to join efforts with
the Business Operations Division to allow people from our organization to travel and help with
starting initiatives likes ours in different areas globally.

This organization has already had an overwhelmingly positive impact on coastal communities in
the US. Everyone’s hard work has truly paid off and it has been such a rewarding experience to
work along with this team. My hope is that we can move forward to help spread the awareness
for preservation of the coast lines at a global scale and reinforce our organization’s main goal. I
personally would like to help with getting this plan into action, and would love to meet to talk
further about this matter. Please reach out to me via email or phone to schedule a meeting in
which we can talk about the details of getting started with a plan.

Thank you for your time and dedication to this organization

All the best,

Maria Martin

Regional Coordinator at The Office for Coastal Management

Phone: 8645693940
Email: mmartin@coastalmanagement.com
Date: November 9, 2021
To: Learning Services Division Director
From: Maria Martin
Subject: Helping Countries Adopt Coastal Protection Initiatives

As members of the Office for Coastal Management, we all value the protection of our coastal
communities in the US. This organization has had many successful efforts in the past to ensure
the preservation of these regions, and is continuing to do that for the future. With the impact of
global warming and climate change, protecting our coral reefs has been a big point of concern
nationally. The Learning Services Division has done a great job with working to educate people
to take action on this matter by spreading awareness which directly aligns with our common
goal. I suggest that this information offered by the Learning Services Division should be spread
at a global scale.

The Office for Coastal Management has done great work with the coastal communities within
the United States. However, there are many coastal communities that are suffering globally given
that the US coastal regions are only a small percent in comparison to the rest of the world.
Coastal regions have shown degradation in areas with higher populations and climate change has
brought upon the exacerbation of problems fasted by shorelines. One possible solution to this
problem would be to provide the learning resources from the Learning Services Division in
different languages to make it more accessible to people globally. As working members of this
organization, we should feel the need to do everything in our power to help the coastal
communities. As such, working to spread the knowledge and educational programs provided by
the Learning Services Division to different countries in different languages will help spread
awareness of the suffering coastal regions.

Summary

There are many people who are not aware of the impact that climate change has had on the
coastal communities. We work with the common goal of preserving these suffering regions.
Effects of climate change such as rising sea levels is causing an increase in coastal erosion and
flooding. The efforts by this organization have helped many of the shorelines in the United
States, but many of the coastal areas around the world are still suffering. As members of this
organization, we should schedule meetings and implement a plan to spread education about
different coastal regions around the world and offer this information different languages.

Problem with Coastal Communities at a Global Scale

Some countries around the world do not have the resources that are available to us in the United
States. As a result, they may lack organizations that encourage the preservation of coastal
regions. This also means that many people are uninformed about the detrimental effects that
climate change is having on coastal regions and the danger that they are facing to remain alive. It
is important that people become aware of the environment around them so that they can think
about steps that can be taken to improve the life of their surrounding ecosystem. This is
especially true of people in coastal communities that depend on the shores for their daily life.
However, it is also important for the shorelines that are heavily tourist dependent (Coastal
Systems Group).

As briefly stated before, some people live near shorelines and depend on them for survival. This
means that they depend on getting food and making their living off of the coastal resources.
Helping preserve the coastal regions would not only have a direct impact on the marine life, but
also to natives that call the shorelines their home.

Many people that live on islands especially are being directly affected by the shorelines. Island
inhabitants might rely on the coastal region as a source of income as well as their home. With sea
levels rising at an increasing rate, some islanders are being forced to relocate. Not only that, but
more and more sea life in these areas is being negatively affected which ultimately hurts those
that rely on fishing or other activities as their occupation. The relocation of these individuals also
means that islands and shorelines are constantly losing more and more space for its inhabitants.

Another phenomena that is changing affecting coastal communities is the change in climate
circulation patterns. This is a topic that many people are uninformed about and it would be
beneficial to spread awareness about this topic. Changes in the circulation patterns can cause
severe storms and wave pattern deviations that will affect erosion and flooding experienced in
coastal communities.

Conclusion

The preservation of coastal regions is something that we all take great value in within this
organization. Seeing that so many coastal communities are being impacted globally, it would be
directly aligned with our mission to help spread awareness to the people of those countries. If
this is implemented, the impact that the Office for Coastal Management has will be
overwhelmingly positive at a global scale.

Recommendation

The United States makes up for a small portion of the coastal regions in the world, so spreading
the efforts of this organization globally could greatly impact global conservation efforts. There
are many policies specific to the United States that the Office for Coastal Management has to
follow that might not be applicable to other countries; however, the Learning Services Division
could help with simply spreading the knowledge of how to help coastal communities. This could
be done by simply making the two programs that are available in the division, the Learning
Product Development program and Engagement, Training, and Education Program, available in
more than one language. The languages that are chosen should be those are predominantly
spoken around coastal regions that need the most attention and making it easily accessible to
those people. It would also be a great option to include funding options and opportunities for
areas that do not have the financial means to start these efforts. In order to do this, members of
our organization need to schedule meetings to come up with a feasible plan to put this idea into
action. During these meetings, making all of the programs offered by the Learning Services
Division available globally and accessible in different languages should be discussed.
References

Coastal Systems Group. (n.d.). Pacific Climate Change. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Retrieved October 5, 2021, from https://web.whoi.edu/coastal-
group/research/projects/pacific-climate-change/.