A paper, published in Conservation Letters, assesses how existing recommendations for climate resilience are applied in real-world MPA management, using criteria from five key management components: objectives, assessments, design, monitoring, and management. The review evaluates 172 management plans for 555 MPAs across 52 countries.

The researchers found that MPA management plans contain many underlying scientific and management principles for promoting resilience to climate change, even when “climate change” or related terms are not specifically included: plans include long-term objectives (93.6%), threat-reduction strategies (99.4%), monitoring programs (97.7%), and adaptive management (93%). However, there is substantial variation in the degree to which plans explicitly incorporate climate change into their strategies, from not mentioning it at all (21.5%) to developing detailed climate change-specific action plans (20.9%), with most somewhere in between. In addition to identifying common gaps across management plans, the paper describes some provide practical examples of activities MPA managers are undertaking to address climate change.

To read the review in Science News  click here.

To read the paper in Conservation Letters click here.