MPA News
New Calculation of World MPA Coverage is Twice Previous Estimates, but Still Far Below Target
A coalition of six UK-based NGOs has concluded that global MPA coverage amounts to 3.2% of the world ocean. That figure is well below the 10% global MPA coverage target set by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity for 2020. On the bright side, the 3.2% figure is at least double what other experts have estimated for current coverage, as recently as early 2012 (MPA News 13:5). The Marine Reserves Coalition, which calculated the global MPA coverage figure, also assessed MPA coverage by country. The latter calculations resulted in a Top 5 of: Monaco (100% MPA coverage of country’s total…
Great Barrier Reef on Way to ‘World Heritage in Danger’ List Unless Development Plans Stopped
The Great Barrier Reef may be listed as a World Heritage site “in danger” unless several proposed plans for new ports and other coastal development in the Australian state of Queensland are shelved. At its annual meeting in June 2012, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee gave the Australian and Queensland governments less than a year (until February 2013) to develop and apply a highly precautionary process to consideration of coastal development proposals. That process will be expected to forbid any proposal – inside or adjacent to the site – that would significantly impact the “outstanding universal value” of the World…
Australian MPA Plan Still Subject to Public Comment Period
There has been some confusion in the international media today regarding the Australian Government’s announcement of its plan for a national MPA network, covering a total of 3.1 million km2 of ocean. Around the world, media have suggested the plan is effectively a done deal and the network has been created. Granted, the Government’s own press release may have fostered that impression. One must read 20 paragraphs into the release to learn that the plan is still subject to a 60-day public comment period before it can become law.
WWF-Canada lodges complaint regarding government’s slow progress on MPA plan
By MPA News staff WWF-Canada has lodged a formal complaint with the Canadian government, citing the government’s lack of progress on developing a management plan for an MPA designated four years ago. The site in question is the Bowie Seamount Marine Protected Area, a 6131-km2 MPA located near the western edge of Canada’s Pacific EEZ. The NGO’s petition also asked the government to examine whether it is honoring its commitment to developing a national system of MPAs under the country’s Oceans Act. Under Canadian law, the government has roughly four months from receipt of the petition to respond. This is…
Paying for MPAs: Examples of Large-Scale Fundraising for Planning and Management
Money is a limiting factor for most marine protected areas. Whether located in the developed or developing world, and whether financed by government or private parties, most MPAs report budget shortfalls: they do not have the funds to address all their needs. That finding, described by UK researcher Pippa Gravestock in 2003 (“The cost of operating an MPA”, MPA News 5:5), is perhaps truer now than ever after years of worldwide economic slowdown and related budget cuts. Add to that the challenge of paying for all the future MPAs that will be needed to meet global coverage targets under various…
Marine Protected Areas in Fisheries Management: A West African Perspective
In December 2011, fisheries managers and researchers from across West Africa gathered in Senegal to discuss the use of MPAs as fishery management tools. Convened by the Sub Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), which coordinates the fishery policies of seven West African member states, the meeting featured a global review of the “state of the art” on MPAs in fishery management.* The event’s goal was to find and promote ways that different forms of MPAs could contribute to sustainable development of fisheries in the region. (The SRFC member states are Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra…
Notes & News
UK recalculates Chagos MPA size; finds it is 100,000 km2 larger than announced You know your MPA is big when the officially announced size is off by 100,000 km2 and no one catches the mistake for two years. The Chagos Marine Protected Area has been widely reported – including by the UK Government, which designated it in April 2010 – to be 544,000 km2 in size. But a reassessment by the UK Hydrographic Office this year has placed the correct figure at roughly 640,000 km2, more than 17% larger than previously estimated. According to UK officials, the origin of the…
From the Database: Five median-sized MPAs
The global median size for marine protected areas is 1.6 km2.* In other words, half of MPAs worldwide are larger than that, and half are smaller. The following list, drawn from the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), features marine protected areas that are equal in area to the global median: Capel Island and Knockadoon Nature Reserve Ireland (WDPA ID: 10936) Cayman Brac East grouper spawning site Cayman Islands (WDPA ID: 303914) No Diving Zone (West) Cayman Islands (WDPA ID: 303909) Olive Marine Protected Area Solomon Islands (WDPA ID: 555544155) Yoronto Marine Park Japan (WDPA ID: 71188) Information on each…
The MPA Math: How to Reach the 10% Target for Global MPA Coverage
Global targets for the percentage of oceans to be protected serve two general purposes: as a goal for MPA efforts to pursue, and as a measure of those efforts’ progress. Unfortunately, over the past decade, some of the high-profile targets for MPAs have proven too difficult to reach, at least in the near term. Take, for example, the target set in 2005 under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): that 10% of all marine and coastal ecological regions should be conserved in representative MPAs by 2012. Within months of the target being set, a study determined that at the…
MPA Perspective: Key Lessons Learned in the Management of MPAs and Marine Natural Resources
Editor’s note: Graeme Kelleher AO is former chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and serves as senior advisor to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. The lessons here, some of which have appeared previously in MPA News, are drawn from: Guidelines for Marine Protected Areas (IUCN, 1999), edited by Kelleher. http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/mpaguid.pdf PARKS Magazine, June 1998 special issue on MPAs, co-edited by Kelleher and Cheri Recchia.http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/parks_jun98.pdf By Graeme Kelleher AO I believe that the following lessons are common globally because human instincts are common globally. These lessons have been learned over time in every marine region of…