MPA News
Notes & News
Large areas on Mid-Atlantic Ridge closed to bottom fisheries In April the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) closed several areas along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to bottom fisheries. The new closures total 330,000 km2 and are intended to protect deep-sea diversity from fishing gear that contacts the seafloor. The protected areas are all on the high seas, outside any national jurisdiction. Contracting parties to the NEAFC include Denmark, the E.U., Iceland, Norway, and the Russian Federation. A press release on the closures, including maps and a history of other NEAFC conservation measures, is available at www.neafc.org/system/files/vmes_press_rel_april2009.pdf St. Eustatius Marine Park uses…
Communicating with Stakeholders and Communities: Specialists Offer Their Advice to MPA Managers
The long-term viability of a protected area depends on public support for it. Without broad-based backing of its goals, the protected area will have trouble meeting those goals. Building a base of support, whether from specific stakeholder groups or the community at large, requires MPA practitioners to be able to communicate effectively with their audiences. This involves not only what the practitioners say but how they say it, and especially how they involve the community in a dialogue. This all takes some skill, and the growing number of publications on how to communicate on MPAs is evidence of the need…
Compensation Plan Proposed for MPA-Affected Fishers in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed a plan to provide financial compensation to bottomfish and lobster-fishery permit holders affected by the designation of the 362,000-km2 Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. All commercial fishing in the MPA, located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, will officially end in 2011. By buying up permits from existing permit-holders, the compensation plan would essentially speed up that phaseout of fishing. Former President George W. Bush designated the MPA in 2006 (MPA News 8:1). The proposed compensation plan is available online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-7860.pdf, and was open for public comment from April through 4 May….
Financing Spotlight: Funding Fijian MPAs through Resource “Adoption” Programs
In March, a new Web-based tool to raise funds for Fijian MPAs was launched, enabling people to pay online to “adopt” corals, reefs, and mangroves in the Pacific island nation. The NGO behind it – Sustainable Fijian Reef Resources, or Sasalu Tawamudu in the Fijian language – was founded by faculty members of the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. The organization’s goal is to help conserve Fiji’s reefs and forests while promoting sustainable development in local Fijian communities. The three resource-adoption programs – Adopt-a-Coral, Adopt-a-Reef, and Adopt-a-Mangrove – are…
Notes & News
This month: Second International MPA Congress The Second International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC2) will be held 20-24 May in Washington, D.C. (U.S.) in conjunction with the International Marine Conservation Congress. The joint conference website is www2.cedarcrest.edu/imcc/index.html. Many workshops, sessions, and posters on topics of interest to MPA practitioners will be presented, including on MPA design, management, governance, effectiveness assessment, capacity building, climate change, and cultural and socioeconomic factors. MPA News and its sister newsletter Marine Ecosystems and Management (MEAM) will both be there to report on the events and outcomes. If you see MPA News editor John Davis, MEAM…
Re-Examining the Role of MPAs in Ecosystem-Based Management
The concept of ecosystem-based management of our oceans involves applying a holistic approach to resource management rather than focusing on a single species or sector. The basic idea is that because the elements of an ecosystem are interconnected – including species, habitats, and humans – it makes sense to attempt to manage them as a whole rather than as a series of unrelated elements. This concept of applying an “ecosystem approach” has been widely endorsed by management organizations worldwide. As its implementation grows and matures, so does practitioners’ understanding of how MPAs may best fit within it. In the October…
MPA Perspective: With Three Federal Authorities Protecting Marine Areas, Canada Takes an Integrated Approach to MPA Establishment
Editor’s note: Within Canada, three federal authorities each have a mandate to designate and manage marine protected areas: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Parks Canada Agency, and Environment Canada. The following essay, written collaboratively for MPA News by MPA experts in the above authorities, outlines how they are working together to integrate their MPA planning to achieve efficiencies and maximize conservation benefits. By the Federal Marine Protected Areas Strategy Working Group The three Canadian federal authorities with jurisdiction to protect important marine sites – Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Parks Canada Agency, and Environment Canada – are each mandated to…
MPA Perspective: Protecting the Marine Resources of Northwest Ecuador with Local Communities – Creation of the First Marine Reserve in Mainland Ecuador
Editor’s note: Soledad Luna is Director of the Instituto Nazca de Investigaciones Marina, an Ecuadorian NGO. Patricia Zurita is Senior Director of the Conservation Steward Program at Conservation International. Tannya Lozada is the Undersecretary of Natural Capital at the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment. Manfred Altamirano is the Undersecretary of Coastal Environmental Management at the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment. Luis Suárez is the Executive Director of Conservation International Ecuador. By Soledad Luna, Patricia Zurita, Tannya Lozada, Manfred Altamirano, and Luis Suárez The Galera-San Francisco area on the northern coast of Ecuador is part of both the Chocó-Darién-Tumbes-Magdalena hotspot and…
How the Global Financial Crisis Could Affect MPAs, and What Practitioners Are Doing to Prepare for It
The economic meltdown that began last year in the U.S. financial industry has now spread nearly everywhere, affecting industry, governments, and households around the world. This global financial crisis will likely impact marine protected area planning and management as well, through cuts in private and public funding, decreased global tourism, and other impacts. This month MPA News asks MPA practitioners how they foresee the crisis affecting their sites or institutions, and what steps they are taking to prepare for it. Their answers are below: Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar (Tanzania) Background: Chumbe Island Coral Park is a privately operated, no-take…
New Web-Based Tool Allows Planners to Design MPAs, View Potential Impacts Instantly
A new Web-based tool for planning MPAs has debuted as part of the ongoing initiative to create a network of MPAs off the coast of the U.S. state of California (the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative – see MPA News 8:11 and 9:1). The tool, called MarineMap, is allowing stakeholders and resource managers to experiment with different MPA designs on their own computers, at their own pace. The interface is relatively simple: the user clicks-and-drags to draw the outline of an MPA, and MarineMap immediately indicates the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of the proposed MPA design. MarineMap is far from…