MPA News
Perspective | The Commonwealth Blue Charter: From zero to fifty-three in less than a year
By Jeff Ardron
One unseasonably warm April afternoon this year in London, I sat in a packed media center watching five foreign ministers from Commonwealth countries explain why their governments were going to become ‘Commonwealth Blue Charter Champions.’ It was a pinch-me moment. One full day before fifty-three Commonwealth Heads of Government were due to adopt the Commonwealth Blue Charter, and already ministers were stepping forward to lead on it!
Perspective | The MPAs of Central America: An introductory view of their successes, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges (first of three articles)
By Carlos A. Espinosa
The colors and warmth of the tropics make Central America unforgettable. These rich, vibrant coastal landscapes have inspired marine scientists, foreign visitors, and local inhabitants alike in their efforts to protect and conserve the most pristine marine zones throughout the region, on both the Pacific and Caribbean sides.
MPA Science Corner: MPA trade-offs – Addressing criticisms of large-scale MPAs – Curbing threats
These recent articles or preprints on MPA-related science and policy are all free to access. Article: Davies, T. E. et al. “Assessing trade-offs in large marine protected areas.” PLOS ONE 13, e0195760 (2018) Finding: Although the ideal for MPAs is that they provide beneficial outcomes for people and the environment, the reality is that there are often trade-offs. In this study of the outcomes of 12 large MPAs, the authors found evidence of three types of trade-offs: (1) between different ecological resources (supply trade-offs); (2) between ecological resource conditions and the well-being of resource users (supply-demand trade-offs); and (3) between…
Notes & News: Global warming and MPAs – Thailand – Innovative financing – Sport and biodiversity – Business and biodiversity – Caribbean MPAs – Ocean Awards – MPA News vault
Study: Due to global warming, today’s MPAs could be uninhabitable to most of their current species by year 2100 A new study provides a grim forecast of what could happen to ecosystems and species inside current MPAs as a result of global warming. Assuming the global continuation of “business-as-usual” emissions of greenhouse gases (i.e., no new control measures), the resulting warming and reduced oxygen concentration would make today’s MPAs uninhabitable by 2100 to most species now in those areas. Even worse, many MPAs in the tropics would become uninhabitable to their current species as soon as 2050. The main takeaway:…
Challenges, successes, and lessons from building effective MPA manager networks: Part II – The regional networks
When each of us faces a challenge in life, our first reaction is often to ask a trusted friend or colleague, “Have you also faced this? If so, how did you handle it?” It’s the same in MPA planning and management. Practitioners face a common set of challenges – enforcement, engaging stakeholders, monitoring, fundraising, and more – and an array of solutions have been developed at sites worldwide. It benefits all practitioners for these solutions and other MPA knowledge to be shared widely. For that reason, the value of MPA manager networks* is substantial. Whether at the national, regional, or…
Perspective: Key lessons learned on public participation from the process to rezone the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
By Jon Day
The Representative Areas Program (RAP), which rezoned the entire Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in a single planning initiative, was at the time the most comprehensive process of community involvement and participatory planning for any environmental issue in Australia. The outcome was that one-third of the Marine Park was declared as highly protected no-take zones in 2004, with the remainder of the park also zoned to provide various levels of protection.
Many of the lessons learned from RAP remain relevant today. The following 25 lessons are excerpted from a paper published in Coastal Management journal in December 2017, “Effective public participation is fundamental for marine conservation – lessons from a large scale MPA”. The paper is available for free here. More detail on each of the lessons is in the paper.
Seychelles, Brazil, and Chile announce significant new MPA designations
February and March were busy months for announcing large new MPAs. Seychelles, Brazil, and Chile all reported significant new sites.
Australian government moves to reopen large areas of national marine park system to fishing
In a move that has been in the making for the past five years, the Australian government formally announced its plans in March 2018 to scale back protections for the nation’s system of marine parks. Overall, 80% of Australia’s marine park waters will now be open to commercial fishing, up from 63% under the system’s original design. And 97% of Commonwealth waters within 100 km of the coast will be open to recreational fishing. The new management plans are slated to take effect 1 July 2018. A media release on the plans is here. The new plans are here. Most…
Blue Solution: Applying studies of larval connectivity to support MPA planning and governance
By Rene A. Abesamis, Silliman University – Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management
Knowing how far the larvae of fish species disperse can be invaluable to designing effective networks of MPAs. But in a developing nation like the Philippines, where over 1000 community-managed MPAs have been established over the past two decades, such science is often not available, particularly at the community level. So planners have often made educated guesses when planning their MPAs, based on traditional knowledge and what science could be accessed.
MPA Science Corner: Beneficial fish traits in MPAs – Representation and connectivity – Studying very large MPAs
These recent articles or preprints on MPA-related science and policy are all free to access.