MPA News
Notes & News
New guidebook: Planning alternative livelihoods in context of biodiversity conservation By adopting a focused strategy for small business development, conservation planners can help local communities participate actively in sustainable management of nearby ecosystems and biodiversity, according to a new publication from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Local Business for Global Biodiversity Conservation: Improving the Design of Small Business Development Strategies in Biodiversity Projects is a guidebook for planning viable, alternative livelihoods to reduce threats to local natural resources. “Although biodiversity-related small businesses are often proposed as tools for ensuring the sustainability of conservation interventions, evidence of this occurring is…
At World Parks Congress, Target Is Set for High-Seas MPAs: Five to Be Designated by 2008
At least five ecologically significant MPAs should be designated on the high seas by 2008, according to delegates to the World Parks Congress, a once-a-decade meeting of government officials, scientists, and conservationists held last month in Durban, South Africa. Delegates also called on the United Nations General Assembly to consider placing a moratorium on bottom trawling in certain high-seas areas – seamounts and cold-water coral reefs – until longer-term measures are in place to protect these sites. The IUCN-sponsored Congress traditionally sets an agenda for global protected area management. The above recommendations, agreed to by participants in marine-theme workshops at…
Revisiting a Capacity-Building Project for MPA Managers in the Western Indian Ocean
Many managers of marine protected areas have limited formal training in MPA management. In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO), for example, it is often the case that MPA managers have received their training at wildlife management colleges, with little instruction in marine issues. In August 2000, MPA News reported on a course offered in Kenya to train MPA managers in the WIO region, part of a project to build managerial capacity in MPAs (MPA News 2:2). The course, delivered a second time in 2002 and scheduled again in 2004, now features a comprehensive, up-to-date training manual, covering nearly every aspect…
Letter to the Editor
Editor’s note: The following letter is from Pierre Kleiber, a fishery biologist based in Honolulu, Hawai’i (USA). He writes in response to two articles that have recently appeared in MPA News: one on the decline in population of large oceanic predators (MPA News 4:11) and one on the use of biodiversity hotspots as a basis for open-ocean reserves for these predators (5:3). Both articles focused on research by Boris Worm of Kiel University (Germany) and Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University (Canada). Dear MPA News: It is questionable at this point in time whether reserves are necessary or desirable for predators…
Notes & News
Madagascar to designate three MPAs; Senegal designates four Coinciding with the World Parks Congress last month, leaders of Madagascar and Senegal announced designation efforts for new MPAs in their national waters. President Ravalomanana of Madagascar declared intent to increase his nation’s protected areas system – including forest, wetland, and marine ecosystems – from 17,000 km2 to 60,000 km2 within five years. Approximately 10,000 km2 of that total will be marine and wetland protected areas, expected to include three proposed MPAs: Nosy Hara archipelago; the littoral zone of Toliara (including the Great Reef, one of the region’s largest barrier reefs, and…
Biodiversity “Hotspots” Discovered for Large Ocean Predators; Can Serve as Basis for Open-Ocean MPAs, Say Researchers
Tunas, sharks, sea turtles, and other large oceanic predators concentrate in diversity “hotspots” much like those that exist on land, according to new research by a team of German and Canadian scientists. The distinct locations at which these hotspots occur – at intermediate latitudes close to habitat features like coral reefs, shelf breaks, and seamounts – could provide the basis for open-ocean marine reserves to protect threatened species, say the researchers. Boris Worm and Heike Lotze of Kiel University (Germany) and Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University (Canada) published their findings in the August 19, 2003, issue of the Proceedings of…
Special Feature: Innovation and MPAs in the Mediterranean Sea
BOX: The Mediterranean – A Semi-Enclosed Sea Rich in Biodiversity, Culture, and MPA Initiatives “The Mediterranean Sea is a place of paradox and surprises. Despite many people’s image of the area as being vastly overpopulated, with built up shorelines, polluted waters, and over-exploited resources, the Mediterranean is in actuality a thriving, diverse ecosystem upon which people of many different cultures depend….” Thus begins an essay by Tundi Agardy on the Mediterranean Sea and the promise it holds as a center for MPA-related conservation. Her essay is available on the MPA News website. As executive director of Sound Seas, a US-based…
MPA Perspective: The Diminishing Returns of MPA Science
Editor’s note: Jake Rice is director of the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. He manages the peer review and application of marine and fisheries science to policy formation and management decisionmaking. In this perspective piece, he expands on remarks he made at the May 2003 meeting of the Science and Management of Protected Areas Association (SAMPAA), held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. By Jake Rice, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada There is a common belief that good science, combined with enough consultation, will provide universal support for MPAs. Based on my experience linking…
Views on Adjustment Programs for Displaced Canadian Fishermen
Last month, MPA News reported on the development of alternative livelihoods for fishermen, particularly those displaced by closure of fishing grounds, either for fisheries management or as part of an MPA. We cited a CDN$4-billion (US$2.8-billion) effort by the Canadian government since 1992 to help communities in Atlantic Canada adjust to cod fishery closures, through a license buyout, early retirement, skills training, and other programs. The case focused on insights from the government agencies that provided these programs. Afterward, we spoke with other members of the community. Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, the leading…
Notes & News
MPAs a key part of draft regional marine plan for SE Australia Marine protected areas will play a key role in the coming regional marine plan for southeastern Australia, currently available in draft form and open for public comment until October 17, 2003. The plan, whose final version is scheduled for release this December, provides a broad framework for managing all ocean uses in a marine area of more than 2 million km2. It is the first step in a national effort to develop integrated management plans for each of Australia’s marine regions. The draft plan features several objectives in…