MPA News
MPA Training in a Nutshell: Filling data gaps through partnerships
By Anne Nelson and the IMPACT team
How many times have you had a discussion on the potential impact of future human activities in your MPA and the conclusion is, “We don’t have enough information on that species, habitat, use, or impact”? Often the reasons for the data gaps are that there is no funding for data collection without a related project, or not enough capacity, or it’s not in someone’s plan of work to focus on the activity and there’s no direction from leadership to do the work.
Perspective: What we wish we had known when we got started in the MPA field
By Sibylle Riedmiller and Eleanor Carter
When Chumbe Island MPA was first conceived in the early 1990s we could never have foreseen the kind of struggles we were going to encounter. Having such an original approach, with Chumbe being the first privately managed MPA in the world, we understood that it wasn’t going to be easy. Building an ecolodge on a remote island, undertaking outreach, engaging and training community members to be conservation stewards, building capacity of former fishers to become environmental education specialists, introducing high-end hospitality skills into communities with little experience in this area — these were all challenges we expected and planned for.
MPA Science Corner: The Blue Paradox – Measuring coral connectivity among MPAs – Why vertical zoning might not protect the seabed – Reducing underwater noise
These recent articles on MPA-related science and policy are all free to access. Article: McDermott, G. R. et al. “The blue paradox: Preemptive overfishing in marine reserves.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1802862115 (2018) Finding: This study examines evidence of what the authors term the “blue paradox” – that fishers’ anticipation of an impending no-take marine reserve can trigger an unintended race to fish in the soon-to-be-closed area, leading to overextraction. Article: Lequeux, B. D., et al. “Coral connectivity between equatorial eastern Pacific marine protected areas: A biophysical modeling approach.” PLOS ONE 13, e0202995 (2018) Finding: Existing MPAs…
Notes & News: 30% target for MPAs – High seas negotiations – New Caledonia – Australia – Canada – Marine Conservation Planning Database – Poaching in MPAs – MPA News vault
UK environment secretary calls for 30% of world ocean in MPAs by 2030
On 24 September, UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove called for 30% of the world ocean to be protected by 2030. The goal echoes the 30%-by-2030 target set by IUCN members two years ago. But it is rare for a politician to champion the goal specifically, particularly as most nations are still working to meet the 10%-by-2020 target for MPA coverage under Aichi Target 11. Gove’s announcement was made in New York City to coincide with the current session of the United Nations General Assembly. A UK Government press release is here. A UN Environment news article on Gove’s call is here.
MPAs and ecosystem tipping points: What do managers need to know?
Scientists now recognize that ecosystems can sometimes undergo abrupt, dramatic changes in response to human use or environmental conditions. When a tipping point like this is crossed, we can witness upheaval in ecosystem structure and function and in ecosystem benefits to people. These tipping points can be hard to reverse due to feedbacks that reinforce the new state. The crossing of such tipping points – and the shift to a new ecosystem state – has been observed in a wide range of marine habitats, from kelp forests, to coral reefs, to open ocean systems and more. This includes inside some…
Perspective | The MPAs of Central America (last of three articles): Lessons learned from the past 20 years
By Carlos A. Espinosa, Néstor J. Windevoxhel, and Juan C. Villagran
Protected areas in Central America showcase the region’s magnificent landscape and tropical biodiversity – terrestrial and marine. They help maintain a sustainable supply of water, food, and other natural resources essential for all life in the region. And they provide Central America’s inhabitants a way to protect their own economy, welfare, and future.
IUCN moves to help countries apply marine protection: By clarifying its standards, global body hopes to inspire more ocean safeguards
By Angelo O’Connor Villagomez, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project senior officer
As more countries designate MPAs in their territories, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which for over 70 years has been the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to conserve it, has recently provided clarity to help countries more accurately report their MPAs to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA).
Perspective | New management concepts at one of the world’s oldest MPAs: Building financial sustainability for the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, The Bahamas
By Captain Joseph Ierna Jr.
It is time to challenge private and public sectors to direct funding resources to operate our protected areas. I am encouraged here at the ECLSP: we are on the forefront of setting standards in operating financially sustainable national parks, including eventually across The Bahamas’ national system of 32 sites. This is the future for protected areas.
MPA Training in a Nutshell: On building relationships with stakeholders
By Anne Nelson and the IMPACT team
Relationships built on trust between MPA management and stakeholders can strengthen community support for MPAs. By fostering such support, these relationships can help MPAs meet their management goals.
Ideally the relationships extend broadly through local communities, resource users, and MPA managers and related agencies. Building relationships early and consistently across these groups can be a relatively simple, productive, and positive experience. Here are useful strategies we’ve observed from managers:
Researchers, take note: P-values do not tell you what you probably think they do
Researchers rely on statistics in their work and p-values are a commonly used statistical tool, including in fisheries and marine conservation science (among many other fields). P-values are widely interpreted as a way to determine the probability that a null hypothesis is true or false. A p-value less than 0.05, for example, is often taken to mean an experiment’s findings are “significant” and the null hypothesis should therefore be assumed false. But that assumption is a fundamental misunderstanding of what p-values actually tell us. As data scientist Mike Hay points out in three recent blogs on OpenChannels.org (first, second, and…