High-profile international commitments for ocean protection: Empty promises or meaningful progress?

Grorud-Colvert, Kirsten; Constant, Vanessa; Sullivan-Stack, Jenna; Dziedzic, Katherine E.; Hamilton, Sara L.; Randell, Zachary H.; Fulton‐Bennett, Heather K.; Meunier, Zechariah D.; Bachhuber, Silke; Rickborn, Alissa J.; Spiecker, Barbara; Lubchenco, Jane

doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2019.04.003

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Marine protected areas (MPAs) are conservation tools that are increasingly implemented, and many coastal nations have committed to placing a substantial fraction of their marine areas in MPAs (9,10). Although primarily designed to protect and recover marine biodiversity, MPAs also have implications for fisheries.…”

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confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: A global network of marine protected areas for food

Cabral

Bradley

Mayorga

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are conservation tools that are increasingly implemented, with growing national commitments for MPA expansion. Perhaps the greatest challenge to expanded use of MPAs is the perceived trade-off between protection and food production. Since MPAs can benefit both conservation and fisheries in areas experiencing overfishing and since overfishing is common in many coastal nations, we ask how MPAs can be designed specifically to improve fisheries yields. We assembled distribution, life history, and fisheries exploitation data for 1,338 commercially important stocks to derive an optimized network of MPAs globally. We show that strategically expanding the existing global MPA network to protect an additional 5% of the ocean could increase future catch by at least 20% via spillover, generating 9 to 12 million metric tons more food annually than in a business-as-usual world with no additional protection. Our results demonstrate how food provisioning can be a central driver of MPA design, offering a pathway to strategically conserve ocean areas while securing seafood for the future.

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confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: A global network of marine protected areas for food

Cabral

Bradley

Mayorga

et al. 2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Other examples of this style of “voluntary adaptive governance” include the Voluntary National Review process under the UN SDGs, and the Voluntary Commitments under the United Nations Our Ocean Conferences. In an evaluation of verifiable outcomes of voluntary commitments made at the Our Ocean Conferences from 2014 to 2017, Grorud-Colvert 86 found that one third of the announcements focused on marine protected areas, and that almost half of these promised actions were completed at the time of publication. These voluntary commitments cumulatively added up to over 5 million km² of protected area, encompassing 1.4% of the ocean, almost doubling the quantity of implemented marine protected areas world-wide 86 .…”

Section: Reconfiguring Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

A transition to sustainable ocean governance

et al. 2020

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Human wellbeing relies on the Biosphere, including natural resources provided by ocean ecosystems. As multiple demands and stressors threaten the ocean, transformative change in ocean governance is required to maintain the contributions of the ocean to people. Here we illustrate how transition theory can be applied to ocean governance. We demonstrate how current economic and social systems can adapt to existing pressures and shift towards ocean stewardship through incorporation of niche innovations within and across economic sectors and stakeholder communities. These novel approaches support an emergent but purposeful transition and suggest a clear path to a thriving and vibrant relationship between humans and the ocean. Oceans provide important natural resources, but the management and governance of the ocean is complex and the ecosystem is suffering as a result. The authors discuss current barriers to sustainable ocean governance and suggest pathways forward.

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“…Positive and measurable action toward meeting such targets has been made through commitments at global venues such as the Our Oceans Conferences, the UN General Assembly, the CBD Conference of the Parties, and the UN Ocean Conference. A recent study quantified the impact of MPA commitments made at the first four Our Ocean Conferences, showing that over five million km 2 , or 1.4% more of the ocean, is now in implemented MPAs as a result (Grorud-Colvert et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps in Protection of Important Ocean Areas: A Spatial Meta-Analysis of Ten Global Mapping Initiatives

Gownaris

Santora

Davis³

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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To safeguard biodiversity effectively, marine protected areas (MPAs) should be sited using the best available science. There are numerous ongoing United Nations and nongovernmental initiatives to map globally important marine areas. The criteria used by these initiatives vary, resulting in contradictions in the areas identified as important. Our analysis is the first to overlay these initiatives, quantify consensus, and conduct gap analyses at the global scale. We found that 55% of the ocean has been identified as important by one or more initiatives, and that individual areas have been identified by as many as seven overlapping initiatives. Using our overlay map and data on current MPA coverage, we highlight gaps in protection of important areas of the ocean. We considered any area identified by two to four initiatives to be of moderate consensus. Over 14% of the ocean fell under this category and most of this area (88%) is not yet protected. The largest concentrations of medium-consensus areas without protection were found in the Caribbean Sea, Madagascar and the southern tip of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Coral Triangle. Areas of high consensus (identified by five to seven initiatives) were almost always within MPAs, but their no-take status was often unreported. We found that nearly every marine province and nearly every exclusive economic zone contained area that has been identified as important but is not yet protected. Much of the identified area lies within contiguous stretches of >100,000 km 2 ; it is unrealistic to expect that all this area be protected. Nonetheless, our results on areas of consensus provide initial insight into opportunities for further ocean protection.

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High-profile international commitments for ocean protection: Empty promises or meaningful progress?

Cited by 24 publications

References 30 publications

RETRACTED: A global network of marine protected areas for food

RETRACTED: A global network of marine protected areas for food

A transition to sustainable ocean governance

Gaps in Protection of Important Ocean Areas: A Spatial Meta-Analysis of Ten Global Mapping Initiatives

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