The Importance Of Conversation Before Conservation

Last week Obama announced that he would use his executive authority as US president to designate up to 2 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean as a marine protected area. The move to further protect the diverse habitats of the tropical Pacific represents a big step forward in ocean conservation and highlights America’s increasing awareness of the value of the marine environment. If the full area is designated, it would make the reserve the world’s largest, a record currently held by the 1.4 km² reserve in New Caledonia.

What could cut the area covered by the reserve is the competing needs of other stakeholders in the environment – fishers whose livelihood is dependant on local fish stocks, the shipping industry that traverses the area when moving from one port to the next and the tourism industry that is so tightly tied to this environment. Careful consultation over the coming months will determine which regions are protected and to what level other activities are restricted in the reserve.

While this discussion has yet to take place in the US, over on the other side of the pond, the conversation is very much underway as the UK prepares create its ssecond suite of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs). The zones are a type of marine protected area that takes not just environmental issues, but also commercial interests into account. Last autumn, 27 sites were designated, the start of what will be a coherent network of protected areas that, once established, will cover one quarter of English waters.

Despite the government’s aims to take both sides into account though, these sites have come under fire from both industry and environmental organisations. Criticism from industry stems from concerns over the harm the zones could cause to business and leisure activities, and environmental concerns due to the gaps in the level and types of biodiversity covered in the current MCZ network.

Part of the problem, highlighted in the latest marine protected areas report from the House of Commons, is that the way in which they are going to be managed is still unclear. And without knowing how a MCZ will affect their activities, stakeholders are unable to form an informed opinion on their establishment. For example, when describing a potential MCZ on the Isle of White, the Royal Yachting Association said that “being a marine conservation zone would probably be a wonderful thing provided you are not prohibited from anchoring in it, because that is part of the reason for going there.”

So, it is important not just to find out the needs of the stakeholders when putting an area forward for protection, but also to communicate how those needs will be met. There are two sides to the conversation, and while the UK government has been successful in soliciting stakeholder responses, in terms of outlining management measures, their side of the conversation has fallen short.

The Blue Marine Foundation, quoted in the report, couldn’t summarise the situation better: “regulation on its own does not make for a successful marine protected area.” To reassure stakeholders, the House of Commons has requested that management plans are in place for existing MCZs by November 2014, the anniversary of their establishment. Further, the report calls for provisional plans for how the next suite of conservation zones will be managed to be in place before stakeholder discussions open next year. Absence of this information could undermine commercial confidence in MCZs as a means of safeguarding marine habitats and their inhabitants for the future.

Conservation is a collaborative process, requiring open and constructive discussion between those who have a stake in the environment and those who put the plans in place to protect them. The Commons have spoken; the next few months will reveal the government’s response.What’s behind the delay is unclear, but the budget cuts that organisations like the Marine Management Organisation are facing may well be making such decisions more difficult. Managing a multitude of marine protected areas has the potential to become a costly process, as they need to be monitored, maintained and policed. To combat this, the report recommends a combined approach: using voluntary management where it won’t undermine the objectives of the MCZ and regulation that can be enforced where necessary. Having stakeholders on board is vital to the success of any conservation area, and continuing stakeholder involvement into the management process may well be an effective way to make sure MCZs meet their goals.

The report also highlighted that the facts about Marine Conservation Zones weren’t being communicated well enough. So readers, what would you like to know? Share your curiosity in the comments thread and I’ll do my best to shed light on the subject.

Reference

House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, Marine protected areas First Report of Session 2014-15 (21 June 2014)

Images

1) European eel. Credit: Ron Offermans via Wikimedia Commons

2) Stalked Jellyfish. Credit: Minette Layne via Wikimedia Commons

3) Grey seal. Credit: Andreas Trepte via Natural History Museum