by John Davis | Oct 28, 2016
Major international conferences like the World Conservation Congress in Hawai'i provide a high-profile opportunity to launch new publications. Several that debuted at the WCC are listed below:
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Protected Planet 2016: UNEP and IUCN’s latest global accounting of the progress of protected area designation finds that 4.1% of the global ocean is now in MPAs. That figure rises to 10.2% when considering just marine areas within national jurisdiction, without the high seas. Representativeness remains a challenge: only one-third of the world’s 232 marine ecoregions have at least 10% of their area protected. The report also illustrates how protected areas contribute to 15 of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as to targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The report is free.
by John Davis | Oct 28, 2016
Additional outcomes from the World Conservation Congress in September included:
- IUCN members passed a motion that asks states to advance the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This includes contributing to the ongoing UN negotiations to develop a legally binding instrument that, among other things, would establish a framework for high seas MPAs.
by John Davis | Oct 28, 2016
The IUCN World Conservation Congress wasn’t the only conference in September with significant implications for marine conservation. The ‘Our Ocean’ conference, hosted by the US Department of State on 15-16 September, elicited its own slate of commitments by nations’...
by John Davis | Oct 28, 2016
On 15 September, the UK Government announced progress on protecting four remote overseas UK territories:
- Pitcairn: The enormous and long-anticipated MPA around the Pitcairn Islands in the south Pacific is now formally designated. Covering 840,000 km2, or 99% of Pitcairn’s EEZ, the MPA is closed to all commercial extractive activity. Subsistence fishing by locals is still allowed. For background on this MPA and the campaign by Pitcairn islanders for its designation (dating back to 2013), see MPA News articles here, here and here. Additional information from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which supported the Pitcairners on their campaign, is here.
by John Davis | Oct 28, 2016
One year ago at the Our Ocean Conference in 2015, held in Valparaiso, Chile, the Chilean Government announced its plan to create a large no-take MPA around the Desventuradas Islands, about 900 km off the coast of the country. On 24 August this year, the Government...
