What the UN agreement to launch negotiations for a high seas treaty means for MPAs: Interview with Kristina Gjerde
In January of this year, the United Nations agreed to develop a legally binding treaty on high seas biodiversity (“Notes & news”, MPA News 16:3). This decision by UN Member States is a promising development for high seas conservation. Effectively, such...
Effort underway in Bahamas to create a financially sustainable MPA from the ground up
One of the main challenges facing MPAs is securing enough funding to meet their program and staffing needs. MPAs are typically dependent on government sources for most or all of their funding. In an era of budgetary cutbacks, this has led to financial shortfalls for...
Perspective | Six factors to consider when deciding whether to use drones to enforce your MPA
By Jayson Horadam and Emma Doyle
In recent months, several MPA managers in the Caribbean region have been approached by various firms that produce drone technology. These firms have marketed the potential benefits of air- or sea-based drones to MPA management, particularly with regard to enforcement. (We acknowledge that drones may also be of use in environmental monitoring of MPAs, but we focus here on the enforcement implications.)
Drones remain a relatively new technology, and few MPA managers have direct experience with them yet. In this light, some of the MPA managers who have been approached asked us for our input on the value of drones. We are providing our advice here in hopes that it may be of use to the broader MPA community, beyond just the Caribbean.