Increasing effective partial protection approaches for tropical marine conservation

Establishing effective marine protected areas (MPAs) is a major goal of many marine conservation programs. For example, the CBD Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 commits governments to ‘effectively and equitably’ manage 10% of... [ view full abstract ]

Establishing effective marine protected areas (MPAs) is a major goal of many marine conservation programs. For example, the CBD Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 commits governments to ‘effectively and equitably’ manage 10% of global marine and coastal areas in MPAs by 2020, and the World Conservation Congress in September 2016 called for 30% of the oceans to be protected from extractive activities. While many tropical marine conservationists pursue no-take marine protection, in areas with large reef-dependent communities, extensive no-take zones are often incompatible with equitable management. Therefore, increasingly conservationists are implementing spatial and temporal partial protection, with dual aims of conserving reef biodiversity while allowing sustainable extractive fisheries. Approaches can include spatial gear restrictions, periodic harvest closures, and increased local ownership and management rights. However, the effectiveness of partial protection is still untested in many locations, with variable results depending on whether evaluation is framed around human livelihood or biodiversity gains. For partial protection to contribute ‘effectively and equitably' to global coral reef management, a holistic view is required, bringing together an understanding of maintaining reef biodiversity and crucial ecosystem functions, while allowing extractive human uses. In this symposium-framing talk we: (i) evaluate reef fish biomass responses to mixed-use MPAs in comparison to no-take zones and unprotected areas from a large global MPA dataset, (ii) use modelling approaches to estimate protection benefits from different partial protection methods, and (iii) identify key considerations to ensure partial protection approaches can have benefits for both biodiversity and local communities.