More on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting coastal and marine tourism and usage
Editor’s note: In our last issue, The Skimmer heard from coastal and marine tourism operators and experts from around the world (including Indonesia, Brazil, the Mediterranean, and the US) about the diverse ways that the COVID-19 pandemic is currently affecting...
Funding MPAs by selling blue carbon credits: Practitioners from the first projects describe their experience so far
When MPA News reported on blue carbon back in 2016, it was still just a concept, discussed as a way that MPAs could help fight climate change. But now two MPA projects are implementing blue carbon strategies as a source of revenue – the first MPAs to do so. They are generating credits based on the tons of carbon their projects have captured and stored, then selling those credits to global buyers who want to offset their own carbon emissions.
This is a whole new way of monetizing MPAs. The timing is potentially good: the global market for carbon credits is expected to grow substantially as nations and other entities, like airlines, strive to meet various emission-reduction commitments. According to one of the projects selling blue carbon credits, the current demand for them may be as much as a thousand times greater than current supply.
Perspective | The Phoenix Islands Protected Area: The Greatest Ocean Conservation Story Ever Told
By Ambassador Teburoro Tito, Chairman of the PIPA Conservation Trust Fund Board
On 11 December 2018, Kiribati made history by being the first country to have its domestic marine conservation initiative recognized by the UN General Assembly as an exemplary model of international cooperation. What is so unique about the Phoenix Islands Protected Area to justify this special mention?
Perspective | The North Sea Stakeholders Agreement: Participative policy development in the Netherlands
By Ton IJlstra
Over the past 20 years, wind energy and MPAs have staked important spatial claims with regard to the Dutch North Sea – to the potential detriment of the Netherlands' commercial fishing industry. For this reason, the North Sea Foundation called in 2017 for an agreement among stakeholders that would preserve the country's North Sea ecosystem while enabling sustainable fisheries and the expansion of wind parks.