MPA News
Blue Solution | Kawawana indigenous community conserved area in Senegal: Good life recovered through conservation
In the rural municipality of Mangagoulack in southern Senegal, uncontrolled fishing and other ecosystem exploitation depleted the area’s biodiversity and the livelihoods that depended on it. By the year 2000, food quality and food security were low for Mangagoulack’s eight villages. Governance by national and regional officials was inadequate.
MPA Science Corner: North Atlantic MPAs – Fish movement and MPAs – Large MPAs – Papahānaumokuākea
These recent articles on MPA-related science and policy are all open access. Article: “Climate change is likely to severely limit the effectiveness of deep-sea ABMTs in the North Atlantic”, Marine Policy 87, 111-122 (2017) Finding: In light of climate change pressures that are likely to affect MPAs and other area-based management tools in deep waters of the North Atlantic, a precautionary approach to management is warranted. This could include setting aside more extensive areas and strictly limiting human uses and/or adopting high protection thresholds before any additional human use impacts are allowed. Article: “Effects of fish movement assumptions on the…
Notes & News: ‘Most Beautiful Office’ contest – Trivia winners – Ocean plastics – World Heritage sites – Coral mortality – Bleaching-resistant corals – Seafloor visualization tool – EU overseas MPAs – MPA News vault
Contest: “Most Beautiful MPA Office in the World” Some MPA managers, planners, and conservationists work in relatively plain office buildings. But others work in beachfront villas, or on-the-water ranger stations, or in an actual royal castle (as WWF Sweden does). Do you work in a beautiful office? If so, please send us a photo! We will print entries in MPA News and invite readers to vote in a future issue. The winner will be named “Most Beautiful MPA Office in the World” and receive a limited edition MPA News tote bag. Please send your entry to mpanews@u.washington.edu. Good luck! Winners…
Global targets call for effective MPAs. But how do we best achieve effectiveness? Practitioners respond
The concept of effectiveness comes up often in the MPA field: Aichi Target 11 calls for 10% of nations’ waters to be in effectively managed MPAs or other effective area-based conservation measures by 2020 The IUCN Green List recognizes protected areas that meet its standards for effectiveness High-profile studies (like this and this) have identified factors that correlate with MPA effectiveness, while noting that few MPAs possess all these factors The most basic gauge of MPA effectiveness is pretty simple: Is a site achieving its stated goals or not? But even if we assume that most MPA goals, if met,…
Highlights from the Fourth International Marine Protected Areas Congress
From 4-8 September, MPA News attended the Fourth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC4) in the beautiful beachfront town of La Serena, Chile. In all there were 1100 attendees from 59 countries – a good turnout. The highlights of the conference, providing the main news and outcomes from the week, are below. If we have missed anything, please let us know at mpanews@u.washington.edu and we will add it. Thanks! (And if you’d like a more detailed, blow-by-blow account of the conference, please see our live-blog of it.) MPA announcements Three new Chilean MPAs: On opening night of IMPAC4, the Chilean…
Putting the ‘P’ in MPA: Update on the future of IUU fisheries enforcement, and how MPAs can now get involved
In Chile in September at the Fourth International MPA Congress, there was a side event on satellite-based surveillance of illegal fisheries. It was unique in that there were several Chilean naval officers in uniform in the audience. And the first speaker offered what was perhaps the most memorable line of the conference: “Are we at a point where we may finally put the ‘P’ in MPA?” The event was hosted by OceanMind, a UK-based organization working to increase the sustainability of fisheries worldwide through insights into vessel compliance. (OceanMind is part of the Satellite Applications Catapult, a UK government initiative…
Notes & news: Social sciences – Trump – Canada – Papahanaumokuakea – Mediterranean – Climate change impacts – MPA network coherence – World Parks Congress – International Year of the Reef – MPA News vault
New ideas on how the social sciences could change ocean conservation The current issue of Marine Ecosystems and Management, the sister newsletter of MPA News, features an article titled “New ideas on how the social sciences could change the way we do ocean conservation and management – and already are”. The article highlights ideas from 17 social science and interdisciplinary researchers worldwide. Potential reopening of three large no-take MPAs in US to commercial fishing In mid-September, a private memo from US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to President Donald Trump was leaked to the Washington Post. In the memo,…
Editorial: Sticks, carrots, and the future of MPAs (and the future of MPA News, too)
The next three years will lay much of the groundwork for the MPA field for years to come. As nations gear up to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 as well as Aichi Target 11 under the Convention on Biological Diversity — both of which call for 10% of coastal and marine areas to be protected by 2020 — they will face some decisions. Namely: Should each nation just designate enough area to meet the 10% target and be done with it? Or should they take more time to try to apply good practices for planning and management? If…
UN Ocean Conference results in several MPA-related commitments by governments, organizations
From 5-9 June 2017, the United Nations Headquarters in New York hosted its first-ever Ocean Conference, attracting thousands of government officials and institutions to discuss implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 on the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans. The conference’s main outcome — a Call for Action — included MPAs within a broader call for the “use of effective and appropriate area-based management tools” to better conserve marine biodiversity. Arguably the more newsworthy outcome of the conference was the hundreds of commitments and announcements made by governments and organizations, several of which pertained to MPAs. For a full…
Perspective: Amid uncertainty over UK MPAs’ future, reasons for optimism emerge
By Chris Williams, Sue Wells, and Matt Doggett
The inter-relationships among science, policy, and management were the focus of a UK conference on MPAs organized by the Poole Harbour Study Group and the Estuarine and Coastal Science Association in May. This brought together a wide range of academics, practitioners, and regulators to discuss key issues and challenges facing MPAs both globally and nationally (full details available here: http://www.pooleharbourstudygroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Programme.pdf).