Advances and challenges in marine conservation in Chile: A regional and global comparison

1. Despite significant progress made in Chile, and globally, in establishing marine protected areas (MPAs), the actual contribution to marine biodiversity conservation needs to be revised, to focus on representativeness and the diversity of tools alongside effective implementation, management, and enforcement.
2. This study makes progress in this direction, describing the most recent advances in marine conservation in Chile and analysing the contribution of the different conservation instruments as well as the distribution of designated areas across ecoregions. Furthermore, it examines the potential contribution of alternative area-based instruments to balance ocean protection. The advances observed in Chile were compared among four South American countries and five leading countries in ocean conservation, analysing protection levels in coastal areas, continental exclusive economic zones, and overseas territories.
3. Data on MPA boundaries and attributes were sourced from the World Database on Protected Areas and complemented the official information on MPAs and territorial user rights for fisheries and for indigenous people in South America.
4. The current level of protection in Chile is among the highest in the world in area coverage and in the proportion of the continental exclusive economic zone assigned to fully protected areas. However, it exhibits the strongest imbalances in the distribution of designated MPAs between coastal and oceanic waters, in comparison with the leading countries and also within South America (Perú, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay), and among ecoregions.
5. The patterns observed suggest that Chile has advanced, but concentrated, conservation efforts in low-threat, remote ecoregions. There is an urgent need to progress towards high-threat ecoregions, which implies balancing the needs of nature and people. The distribution of ancillary conservation instruments can help double the level of protection in threatened coastal areas, filling gaps in marine conservation and creating an opportunity to progress and diversify conservation strategies.

     

Characterising reef fish populations and habitats within and outside the US Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument: a lesson in marine protected area design

Abstract  Marine protected areas are an important tool for management of marine ecosystems. Despite their utility, ecological design criteria are often not considered or feasible to implement when establishing protected areas. In 2001, the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument (VICRNM) in St John, US Virgin Islands was established by Executive Order. The VICRNM prohibits almost all extractive uses. Surveys of habitat and fishes inside and outside of the VICRNM were conducted in 2002–2004. Areas outside the VICRNM had significantly more hard corals, greater habitat complexity, and greater richness, abundance and biomass of reef fishes than areas within the VICRNM. The administrative process used to delineate the boundaries of the VICRNM did not include a robust ecological characterisation of the area. Because of reduced habitat complexity within the VICRNM, the enhancement of the marine ecosystem may not be fully realised or increases in economically important reef fishes may take longer to detect.     

Frameworks for marine conservation — non‐hierarchical approaches and distinctive habitats

• 1. Conservation efforts have traditionally been directed to ‘flagship’ species (whales, seals, migratory birds, etc.) that capture public attention. Often these flagship species occupy distinctive habitats. Distinctive habitats appear to be distinguished because of anomalous physical structures and unique oceanographic processes occurring within them, whereas representative habitats are not notable in this way. Distinctive habitats are found in areas of various physical anomalies described primarily by temperature, chlorophyll and topography.
• 2. Several different kinds of distinctive habitats can be defined by their anomalous physical structures and oceanographic and biological processes. Species diversity may be either higher or lower in distinctive than in representative habitats. Distinctive habitats predominantly belong to a class of environments called ‘ergoclines’, and are typically associated with elevated resources at some ‘trophic level’.
• 3. These elevated resources may be either the product of true production (i.e. they are generated (in situ), or they are the product of physical accumulation due to circulation mechanisms. These processes lie at the heart of the ecology of distinctive habitats, and are fundamental to maintenance of ecosystem health, ecological integrity, distributions, abundances and recruitment of species, patterns of animal migrations, and potential or actual fisheries yields.
• 4. Conservation strategies need to examine the relationships between distinctive and representative habitats and species diversity. A strategy, leading from studies on flagship or other focal species, could have several advantages. It should rejuvenate the inherent appeal and significance of ‘species’ approaches to marine conservation, provide a rationale for human interest and a new foundation for examination of marine ecological interactions. It would also require a novel synthesis of relationships between ‘species’ and ‘spaces’ approaches to marine conservation by asking how we can take the best advantage of both approaches, rather than seeing them as in conflict.

Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conservation of Rapa Nui waters strongly supported by publications in Aquatic Conservation

1. This paper describes how a series of papers published in Aquatic Conservation have had a clear impact on the conservation process run at Rapa Nui by the Chilean Government and the Rapanui community.
2. Exploratory expeditions set the scientific basis for the creation of Rapa Nui Multiple Use Marine Protected Area.
3. Past conservation initiatives lacked proper participative processes and were strongly resisted by the local communities.
4. Science transfer through capacity building was key for a local transformation towards embracing marine conservation objectives.
5. Publications showed the importance of participation, a good balance between political will and a local wish for protection of the sea, and the incorporation of a local worldview, for a successful conservation process.
6. Strong differences between the socio‐ecological systems in mainland Chile and that in Rapa Nui were recognized and helped to build a new conservation strategy for Rapa Nui between the Chilean Government and Rapanui community.
7. International experience exchanges also helped to develop the conservation process in Rapa Nui, and recent ecological studies will help future Marine Protected Area implementation.

