MPA News
MPA Tip: Questions for Thinking about the Business of Protected Areas
“MPA Tip” is a recurring feature in MPA News that presents advice on planning and management gathered from various publications on protected areas. The purpose is two-fold: to provide useful guidance to practitioners, and to serve as a reminder of valuable literature from past years. The following tip is from Funding Protected Area Conservation in the Wider Caribbean: A Guide for Managers and Conservation Organizations (UNEP/The Nature Conservancy, 1999). The report is available athttp://guide.conservationfinance.org/download.cfm?file=28_TNC-NorrisCurtis99-FundgProtACaribbean.pdf. There is no simple step-by-step guide to developing a financial sustainability plan. The following list of key questions should help to start the process: What are…
Global MPA Priorities to Be Set this Month: Interview with Dan Laffoley, Vice Chair – Marine, World Commission on Protected Areas
A summit meeting this month in Washington, DC (USA), is intended to set priorities and future directions for global MPA management. The meeting on 10-12 April will bring together members of the marine program of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA – Marine) to agree on a plan to support and partner with existing MPA initiatives worldwide. WCPA is the world’s leading body of protected area expertise, with more than 1200 members in 140 countries. Members include government officials, site managers, scientists, NGO representatives, and others. The mission of WCPA – Marine is to promote the establishment of…
UK Launches Proposals to Plan Nation’s Waters, Create Network of MPAs
The UK Government released a White Paper on 15 March that sets out an integrated suite of proposals for a new holistic approach to managing the nation’s marine activities. The document, titled A Sea Change: A Marine Bill White Paper, proposes introduction of a marine planning system for UK waters, a new mechanism for protecting natural resources through marine protected areas, and other measures. It is intended to help achieve the Government’s vision of “clean, healthy, safe, productive, and biologically diverse oceans and seas.” The proposals in the White Paper take account of feedback from stakeholders on an earlier (2006)…
MPA Perspective: Developing Capacity-Building Programs to Meet the Needs of Regional MPAs
Editor’s note: Anne Walton is coordinator of the International MPA Management Capacity Building Program, managed by the (US) National Marine Sanctuary Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By Anne Walton Many MPA managers and policy makers, including local and indigenous communities, have insufficient access to information and guidelines coming out of science, traditional knowledge, and field experience to manage MPAs effectively. In the past there has been little opportunity to share what seasoned resource managers have learned from their own experience with other managers and staff. The International MPA Management Capacity Building Program provides a framework for resource…
New Publications Available on Protected Area Management and Integrated Coastal Management
Three new publications offer expertise on the subjects of protected area management and/or coastal management: Managing Protected Areas: A Global Guide Edited by Michael Lockwood, Graeme L. Worboys, and Ashish Kothari. Published by IUCN, 2006. This 802-page book from IUCN spans the full terrain of protected area management and is very likely the most comprehensive guide on the subject ever published. With dozens of detailed international case studies, maps, tables, evaluation tools, and checklists, this book provides a one-stop shop for IUCN expertise on the principles and best practices of managing protected areas. One chapter – authored by Jon Day,…
Notes & News
Canada designates Musquash Estuary as MPA Canada has designated an 11.5-km2 area of estuarine habitat as its sixth Marine Protected Area under the terms of the nation’s Oceans Act. The Musquash Estuary in the province of New Brunswick provides habitat for a variety of commercial and non-commercial fisheries and wildlife. First proposed as an MPA in 1998 by groups that included fishing interests, the site is one of the last ecologically intact estuaries in a region where most salt marshes have been modified by human activities. The designation is intended to protect the ecosystem’s integrity and biodiversity while ensuring long-term…
Research Spotlight: Ocean Tracking Network
A new Canadian project – the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) – will use a sea-bottom network of acoustic receivers to track fish movement and the ocean’s physical changes. Project leader Ron O’Dor says the project could transform conservation and fisheries management, particularly for highly mobile species. “OTN will provide a thousand times more information on where marine animals go and where they die,” he says. This is not the first project to monitor fish movement through the use of transmitter tags in animals (“Acoustic Tracking of Fish: How Continuous Data on Fish Movement Could Change the Planning of MPAs”, MPA…
Using Marine Reserves to Protect Highly Migratory Species: Scientists Discuss Potential Strategies, Including Mobile MPAs
One commonly held belief on no-take marine reserves is that although they can be effective in protecting relatively stationary organisms, they are ineffective for highly mobile ones. Oceanic species – including tunas, billfishes, sea turtles, cetaceans, and sea birds – often range over thousands of kilometers in their lifetimes, crossing into and out of protected areas along their seasonal migrations. When outside of the protected areas, they are exposed to fishing impacts, either as the targeted species or as bycatch. However, there are ways that marine reserves could, theoretically, be effective in protecting such species. Reserves could be made very…
On the Importance of Educating Park Visitors: An Interview with Phil Dearden
Last month’s MPA News examined how practitioners are using a variety of approaches to educate MPA stakeholders and build public support for conservation. Among the most powerful educational tools can be the protected area itself. The experience of visiting an MPA and seeing first-hand the benefits of conservation has the potential to deliver a strong, memorable education message – stronger than any brochures or other media could deliver. If management handles this potential poorly, however, visitors can be left with little insight and an indifferent opinion on the MPA’s importance. This month, Phil Dearden of the University of Victoria (Canada)…
Letter to the Editor: Recreational angling and Skomer Marine Nature Reserve
Dear MPA News: I am writing to correct a statement in the essay by Leon Roskilly (“Aligning the Interests of Anglers and Conservation Groups on MPAs”) that appeared in the February 2007 MPA News. The proposal by the UK’s conservation agency in Wales in 2005 to the South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee (SWSFC) to ban most taking of commercial species in Skomer Marine Nature Reserve was not “scuppered” by anglers, as Roskilly suggests, but rather by the commercial fishing industry. Local anglers were content that the proposal would hardly affect them. In fact, there were only three objections to the…