MPA News
MPA Perspective: Promoting Peer-to-Peer Dialogue to Achieve Successful MPA Targets
Editor’s note: The co-authors of this essay work in the WWF Mediterranean Programme. By Giuseppe Di Carlo and Alessandra Pomè For marine protected areas, community and stakeholder participation are generally considered essential elements for achieving management and conservation targets. However, some sectors – particularly fishermen and tourism operators – continue to view MPAs as limiting factors for their activities and revenues. It can be difficult for MPA authorities to overcome these sensitivities over access to fishing grounds, development permits, and community rights. In these cases, promoting peer-to-peer dialogue can help to resolve such conflict. That is, success stories and first-hand…
Notes & News
In policy reversal, Colombia announces no oil exploration in Seaflower MPA On 1 October 2011, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos announced his Government will not allow oil exploration or production in the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and Marine Protected Area due to the risk such activities could cause to the site’s environment. This marks a reversal of policy for the Government: in 2010, the National Agency of Hydrocarbons (ANH) auctioned two areas inside the MPA for exploration. The lease sites – more than 20,000 km2 combined – covered almost a third of the 65,000 km2 MPA, located in the San Andres…
From the Database: Largest MPAs by Hemisphere
The following data are from the World Database on Protected Areas, compiled by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Information on each of the MPAs is available at www.protectedplanet.net. Southern Hemisphere: Kermadec Benthic Protection Area, New Zealand: 620,467 km2 Chagos Environment Preservation and Protection Zone, British Indian Ocean Territory: 544,000 km2 Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Kiribati: 410,500 km2 Northern Hemisphere: Papahanaumokuakea World Heritage Site, US: 362,075 km2 Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, US: 246,608 km2 Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, US: 225,038 km2
The Surge in Very Large MPAs: What Is Driving It and What Does the Future Hold?
On 7 September, Prime Minister Henry Puna of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific made a big announcement. He stated that in 2012 his country will designate a marine protected area across roughly half its exclusive economic zone. That will be a 1 million-km2 marine protected area. (The announcement is at www.cook-islands.gov.ck/view_release.php?release_id=1245.) To put that in perspective: The Cook Islands MPA will be nearly twice the size of the 544,000-km2 Chagos Marine Protected Area in the Indian Ocean, which was widely considered the world’s largest MPA upon its designation just last year (MPA News 11:6). It will be almost…
Letter to the Editor: Additional Comment on Australia’s Proposed South-west MPAs
Dear MPA News, In response to the letter from Jeff Moore of the Great Australian Bight Fishing Industry Association (“Well-managed trawl fishery would be disproportionately impacted by SW Australian MPAs”, MPA News 13:1): Mr. Moore argues that the commercial fishing sector will be disproportionately impacted by the Australian Government’s proposed network of marine reserves in the 1.4 million-km2 South-west marine region, while the oil and gas industry is left largely unaffected. We share his concerns about the quarantining of oil and gas. However, we also note with concern that in its recent submission on the Australian Government’s proposal for the…
Is Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo National Park the Most Successful No-Take Marine Reserve in the World?
Since 1995 when it was designated as an MPA, Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico’s Gulf of California has experienced a remarkable resurgence in marine life. Total fish biomass within its boundaries has increased by more than five times. The biomass of top predators has increased by more than 11 times. Both of these trends strongly counter those for fish elsewhere in the Gulf in unprotected areas (where biomass has remained level or decreased). Although it is normal for no-take marine reserves like Cabo Pulmo to exhibit increases in biomass after designation, the increases at Cabo Pulmo are believed to…
Notes & News
Conference on MPA enforcement: February 2012 A conference in February 2012 will examine all aspects of MPA enforcement – from demonstrations of enforcement tools, to strategies for increasing compliance with MPA rules, to self-sustaining financing mechanisms, and more. The four-day Global MPA Enforcement Conference will feature cases of effective enforcement with discussions of best practice. It is hosted by WildAid, an international NGO dedicated to ending the illegal wildlife trade. For more information, go to www.wildaid.org/index.asp?CID=8&PID=682. Proposals unveiled for regional MPA networks in UK Four regional, stakeholder-driven initiatives to plan and propose networks of MPAs in UK waters have submitted…
MPA Bookshelf: New Publications
Navigating the Future of Marine World Heritage By Bud Ehler and Fanny Douvere UNESCO, 74 pages. http://whc.unesco.org/en/series/28 This report summarizes the conclusions and recommended actions from the first meeting of all World Heritage marine site managers, held in Hawai`i in December 2010. The meeting focused in particular on the exchange of success stories, providing the basis for a stronger community of site managers and the capacity needed to deal with the increasing complexity of conserving World Heritage marine sites. Outcomes from a survey to address threats and management gaps at the sites are also discussed in this publication. How to…
Marine Mammal Protected Areas: What Makes Them Special, and How Their Management Can Be Advanced
It is not uncommon for marine protected areas to be designated with the protection of a particular species or group of species in mind. There are MPAs for many commercially valuable fish species, for example, as well as MPAs for sharks or sea birds or corals. There are also protected areas for marine mammals. This last group of MPAs in particular has experienced a boom in numbers in recent years. In 2004 according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, there were 358 marine mammal protected areas worldwide. As of June 2011, there are 570 such sites – a 58%…
UN Working Group Recommends Path toward Multilateral Agreement on High Seas Conservation, Including MPAs
Conservation of biodiversity on the high seas took a significant step forward in June: a working group of the United Nations General Assembly recommended the establishment of a process that could lead to a multilateral agreement on high seas conservation and sustainable use. Specifically the recommendations call for crafting a legal regime under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to conserve marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction – including by designating MPAs. Currently no mechanism exists to designate MPAs on the high seas that would apply to all nations. High seas comprise 64% of the world…