Mote Marine Laboratory

Marine Policy Institute Director, Barbara Lausche, J.D., is an environmental lawyer with some 30 years of experience with governmental and non-governmental organizations in the US and abroad. Her work has concentrated on conservation aspects of environmental law including international law and, since 2000, her focus has been mainly on marine and coastal issues. She has extensive experience working with multidisciplinary teams of scientists in helping build institutional capacity and legal frameworks and also working with law and policy issues where environmental science plays an integral role.

Lausche has worked with the Environmental Protection Agency on oceans and water issues, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in renewable resources, was senior environmental staff with the World Bank and has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. She continues to do short-term assignments internationally and in the Caribbean. She is on the Board of the Island Resources Foundation and co-founded the Science and Environmental Council of Sarasota County where she was its honorary Executive Director for five years. 

Lausche is a member of the DC Bar, the Commission on Environmental Law, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN-World Conservation Union) and Caribbean co-chair of their Specialists Group on Oceans, Coasts and Coral Reefs. Lausche received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Columbus School of Law, Catholic University, Washington, D.C., her B.A. in Math and Russian from Minnesota State at Bemidji and has had visiting fellowships at Colorado Law School, Boulder, Col., and at Oxford University in the UK.

As Director of Mote's Marine Policy Institute since January 2011, Lausche's role includes analytical and technical assignments in subjects related to the Institute's mission of translating Mote’s scientific work for public policy makers and community leaders and participating in and supporting the activities of Mote that are important for marine policy. Her charge includes organizing workshops and technical collaborations with local governments and community leaders in the public and private sectors of Southwest Florida on marine and coastal policy and law, to represent the Institute at conferences and community and professional functions, including the five-state Gulf of Mexico Alliance, Working Group on Community Resilience. 

Recent affiliated projects:

• IUCN Environmental Law Centre (2007 – 2010): Principal contributor to IUCN project updating and expanding IUCN Guidelines for Protected Areas Legislation (including separate chapters on special types of protected areas in three areas: marine protected areas, transboundary protected areas, voluntary conservation initiatives through Private Protected Areas and Community Conserved Areas).  Project managed by the Environmental Law Centre, involving a joint task force of the World Commission on Protected Areas and the Commission on Environmental Law, and extensive participation of specialists through a steering committee, preparation of case studies, and reviewers.  (Publication 2010).

• The Elizabeth Haub Foundation, IUCN ELP and ICEL (2001 – 2007):  Research for, and preparation of, Weaving a Web of Environmental Law- Contributions of the IUCN Environmental Law Programme (509 pp.) (Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, Germany 2008). This voluntary project, undertaken in collaboration and coordination with the IUCN Environmental Law Programme, included extensive archival research, interviews, and reviews by key individuals to produce a fully-referenced history of the IUCN Environmental Law Programme and its many significant contributions to environmental law and development, spanning the period from the birth of IUCN in the 1940s to the IUCN Third World Conservation Congress of November 2004.  The resulting publication was supported and promoted by the Elizabeth Haub Foundation for Environmental Law and Policy (Bonn, Germany/Washington D.C., USA/Toronto, Canada). 

• Island Resources Foundation:
  
  • 2001-2008: Preparation of national parks legislation and regulations for the British Virgin Islands, including operational procedures for the statutory board of the National Parks Trust, and analytical and drafting assistance on options and deed of transfer for donation of Sandy Cay, an island of Laurence Rockefeller, to the national parks system.  Legislation enacted in 2006, regulations in 2008, and island conveyed as a wilderness area to the national parks system in 2008.
  • 2005-2008: Project for the UNEP Caribbean Environment Programme, preparation of draft species/biodiversity conservation guidelines to the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW), draft submitted in 2006 and technical advice ongoing to move the guidelines forward to adoption; project to be further elaborated in 2008-9.
    
    

• Guidelines for Protected Areas Legislation. 300+pp. (forthcoming) (IUCN:2010),
• “Synopsis of an Assessment: Policy Tools for Local Adaptation to Sea Level Rise.” Technical Report #1419. 22pp.  (Marine Policy Institute, Mote Marine Laboratory, 2009)
• “The Wider Caribbean Region – A Pivotal Time to Strengthen Regional Instruments for Biodiversity Conservation” in 23 The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 499-530 (2008) (Issue is a special collection of writings by members of the IUCN CEL Specialist Group on Oceans, Coasts, and Coral Reefs).
• Weaving a Web of Environmental Law- Contributions of the IUCN  Environmental Law Programme (Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, Germany) (2008);
• “Guidelines for marine protected areas legislation in Central Pacific islands” (chapter for protected areas manager training in the region) (IUCN-US) (supported by the US Parks Service) (2006); 
• “The World Bank Contribution to International Environmental Law Yearbook 1990” (coauthor, W.P. Ofosu-Amaah), in International Environmental Law Yearbook 1990 (Wayne State U. Law School: 1991);
• “Environmental Law – Progress and Problems” (coauthored with F. Burhenne-Guilmin, C. de Klemm, M. Forster) for World Conservation Strategy Conference, Ottawa, 1986, reprinted in 16 Environmental Policy and Law 189-209, (Dec.1986);
• African Wildlife Laws (coauthor, C. de Klemm) (IUCN:1986);
• “Legislative and Institutional Support” in R. Salm, Marine and Coastal Protected Areas: A Guide for Planners and Managers (coauthor Graeme Kelleher) (IUCN, 1983);
• UNEP In-depth Review of Environmental Law (ICEL:1981);
• Aiding the Environment: a Study of USAID's Environmental Performance (coauthored) (NRDC: 1980);
• Guidelines for Protected Areas Legislation (IUCN: 1980).

Department: Marine Policy Institute