     

Use of focal species in marine conservation and management: a review and critique

1. Focal species (i.e. indicators, keystones, umbrellas, and flagships) have been advocated for the management and conservation of natural environments. 2. The assumption has been that the presence or abundance of a focal species is a means to understanding the composition and/or state of the more complex community. 3. We review the characteristics of focal species, and evaluate their appropriateness and utility judged against conservation objectives. 4. It appears that indicator species (of both composition and condition) may be of greatest general utility, and that several types of focal species may exhibit useful indicator properties. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

National frameworks for marine conservation — a hierarchical geophysical approach

1. Development of environmental protected areas has been driven ‘more by opportunity than design, scenery rather than science’ (Hackman A. 1993. Preface. A protected areas gap analysis methodology: planning for the conservation of biodiversity. World Wildlife Fund Canada Discussion Paper; i–ii). If marine environments are to be protected from the adverse effects of human activities, then identification of types of marine habitats and delineation of their boundaries in a consistent classification is required. Without such a classification system, the extent and significance of representative or distinctive habitats cannot be recognized. Such recognition is a fundamental prerequisite to the determination of location and size of marine areas to be protected. 2. A hierarchical classification has been developed based on enduring/recurrent geophysical (oceanographic and physiographic) features of the marine environment, which identifies habitat types that reflect changes in biological composition. Important oceanographic features include temperature, stratification and exposure; physiographic features include bottom relief and substrate type. 3. Classifications based only on biological data are generally prohibited at larger scales, due to lack of information. Therefore, we are generally obliged to classify habitat types as surrogates for community types. The data necessary for this classification are available from mapped sources and from remote sensing. It is believed they can be used to identify representative and distinctive marine habitats supporting different communities, and will provide an ecological framework for marine conservation planning at the national level. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geophysical approaches to the classification,delineation and monitoring of marine habitats and their communities

• 1. If marine environments are to be systematically protected from the adverse effects of human activities, then identification of the types of marine habitats and the communities they contain, and delineation of their boundaries utilizing a consistent classification is required. Human impacts on defined communities can then be assessed, the ‘health’ of these communities can be monitored, and marine protected areas can be designated as appropriate.
• 2. Schemes to classify habitats at local and regional scales, according to their geophysical properties, may identify different factors as determinants, and/or use them in different sequences in a hierarchical classification. We examined the reasons for these differences in local and regional applications of a global concept, and argue that a common set of factors could be applied in a defined and defensible sequence to produce a common hierarchy of habitat types among geographic regions.
• 3. We show how simple mapping and GIS techniques, based on readily available data, can lead to the identification of representative habitat types over broad geographic regions. We applied a geophysical framework first to the entire Canadian coastline and second to the Scotian Shelf of Atlantic Canada to establish broad scale marine natural regions and ‘seascapes’, respectively. This ecosystem level approach — which defines representative habitat types — is a fundamental prerequisite for many purposes. It can form the basis for further analyses including: definition of community types from habitat — community relationships; evaluation of the potential roles of focal species in marine conservation; evaluation of candidate marine protected areas; definition of unaffected reference areas against which the effects of human activities can be gauged; guidance for water quality monitoring studies; management of marine resources.

Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Historic marine invertebrate species inventory: case study of a science baseline towards establishing a marine conservation area

• (1) Assessing species diversity is a basic requirement for conservation, and protecting biodiversity is a major goal of marine area conservation.
• (2) A case study is presented on the development of a literature‐based (1870s to 2000), museum collection‐based, georeferenced inventory of marine invertebrate species of the Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) region, Canada.
• (3) Database structure and quality assurance are described, along with including indigenous people's words for species towards using traditional knowledge within cooperative marine conservation area management.
• (4) The utility of this type of inventory is proposed as a starting point for gathering regional biodiversity knowledge, and facilitating addition of other knowledge types, towards marine area conservation.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Encouraging youth engagement in marine protected areas: A survey of best practices in Canada

相似文献   

Management effectiveness in marine protected areas for conservation of Antillean manatees on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula,Mexico

