MPA News
Notes & News: IMPAC5 – Public-private partnership – South Georgia and South Sandwich – MPA survey – Successful co-management – Coast Guard magazine – MPA film – Postage stamp contest for Chagos – IMMAs – MPA News vault
Save the date for IMPAC5 in Vancouver
Organizers of the next International Marine Protected Areas Congress – IMPAC5, to be hosted in Vancouver, Canada – have announced the dates. The conference will be held in 2021 from 27 September – 1 October.
MPA News’ partner newsletter MEAM has ocean management news you don’t get anywhere else
Hi everybody, For those of you who aren’t already subscribed to our partner newsletter Marine Ecosystems and Management (MEAM), it’s had some great recent articles: The current MEAM issue focuses on how insurance can be applied in innovative ways to improve ocean health, with existing examples from around the world The December-January issue profiled how genetics research is being used to inform marine conservation efforts, and how managers can get started with it The November issue gave readers all they need to know to get up to speed on the latest ocean plastics research – a great synopsis of the…
“As an MPA manager, it’s nice to know I’m not alone out there”: Challenges, successes, and lessons from building effective MPA management networks (Part I – The global networks)
Go to virtually any MPA-related conference around the world and you’ll hear the same topics discussed. Fundraising, monitoring, enforcement, engaging stakeholders, etc. It is a truism that MPA managers face many of the same challenges, no matter their location. And there are a number of tools available to help them share solutions and lessons, from publications like this one, to reports, online discussion lists, and more. But the most valuable way to share that knowledge is often face-to-face, peer-to-peer. When MPA practitioners are able to share their lessons in person and in detail with their fellow practitioners, the exchange is…
What impacts could Trump’s proposed offshore drilling plan have on MPAs and other current closures in US waters? Here’s a primer
In early January 2018, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a draft five-year program to guide leasing of the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas for oil and gas drilling, from 2019-2024. The draft, which reflects the views of the administration of President Donald Trump, is aggressive. It would make over 90% of the nation’s total OCS area available to exploration and development. By comparison, the current five-year program puts 94% of the OCS off-limits to oil and gas exploration. (The current program covers the years 2017-2022 and will be replaced by the Trump administration’s eventual final plan.)…
New draft document consolidates IUCN’s several existing standards for designing and managing effective MPAs
Amid the ever-expanding guidance on how to plan and manage MPAs effectively, it is becoming more challenging for practitioners to gather all the existing global standards they need to consider in one place. To help address this, IUCN has drafted a document that integrates its existing Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas Standard with its other relevant MPA policies and positions (distilled from multiple IUCN Resolutions and recommendations over the years). The four-page document is intended to help governments, managers, and stakeholders consider the various quantitative and qualitative elements necessary for MPA success. It covers MPA benefits; the definition…
Blue Solution | MPAs as part of the solution toward a resilient eco-city
In 2009, the UNESCO World Heritage city of Hoi An on Vietnam’s central coast announced its intent to become a model eco-city for Vietnam by 2030. This meant the city would re-plan itself to operate in balance with nature. That same year (2009), UNESCO named Hoi An and the nearby Cham Islands Marine Protected Area (30 minutes by boat from Hoi An) as the combined Cu Lao Cham World Biosphere Reserve, with goals to improve the income of locals and to protect several depleted species, including the commercially valuable land crab Gecarcoidea lalandii.
MPA Science Corner: Hydroacoustics as a cost-effective tool – Marine reserve effectiveness – Evaluating MPA networks
These recent articles on MPA-related science and policy are all free to access. Article: “Hydroacoustics as a tool to examine the effects of Marine Protected Areas and habitat type on marine fish communities”, Scientific Reports 8 (2018) Finding: This study uses a novel method – hydroacoustics – to compare fish abundance inside and outside MPAs. Acoustic estimates of fish biomass over reef-specific sites did not differ significantly from those estimated using underwater visual censuses. This suggests hydroacoustics could provide a new, more cost-effective method of assessing fish populations and MPAs. Article: “A user-friendly tool to evaluate the effectiveness of no-take…
Notes & News: Canada – Azerbaijan – High seas treaty – Coral Reef Conservation Fund – GLORES – Breaking down the marine science paywall – MPA News vault
Canada designates seven new marine refuges to protect benthic species, habitats In December 2017, Canada designated seven new marine refuges off the coast of its territory of Nunavut and its province of Newfoundland & Labrador. The refuges are designed to protect corals, sponges, and other seafloor species and habitats. Five of the sites will prohibit all bottom-contact fishing activities; the other two will prohibit bottom trawl, gillnet, and longline fishing activities. All together, the seven new MPAs total 145,598 km2 of protected ocean area, equal to 2.53% of Canada’s ocean area. Azerbaijan is designating first MPA in Caspian Sea Azerbaijan is…
Say hello to OCTO!
Hi everybody, The parent organization of MPA News and several other marine knowledge-sharing services has reorganized to become OCTO, or Open Communications for The Ocean (formerly MARE). OCTO has a lot of arms, so to speak, several of which you may already know: MPA News – providing news, analysis, and guidance on marine protected areas since 1999. MEAM (Marine Ecosystems and Management) – covering marine ecosystem-based management and ocean planning since 2007. OpenChannels.org – the knowledge hub for sustainable ocean management and conservation (e.g., jobs, grants, webinars, scientific literature, reports, conferences, news, blogs, and more). EBM Tools Network – providing webinars, tools training, and discussion on tools…
If MPAs had a legal right to be managed well, would that end the problem of paper parks? This campaign suggests it would
If MPAs and the ecosystems and species within them had a legal right to be healthy and managed well, what effect would this have on sites? According to a campaign that proposes such legal rights, one outcome would be the end of the problem of paper parks. In other words, by allowing citizens to sue their governments on behalf of poorly managed or underfunded MPAs, this would provide a powerful new means to pressure agencies to manage their sites more effectively. The concept may seem revolutionary, and it could certainly disrupt the status quo of the MPA field, where paper…