Toward representative protection of the world's coasts and oceans—progress, gaps, and opportunities

Abstract

Marine conservation lags behind terrestrial in the establishment of protected areas. This was recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity, whose members, in 2004, agreed to establish "comprehensive, effectively managed, and ecologically representative" systems of marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2012. Halfway toward this target date, we look at the coverage of the world's 5045 MPAs from a biogeographic perspective. Only 4.09% of continental shelf areas are incorporated within MPAs, although coverage rises to 12.1% in a narrow coastal belt. Approximately half of all marine ecoregions have less than 1% MPA coverage across the shelf, but this is highly variable, and (8%) of ecoregions have >30% protection. Protection is greatest in the tropical realms, while temperate realms remain poorly represented. Given that that many sites lack effective management, even these low estimates of coverage are an optimistic measure of the extent of effective marine conservation.

An effective regional Marine Protected Area network for the ROPME Sea Area: Unrealistic vision or realistic possibility?

“…MPAs do however offer a starting point upon which stronger and more effective management may become established over time (Spalding et al, 2008). In some cases the simple step of enabling part of the ocean to be off limits, through for example NTRs, can reap tremendous benefits.…”

“…By 2006, there were 4435 MPAs protecting 2.35 million km 2 , equivalent to 0.65% of the global oceans or 1.63% of EEZs , which compared poorly to achievements in the terrestrial domain, where 104,791 protected areas covered 18.38 million km 2 , equivalent to 12% of the global land surface area (Chape et al, 2005). By 2008, there were 5045 MPAs, protecting a total of 2.59 million km 2 , equivalent to 0.72% of the global oceans or 1.80% of EEZs (Spalding et al, 2008). Global MPA coverage has now reached 4.21 million km 2 , with 5850 MPAs covering 1.17% of the global ocean surface or 2.86% of the EEZs (Spalding et al, 2010).…”

“…Networks or systems of MPAs are now widely recognised as a means of building resilience and supporting recovery in response to extreme 'pulse' impacts (McLeod and Salm, 2006;Spalding et al, 2008). MPA networks account for the transboundary nature of marine environments, and the connections between associated habitats and ecosystems.…”

Progress towards the CBD protected area management effectiveness targets

“…The World Database on Protected Areas -WDPA) and global frameworks of ecological regions and key areas for biodiversity (Olson et al, 2001, Eken et al, 2004. In terms of global protected area coverage, Parties have made significant progress towards achieving Target 1.1 for terrestrial biodiversity: over 50 per cent of terrestrial ecoregions have 10 per cent or more of their area within protected areas, although marine ecosystems are still severely under-represented (Spalding et al, 2008, Coad et al, 2009b.…”

“…WCED, 1987), and are used as indicators of progress in the protection of biological diversity by a number of international agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Analyses of progress towards Target 1.1 have to date tended to measure protected area coverage (Chape et al, 2005, Coad et al, 2008, Spalding et al, 2008, Coad et al, 2009a, Coad et al, 2009b, Jenkins and Joppa, 2009 and ecological representativeness (Rodrigues et al, 2004, Spalding et al, 2007, Schmitt et al, 2009, Herbert et al, 2010 facilitated by the availability of open-access global datasets on protected area locations (e.g. The World Database on Protected Areas -WDPA) and global frameworks of ecological regions and key areas for biodiversity (Olson et al, 2001, Eken et al, 2004.…”