MPA News
US President Obama proposes 2 million-sq km no-take area in Pacific
On 17 June, US President Barack Obama proposed a significant expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which currently covers 225,000 km2 around multiple US-governed islands and atolls in the south-central Pacific (Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands; Johnston, Wake, and Palmyra Atolls; and Kingman Reef). The plan would involve expanding the MPA to roughly 2 million km2 (782,000 sq miles), which could make it the largest MPA and largest area off-limits to commercial fishing in the world. The expansion would move the MPA’s boundaries seaward from each of the islands and atolls: instead of 50 nm from shore,…
Notes & news: Scotland – US MPA nominations – High seas – Caribbean – Integrating people and MPAs – Status of US MPA coverage – MPA Campaign Tracker – Poverty alleviation
Scotland designates 30 new MPAs In July, Scotland announced its designation of 30 new marine protected areas. The spate of designations is aimed at protecting a range of habitats and species while allowing sustainable use of the sea where possible, including fishing. All together, the new MPAs cover 12% of Scotland’s waters, and include seamounts, cold water coral reefs, and other habitats. Fisheries management measures for the 30 sites will be developed over the next two years. In the meantime, three fishing associations – the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, the Scottish Creel Fisherman’s Federation, and the Western Isles Fisherman’s Association –…
Building sustainable financing for MPAs by diversifying funding streams
A multitude of potential funding streams exist for MPAs. There are the common ones – direct government support and visitor fees. There are also less common options, like payments for ecosystem services, trust funds, crowdfunding, and the creative marketing of facilities and souvenirs. One MPA, Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area in Honduras, even earned revenue from hosting an Italian reality television show, The Celebrity Island, for three years (US $600,000 per year from 2006-2008). Many MPAs focus primarily on one or two of these streams, particularly the direct government support. But to help ensure sustainability of financing over time, including…
Achieving conservation objectives and social equity goals: An interview with Peter Jones on MPA governance
The new book Governing MPAs: resilience through diversity, by Peter Jones of University College London, explores the factors that contribute to effective and equitable governance of MPAs. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the book concludes that MPAs require a diversity of governance approaches and incentives to be successful. (The book is available at http://bit.ly/GoverningMPAs. By using the discount code DC361, the price is lowered to £40 [US $67.50].) MPA News speaks with Jones about his research, below. The full, unabridged interview with Jones, in which he identifies MPAs that he considers well-governed, is available here. MPA News:…
Integrating climate change into marine conservation planning
A new paper in the journal Biological Conservation analyzes the ways in which climate change and connectivity have been accommodated in MPA planning. Based on the review, the research team recommends several approaches that practitioners can take to ensure that future climate change is integrated in planning, and measured as it occurs. These approaches include using generic rules of thumb for size and spacing of MPAs, and applying replication to the conservation of desirable features, among other strategies. The paper is at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320713004539. In MPA News over the years, experts have suggested a variety of strategies for designing MPAs and…
MPAs that lack adequate management plans get assistance from regional program
As part of a program to help address the management capacity needs of Caribbean MPAs, priority sites that lack adequate management plans are receiving hands-on planning assistance. The Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI), with support from the Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is aiding MPAs that either have no management plans in place or have plans that are significantly out of date. So far several sites are benefiting from this assistance, including the Point Sable Environmental Protection Area in Saint Lucia and the Abaco Marine Parks in the Bahamas, both of…
Notes & news: Kiribati – New Caledonia – Sargasso Sea – New Zealand – MPA poll – Great Barrier Reef – MPA advocacy toolkit – MPA advisory committee
Kiribati to close Phoenix Islands Protected Area to commercial fishing at end of 2014 The Kiribati government has approved a plan to close the country’s 408,250-km2 Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) to commercial fishing by the start of 2015. The decision, made on 29 January 2014, marks a significant leap in protection for PIPA. At present, just 12% of the site is closed to purse seining, the predominant commercial fishing industry in the region (MPA News 15:1). PIPA covers roughly one-ninth of Kiribati’s 3.5-million km2 EEZ. “This is a milestone achievement of the Republic of Kiribati, especially due to the…
Launch of new “MPA List” email discussion list
Dear reader, I am very pleased to announce the launch of a new email-based discussion list for the marine protected area community: the MPA List. Created by MPA News, the MPA List provides a simple way for managers, researchers, and others to share knowledge, discuss current issues, and stay up-to-date on the latest news and announcements. To join the MPA List, just visit: http://openchannels.org/community/mpalist …and fill out the simple form. You will receive a confirmation email in return. It has been over a decade since there was a dedicated email discussion list for the global MPA community, so we are…
Global study finds conservation success increases dramatically when MPAs have five key features
A study of 87 marine protected areas worldwide has found that conservation success – as indicated by fish biomass – improves exponentially when an MPA has five key features. Those recurring characteristics are:
- No fishing allowed;
- Well-enforced;
- More than 10 years old;
- Relatively large in area (larger than 100 km2); and
- Isolated from fished areas by habitat boundaries, such as deep water or sand.
The emerging concept of marine biodiversity offsets and their potential uses with MPAs
Several presentations at IMPAC3 addressed a relatively new concept in the ocean management realm: marine biodiversity offsets. A biodiversity offset is a way to demonstrate that an infrastructure project is implemented in a manner that results in "no net loss" of biodiversity. If the installation of a proposed offshore oil drilling platform, for example, is anticipated to have certain negative impacts on benthic habitat, an offset could involve protecting similar habitat elsewhere, or fostering new habitat, to balance the habitat loss at the platform site. (If a project has already been implemented, an offset could involve restoring any habitat that has been degraded in the process.)
Such offsets, sometimes referred to as compensation, have existed in land management for a while. But the idea has only become more common in ocean management as industries such as petroleum exploration, renewable energy, and seabed mining establish a greater marine presence.