Marine Protected Areas are a powerful tool for global biodiversity conservation efforts, and a key component of multi-national initiatives including the Convention for Biological Diversity (Aichi Target 11), and the UN SDGs (Target 14.5). These global commitments to achieve 10% ocean protection by the year 2020 have helped drive MPA expansion in recent years, and are poised to be met. While such progress is good news, scientific evidence... [ view more ]
Marine Protected Areas are a powerful tool for global biodiversity conservation efforts, and a key component of multi-national initiatives including the Convention for Biological Diversity (Aichi Target 11), and the UN SDGs (Target 14.5). These global commitments to achieve 10% ocean protection by the year 2020 have helped drive MPA expansion in recent years, and are poised to be met. While such progress is good news, scientific evidence suggests that a much larger percent of the ocean needs to be protected in order to achieve desired conservation outcomes (O’Leary et al. 2016). There is increasing concern that the focus on quantity of MPAs may dilute their quality, and already many existing MPAs lack sufficient conservation ambition, capacity, and funding (Gill et al. 2017). Multiple efforts have outlined evidence-based criteria for what constitutes a “quality” MPA (e.g. Edgar et al. 2015), including a March 2016 assembly of international scientists in Rome, Italy. That conference produced a robust scientific consensus on MPAs that included science, governance, and funding requirements for effective MPAs. Given that many current MPAs fall short, challenges for the scientific and conservation communities include 1) incorporating latest scientific findings on resilience of MPAs to global and local stressors; 2) strengthening protection levels and effective implementation of new and existing MPAs, and 3) identifiying best-fit locations for MPA expansion. Our proposed symposium will focus on these questions, and explore how using the best available science can improve the distribution, governance, financial strategies, and effectiveness of MPAs around the world.
[
view less ]
