Latest MPA News Articles

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.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the world, MPA News continues to compile resources that may be of value to our readers. Here is our latest batch:

The lockdown seriously impacted Mediterranean MPAs: Results of survey (MedPAN) – MedPAN’s survey of 35 practitioners found reductions in tourism and fishing at MPAs across the Mediterranean, as well as several other impacts.

Brief videos by World Heritage site managers on how their sites are coping with the COVID-19 crisis (UNESCO) – These videos include testimonials from four marine sites: Banc d’Arguin National Park (Mauritania), Komodo National Park (Indonesia), Sundarbans National Park (India), and Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park (Philippines).

Managing Buccoo Reef Marine Park (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday) – During the temporary closure of Buccoo Reef Marine Park amid the pandemic, Tobago policymakers used the downtime to institute a new user policy and permit system with the goal of transforming the MPA from ineffective to effective.

And more....

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?

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.

Canada joins Global Ocean Alliance, advocating 30% ocean protection by 2030

In early July, Canada became the 22^nd nation to join the Global Ocean Alliance, a group of countries in favor of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Current MPA coverage of Canada’s waters is 13.8%. Globally, the World Database on Protected Areas calculates 7.4% of the world ocean is under some protection.

Members of the Global Ocean Alliance support setting a worldwide ‘30x30’ target next year under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Started by the UK in 2019, the alliance now includes Belgium, Belize, Cabo Verde, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Monaco, Nigeria, Palau, Portugal, Senegal, Seychelles, Sweden, the UK, and Vanuatu.

A recent study by over 100 economists and scientists concluded that the economic benefits of protecting 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030 would outweigh the costs by a ratio of 5-to-1. Media coverage of the study is here, here, and here.

Last month, MPA News featured first-hand accounts from ten MPA practitioners worldwide on how the COVID-19 pandemic was already impacting their MPAs – from steep declines in tourism, to cuts in budgets and staffing, to increased poaching at some sites. The likelihood of a lasting global financial crisis, and uncertainties about the directions COVID-19 will take, threaten to prolong these and other challenges for the foreseeable future. If the MPA field does not prepare and adapt, it risks losing gains in protection that have been made to this point.

This month, we continue our coverage of the pandemic and financial crisis:

1. Insights from Markus Knigge of Blue Action Fund on how the financial crisis could impact grants to MPAs
2. Highlights from a June panel on MPAs and COVID-19, moderated by MPA News
3. A list of additional resources, including guidance and grants

Blue Action Fund supports the work of NGOs to conserve oceans and coastlines in the developing world, including via MPAs. Based in Germany, the Fund is a private foundation that receives its funding from the national governments of Germany, Sweden, and France. Its relatively unique position – with one foot in the foundation world, and one in the government world – gives it a valuable vantage point on trends in the philanthropic sector.

MPA News asked Markus Knigge, executive director of Blue Action Fund, for his views on how the coming financial crisis could impact grant funding for MPAs.

On 2 June 2020, MPA News moderated an online panel discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 and the financial crisis on marine protection. The panel was part of a global, week-long, online conference for ocean action – the Virtual Ocean Dialogues, hosted by the World Economic Forum and Friends of Ocean Action.

The panel featured:

• Nirmal Shah, Chief Executive of Nature Seychelles, an NGO that manages the Cousin Island Special Reserve, an MPA;
• Marina Gomei, Regional Projects Manager for WWF’s Mediterranean Marine Initiative; and
• Susanna Fuller, Vice President (Operations and Projects) for Oceans North, an NGO that supports marine conservation in Arctic and Atlantic Canada in partnership with Indigenous and coastal communities.

MPA News has excerpted the panelists’ remarks here. Edits have been made for length and clarity.

COVID‐19 and protected and conserved areas, PARKS, May 2020. Co-authored by 35 protected area practitioners, this essay suggests three potential scenarios for how the pandemic will impact protected areas and their role in society’s recovery:

1. A return to normal;
2. A global economic depression and decline in conservation; or
3. A new and transformative relationship with nature – “the only sustainable pathway,” write the authors.

By John Bohorquez

Sometimes you can find insight in surprising places. As a graduate student who studies marine conservation and protected areas, I admit I found myself asking after the murder of George Floyd, “How could my work possibly be more useless right now?” It’s difficult to stay focused when there are so many other issues afflicting the world. Even this year’s World Oceans Week often felt like an afterthought. 

But as this historic moment has developed, I have begun to see some parallels between my research in marine conservation and what disadvantaged communities in the US are protesting against just outside my door. How policing is conducted and how police are held accountable in each of these settings affects the wellbeing of all.