MPA News
New dates: IMPAC5 to be held in June 2022 in Vancouver, Canada
The 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) is confirmed for 23-29 June 2022 in Vancouver, Canada.
Science Corner: MPAs and fish catch – Dynamic MPAs – Network performance indicators – Cumulative impacts and conservation planning – Residual MPAs
These recent articles on MPA-related science and policy are each free to access:
Notes & News: More 30×30 commitments – Tristan da Cunha – EU MPAs – Seabirds and COVID – Debris cleanup – Reef restoration – Poaching – Blue Parks – Around the web – MPA News vault
Several more nations commit to the 30×30 target
The target of protecting 30% of national and global waters by 2030 (30×30) continues to gain momentum, with a growing number of national governments making commitments to it:
Selling carbon credits to fund MPAs, Part 2: Could MPAs sell credits based on their fish stocks?
The more fish an ecosystem contains, the more carbon is being captured and stored there. In this sense, MPAs could be viewed as an important management option for conserving and enhancing fish carbon services. Theoretically the financial value of well-managed ‘fish carbon’ could even be harnessed to support MPAs. Is there some way we can make this idea of fish carbon actually work as an MPA financing tool? We speak with several experts about the possibilities.
Letter to the Editor: Underpricing of blue carbon on the voluntary market
Low prices for blue carbon credits undermine "not only the MPA financing aim of blue carbon schemes, but also the climate change mitigation potential," writes Peter Jones of University College London.
More resources on MPAs and COVID-19: COVID and SDGs – Impacts on sites – Grants
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, MPA News is continuing to compile related resources for our readers. Here is our latest collection….
Perspective | Important Marine Mammal Areas come of age: Identified sites are now leading to real protections
By Erich Hoyt
For the past four years, a core group of the IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force has dedicated its time to launching a new tool – Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) – to highlight areas that are important for one or more marine mammal species, and which have the potential to be managed for conservation. These IMMAs are already leading to conservation results.
Notes & News: 10% coverage target – Russia – Belize – Scotland – Cote D’Ivoire – Galapagos – New coral reef fund – Around the web – From the MPA News vault
UN report card: 10% MPA coverage target is not met yet, but could be by year’s end
In 2010, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity set a series of 20 targets — the Aichi Biodiversity Targets — to protect global biodiversity by 2020, including a target for 10% MPA coverage (Target 11). Now that 2020 is nearly over, the UN has released a final report card on progress toward the targets, and the main takeaway is that none of them has been met completely, including Target 11. However, the 10% MPA coverage figure may be met by the end of this year.
Funding MPAs by selling blue carbon credits: Practitioners from the first projects describe their experience so far
When MPA News reported on blue carbon back in 2016, it was still just a concept, discussed as a way that MPAs could help fight climate change. But now two MPA projects are implementing blue carbon strategies as a source of revenue – the first MPAs to do so. They are generating credits based on the tons of carbon their projects have captured and stored, then selling those credits to global buyers who want to offset their own carbon emissions.
This is a whole new way of monetizing MPAs. The timing is potentially good: the global market for carbon credits is expected to grow substantially as nations and other entities, like airlines, strive to meet various emission-reduction commitments. According to one of the projects selling blue carbon credits, the current demand for them may be as much as a thousand times greater than current supply.
Perspective | The Phoenix Islands Protected Area: The Greatest Ocean Conservation Story Ever Told
By Ambassador Teburoro Tito, Chairman of the PIPA Conservation Trust Fund Board
On 11 December 2018, Kiribati made history by being the first country to have its domestic marine conservation initiative recognized by the UN General Assembly as an exemplary model of international cooperation. What is so unique about the Phoenix Islands Protected Area to justify this special mention?