Perspective | Reflecting on marine territory: Seaflower MPA, the Raizal people, and the International Court of Justice
By Marion Howard, Elizabeth Taylor, and Fanny Howard
The San Andres Archipelago is a department of Colombia in the western Caribbean made up of three small inhabited islands and coral banks, atolls, and cays that comprise the largest open-ocean coral reefs in the Americas. Descendants of the first settlers, known as Raizal people, are defined as a national ethnic minority by Colombia and recognized as indigenous by the UN. Raizals descend from English settlers who started arriving in 1630 on the Seaflower (sister ship of the Mayflower), African slaves, and migrants from other Caribbean islands. They have a long sociocultural and economic history distinct from mainland Colombia. Besides having a different language, religion, and ethnicity, the archipelago's isolation meant that the people had a high level of self-determination for over 300 years, mostly controlling their natural resources and marine-based economy until the middle of the 20th century.
World Heritage Committee welcomes progress but keeps Great Barrier Reef on watchlist
At its annual meeting, which is ongoing as this issue of MPA News goes to press, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has unanimously voted to keep the Great Barrier Reef on its watchlist due to an array of challenges facing the protected area, including poor water...
Perspective | A new start to effectively managing fishing in English European Marine Sites?
By Jean-Luc Solandt, Senior Biodiversity Policy Officer, MCS, UK jean-luc.solandt@mcsuk.org Over 100 European Marine Sites (EMS) have been designated in the UK under EU laws since 1994, covering 7.6% of UK seas. Yet until recently, they have not been systematically...
Perspective | Improving MPA protection through crowdsourcing and compliance assistance: The EPIC 805 Project
By Gordon Hensley and Gale Filter
Morro Bay is a 9.3-km2 estuary along the central coast of the US state of California. It is protected by overlapping layers of local, state, and federal governance. Most of the bay is a State Marine Recreational Management Area under California law: all commercial fishing activities are prohibited, with the exception of shellfish farming in designated areas. A smaller portion of the bay is completely no-take, the Morro Bay State Marine Reserve. And the entire bay and its feeder creeks are overseen by a local/federal partnership under the National Estuary Program, which provides federal financial and technical assistance to address local conservation issues.