MPA News
A Conversation with Willem van Riet, Peace Parks Foundation
The Peace Parks Foundation, based in South Africa, has supported southern African governments in the development of 10 peace parks (www.peaceparks.org). In doing so, the Foundation has played many roles, including facilitating planning processes, managing community consultations, and training park managers, among other tasks. Former South African President Nelson Mandela is a founding patron of the Foundation. Willem van Riet is Vice-Chairman, International Relations, of Peace Parks Foundation. MPA News spoke with him about the peace park concept and how such parks differ from “regular” protected areas. MPA News: What distinctions, if any, do you draw between peace parks and…
Facing the Challenges of the Next 50 Years: Interview with Russell Reichelt – Chair, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
In October 2007, Russell Reichelt was named the new chairman and CEO of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), overseeing one of the world’s largest and best-known MPAs. Previously he had served as CEO of both the CRC Reef Research Centre and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and was formerly chairman of Australia’s Fisheries Research and Development Corporation. Reichelt is faced with leading GBRMPA through a challenging period, addressing significant threats to the long-term health of the Great Barrier Reef. MPA News asked him how he viewed his park’s role in the greater MPA community, and what…
Notes & News
Proposals requested for symposia at IMPAC2 and International Marine Conservation Congress Organizers of the Second International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC2) and the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) are now accepting proposals for symposia and workshops at the joint event, to occur 20-24 May 2009, in Washington, DC, USA. IMPAC2 will serve as a track within the larger IMCC.Proposals for symposia will feature a specific group of speakers on a topic, for a session to last 2.5 hours. (Note: this is not to be confused with submissions of individual oral presentations, which will be requested later this year.) Proposals for…
Kiribati Expands Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Creating World’s Largest MPA
The Pacific island nation of Kiribati has more than doubled the size of its Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), creating what is being called the world’s largest marine protected area. The expanded MPA, announced by the Government of Kiribati in late January 2008, now encompasses an area of 410,500 km2 – up from 184,700 km2. The vision for the PIPA remains the same as when the site was designated in 2006: commercial fishing will be phased out, although subsistence reef fishing by the fewer than 50 residents of the Phoenix Islands archipelago will be allowed to continue (MPA News 7:9)….
MPA Global Database Releases Figures: MPAs Cover Just 0.65% of Oceans
A project to create a global database on marine protected areas has released new figures on the state of the MPA field. Representing the most authoritative figures to date, the findings show the small total area covered by MPAs worldwide – less than 1%. The figures come from the MPA Global database (http://mpaglobal.org), housed at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Created and managed by Louisa Wood as part of her Ph.D. thesis, MPA Global is a collaboration of the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas-Marine, World Wildlife Fund, and the Sea Around Us Project at…
MPA Perspective: MPAs in Europe – Challenges and Opportunities
Editor’s note: The authors of the following essay are faculty members of the Department of Ecology and Hydrology at the University of Murcia, Spain. They serve as coordinators of EMPAFISH (www.um.es/empafish), a project funded by the European Commission to study MPAs as tools for fisheries management and conservation. This article does not necessarily reflect the European Commission’s views and in no way anticipates the Commission’s future policy in this area. By José A. García-Charton, Concepción Marcos, Fuensanta Salas, and Ángel Pérez-Ruzafa The European Symposium on Marine Protected Areas (www.mpasymposium2007.eu), held in September 2007 in Murcia, Spain, constituted a unique opportunity…
MPA Perspective: Climate Change and the U.S. National System of MPAs – Why Places Are Important
Editor’s note: Joseph Uravitch is director of the U.S. National Marine Protected Areas Center. The MPA Center is a division of the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Ocean Service. By Joseph A. Uravitch After seven years of public and agency engagement, information gathering and analysis, and system design, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Protected Areas Center (MPA Center) is moving forward to establish the initial U.S. National System of Marine Protected Areas (National System) by late 2008. The Revised Draft Framework for Developing the National…
Notes & News
New manual available on Marxan A new user’s manual is available for Marxan, a software program that provides support for decision-making on MPA design. The manual provides readers with the basic knowledge needed to use the software, including the questions it can help to answer, its limitations, and what data inputs are required. In most reserve-design processes, a planner has several potential sites from which to select new conservation areas, subject to various constraints. Marxan helps planners find a range of near-optimal solutions quickly, even for very large planning projects. The software has been instrumental in the design of multiple…
New Project to Strengthen the World Database on Protected Areas: What MPA Practitioners Can Expect
According to a goal set by global leaders at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, a worldwide network of marine protected areas is supposed to be in place four years from now (MPA News 4:3). Termed the “2012 target”, this goal is one of several established for the MPA community to meet in coming years. Measuring how effectively the world is meeting these objectives requires data. With information on the size, boundaries, and management of individual MPAs worldwide, we can examine where gaps in protection lie and what work still remains. The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), managed…
MPA Perspective: The International Year of the Reef 2008 — Time to Renew Efforts for Coral Reef MPAs
Editor’s note: Sue Wells is a private consultant. She co-authored the landmark IUCN report A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas, and is lead editor of Reef Encounter, the newsletter of the International Society for Reef Studies. By Sue Wells The International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 has been designated by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) and its members to promote conservation action and strengthen long-term constituencies for coral reef conservation. Building on the lessons learned from IYOR 1997, it provides an opportunity to highlight the extreme urgency of tackling the problems facing the world’s declining coral…