Two articles on the EAC and International targets

Marine protected Areas examined by EAC with stakeholders & NGOs

Environmental Audit Committee explore how effectively stakeholders have been engaged in the designation and implementation of the first two tranches of Marine Protected Areas. It will also explore what progress the Government has made towards achieving its goal of a Blue Belt around the Overseas Territories

• Watch Parliament TV: Marine Protected Areas Revisited
• Inquiry: Marine Protected Areas Revisited
• Environmental Audit Committee

Witnesses

Tuesday 10 January 2017, Wilson Room, Portcullis House

At 10.15am

• Rodney Anderson, Advisor, North Sea Marine Cluster
• Peter Barham, Chair, Seabed Users and Development Group
• Dale Rodmell, Assistant Chief Executive, National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations
• Emma Barton, Planning and Environmental Manager, The Royal Yachting Organisation

At 11.00am

• Catherine Wensink, Forum Manager and Senior Conservation Officer, UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum
• Charles Clover, Executive Director, BLUE Marine Foundation
• Thomas Hickey, Officer, Government Relations, Pew Trusts

International scientist conversation global 30% MPA target

CFood ‘Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been a central topic in fisheries news and policy in recent months. In November 2015 a paper by Jane Lubchenco and Kirsten Grorud-Colvert advocated for more “strongly protected” MPAs, and that a goal of 10% protection of coastal marine areas by 2020 suggested at the Convention on Biological Diversity was “too loosely defined”. (Discussed in more detail here by CFoodUW). More recently, President Obama created the largest ecologically protected area on the planet when he expanded a national marine monument in his native Hawaii to encompass more than half a million square miles. Perhaps most significantly, the IUCN World Conservation Congress passed (by a large margin) a motion to protect 30% of global oceans by 2030.

To consider this recent momentum towards greater MPA implementation, we collected responses (originally on an email chain) from an array of scientists & experts and summarized their main points below. The responses were framed around three questions:

• What is the utility of setting MPA targets? 
• Do MPAs need to be No Take Zones (NTZs)? 
• What is the utility and wisdom of creating large ocean MPAs?

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