MPA News
Agreement to Protect Titanic Provides Model for High-Seas MPAs
A new international agreement to protect the wreck of the Titanic from destructive activities has now been signed by two parties: the US, which signed it in June 2004, and the UK, which signed in 2003. Under the accord, parties will regulate activities such as research and salvage that may disturb or harm the wreck site. The agreement will take effect once both parties enact implementing legislation – that is, once their national legislative bodies agree to be obligated by the accord. The UK enacted such legislation last year; the US has not yet done so. Only those nations that…
Panel Releases Consensus Statement on Reserves as Fisheries Management Tool
A seven-member panel of US scientists and policy experts has released a consensus statement on the effects of no-take marine reserves, their usefulness in fisheries management in the US, and how they may be designed, monitored, and evaluated. The statement also addresses sources of uncertainty associated with marine reserves, and recommends areas for further study. It is available online at http://www.nfcc-fisheries.org/consensus. Among the conclusions of the panel is that “knowledge is sufficient to proceed with the design and evaluation of reserves for the purposes of addressing primary fishery management goals.” However the panel says that further experiments designed explicitly to…
Notes & News
Correction: Komandorsky Zapovednik, Russia’s largest MPA, was designated in 1993, not 1992 as described in the August 2004 issue of MPA News. Its new director, who was mentioned in the issue but not named, is Nikolay Pavlov. Report provides lessons learned on involving stakeholders Several broadly applicable lessons on stakeholder involvement in MPA planning can be learned from efforts to designate MPAs in the US in the past decade, according to a new report released by the National MPA Center (US). The report provides six case studies – representing diverse geographic areas and an array of social, political, and ecological…
Letter to the Editor
Dear MPA News: The piece by Peter Kareiva on lessons from terrestrial conservation (MPA News 6:1) fails to explicitly state that its focus is biodiversity conservation, rather than some other target such as wilderness or recreational value, as pointed out in Brad Barr’s letter in response (6:2). It is also unfortunate that Kareiva incorrectly characterizes the biodiversity hotspots strategy as one of “accumulation of long lists of species within the smallest possible area”. In fact, biodiversity hotspots are identified on the basis of high endemism – they are highly irreplaceable regions with large numbers of species found nowhere else. Within…
Assessing the Carrying Capacity of MPAs: How Many Visitors Can Your MPA Hold?
The benefits of tourism to MPAs can be significant, including the potential for generating revenue to support management (MPA News 2:8). Like other human activity in marine protected areas, though, tourism has environmental impacts. Damage to coral reefs from careless divers, as well as pollution and other ecosystem impacts from recreational vessels, are among the range of tourism effects documented in MPAs worldwide. Controlling these impacts can be as important an element of MPA management as any other. A potential key to such management lies in assessing the number of tourists that an MPA can support sustainably – its carrying…
MPA Profile: Trying to Balance Conservation and Sustainable Development in Russia’s Largest MPA
Within the extensive Russian system of protected areas is a network of strictly protected nature reserves, called zapovedniks (zap-o-VED-niks). Dating back to 1916 when the first zapovednik was designated, this network now has 100 terrestrial and marine sites, stretching from the Black Sea to the Bering Sea. Of these, the most easterly is off the coast of Kamchatka: the Komandorsky Zapovednik, two mountainous islands surrounded by a 30-mile no-take zone. With 34,633 km2 of marine area, it is Russia’s largest MPA. Designated in 1993, the Komandorsky Zapovednik is home to a diversity of marine mammals, birds, and commercially valuable fish…
Notes & News
Scorecard available for management effectiveness Measuring the success of an MPA in meeting its goals can involve a significant amount of fieldwork and data collection – a challenge for resource-strapped MPAs. A new scorecard, produced by the World Bank, provides a simple, site-level tool to help managers and stakeholders assess their MPAs without additional field level research. It is available online in PDF format at http://www.mpascorecard.net. Called the “Score Card to Assess Progress in Achieving Management Effectiveness Goals”, it is not intended to replace more thorough methods of assessment. Rather, it provides managers with an overview of the progress of…
Letter to the Editor
Dear MPA News: I would like to comment on the article “MPA Perspective: Lessons for MPAs from Terrestrial Conservation” by Peter Kareiva (MPA News 6:1). Although the observations offered by the author are, on balance, well made, I wonder why parks dominated by “snow and rock”, and more generally, those similarly perceived as of “little economic value” would necessarily make them the “wrong place” for a protected area. Sub-alpine and alpine areas may have less complex ecosystems, but are no less valuable to the species that live there, and are potentially important elements of terrestrial parks, certainly worthy of preservation,…
Predation in Marine Reserves: How Increases in Predator Populations Can Impact Diversity and Fisheries Goals
Studies of no-take marine reserves around the world have suggested that, on average, total biological diversity inside reserves is higher than outside. That said, within a designated marine reserve over time, each species or group of species can respond by increasing in population, decreasing in population, or having no response at all. The response depends on a range of factors, including predator-prey relationships. In cases where a reserve protects a predator species, an increase in predator abundance can in turn decrease the numbers of prey in the reserve – either through direct predation or predator-avoidance behavior by the prey. These…
MPA Perspective: Lessons for MPAs from Terrestrial Conservation
Editor’s note: Peter Kareiva is a lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy, a US-based NGO, and has been a faculty member of five US research universities. He has conducted research in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Europe over the past two decades, including in the fields of insect ecology, landscape ecology, risk analysis, mathematical biology, and conservation science. The following piece was adapted by MPA News from a longer essay by Kareiva, originally published this year in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (1:9 [501-502]). By Peter Kareiva Marine conservation lags behind terrestrial conservation in funding, science,…