by John Davis | Mar 15, 2002
By Brock Bernstein, National Fisheries Conservation Center
I know a fisherman who doesn't think marine reserves are needed. He's skeptical of their ability to improve fishery yields and says he just wishes they'd go away. In spite of that, he's willing to contribute his knowledge to help improve their design and lessen their immediate impacts on fishermen. But like many others who share both his point of view and his deep knowledge of the ocean, he has been frustrated by a welter of problems that leave fishermen feeling marginalized and even targeted as the movement toward marine reserves gains momentum.
by John Davis | Mar 15, 2002
Last month, MPA News printed two letters suggesting the IUCN definition of “marine protected area” was too loose to be truly useful (MPA News 3:7). These letters, in turn, prompted responses from individuals who were instrumental in the development of the...
by John Davis | Mar 15, 2002
Cocos Island update: Poacher fined, forfeits ship In a decision handed down by the supreme court of Costa Rica, the owners of an Ecuadorian longliner, caught in August 2001 fishing illegally in the country’s Cocos Island National Park (MPA News 3:4), have been...
by John Davis | Feb 15, 2002
The quality of water in a marine protected area plays a major role in the health of that site’s underwater ecosystems. MPAs near urban centers or agricultural lands can suffer from runoff of wastes, fertilizers, and other materials that degrade or otherwise...
by John Davis | Feb 15, 2002
Note from the editor: Peter Jones, author of the perspective piece below, is a lecturer in coastal and estuarine management at the University College London (UCL), UK. In recent conservation agency funded research, he and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of participatory planning processes for marine protected areas in the UK. Lessons drawn from these processes may be of general interest to MPA practitioners elsewhere, and reflect the importance of building trust and confidence among participating groups.
Jones adapted the piece below from a paper he co-wrote with Jacquie Burgess and Darren Bhattachary of the Environment and Society Research Unit, UCL ("An Evaluation of Approaches for Promoting Relevant Authority and Stakeholder Participation in European Marine Sites in the UK: Final Report to the UK Marine SACs Project", September 2001. E-mail p.j.jones@ucl.ac.uk for a summary of the report).