1. This study evaluated management effectiveness in three marine protected areas (MPAs) for conservation of the Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus Linnaeus 1758), located on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The MPAs evaluated were the Yum‐Balam Flora and Fauna Reserve, Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, and Chetumal Bay Manatee Sanctuary. The extent of the traditional, popular, and scientific manatee knowledge and research were assessed, as well as the prescribed conservation management actions, relevant stakeholders, and the degree of inclusion of manatee species in the management schemes of these MPAs.
2. Four general criteria, 12 specific criteria, and 62 indicators were developed. In total, 199 interviews were completed in seven communities of the MPAs in order to determine the perception of the social, economic, and conservation impacts of the manatee and its management.
3. Although the evaluated MPAs were not wholly comparable among themselves due to their different management categories and schemes, administration, socio‐economic context, and the dynamics and conflicts encountered, a comparison was conducted using standardized criteria and a categorical scale in order to evaluate the level of effectiveness of each MPA.
4. The MPA with the highest management effectiveness in manatee conservation was found to be the Chetumal Bay, with an effectiveness classed as good (71%), followed by Sian Ka'an with intermediate effectiveness (53%) and Yum‐Balam, also with intermediate effectiveness (43%).
5. The relationships between the key stakeholders of the three MPAs and economic activities such as fishing and tourism are the factors that most influence the effectiveness of management for manatee conservation.

     

Integrating ecosystem services into conservation strategies for freshwater and marine habitats: a review

相似文献   

Evidence of clandestine harvest and failure of conservation policies for Argopecten purpuratus in the Rinconada Marine Reserve (Chile)

相似文献   

Interactions between the implementation of marine protected areas and right-based fisheries management in Australia

Abstract  The declaration of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Australia generates much confusion and controversy between government conservation and fisheries agencies, the fishing industry and NGOs. There are fundamental differences between the principles and practices underpinning the implementation of MPAs and fisheries management. This paper analyses the interactions between these two approaches to natural resource management and highlights the difficulties in integrating them effectively. The major challenges for governments are: poor cooperation between fisheries and conservation agencies; in principle inconsistencies between allocation of fishing rights by fisheries agencies and loss of these rights through MPA declaration; re-allocation of resources between user groups through spatial zoning; lack of fisheries expertise in conservation planning, and inappropriate single-species/single-issue approach to fisheries management. As fisheries agencies are now considering developing their own MPAs as tools for fisheries management, the need to address inconsistencies between conservation and fisheries approaches to the spatial management of natural resources increases further. Better collaboration between government agencies and better coordination of their activities would help more effective and less conflicting management of marine resources.     

Science,capacity building and conservation knowledge: The empowerment of the local community for marine conservation in Rapa Nui

相似文献   

Surfing and marine conservation: Exploring surf‐break protection as IUCN protected area categories and other effective area‐based conservation measures

相似文献   

Combining information from benthic community analysis and social studies to establish no‐take zones within a multiple uses marine protected area

相似文献   

Sharks,rays and marine protected areas: A critical evaluation of current perspectives

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly advocated for the conservation and management of sharks and rays. However, substantial uncertainty remains regarding which species can benefit from MPAs. Meanwhile, area‐focused protection targets have spurred recent and rapid gains in the creation of large MPAs, many of which carry vague objectives set by a diverse group of stakeholders with potentially different notions of “success.” Here, we capture and critically evaluate current views on the use of MPAs for shark and ray conservation. Through interviews with scientists, MPA managers, fisheries experts, conservation practitioners, advocates and policy experts (n = 53), we demonstrate a variety of perspectives regarding: (a) the effectiveness of MPAs as a tool for shark and ray conservation; (b) which factors influence the success of MPAs for sharks and rays; and (c) the desired outcomes of these MPAs. While MPAs created specifically for sharks and rays were viewed to be slightly more effective than regular MPAs as a tool for shark and ray conservation, both were generally considered insufficient in isolation. Despite greater emphasis on social success factors (e.g., local support) over biophysical success factors (e.g., size), biological outcomes (e.g., increased abundance) were prioritized over social outcomes (e.g., livelihood benefits). We argue that a stronger focus on achieving social outcomes can enhance the potential for MPAs to benefit sharks and rays. In revealing current thinking regarding the drivers and indicators of MPA success for sharks and rays, the results of this study can inform efforts to conserve and manage these species.     

Evaluating the relative conservation value of fully and partially protected marine areas

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs), particularly of no‐take areas, is often viewed as a conflict between conservation and fishing. Partially protected areas (PPAs) that restrict some extractive uses are often regarded as a balance between biodiversity conservation and socio‐economic viability. Few attempts have been made to generalize the ecological effects of PPAs. We synthesized the results of empirical studies that compared PPAs to (i) no‐take reserves (NTRs) and (ii) to open access (Open) areas, to assess the potential benefits of different levels of protection for fish populations. Response to protection was examined in relation to MPA parameters and the exploitation status of fish. Our syntheses suggest that while PPAs significantly enhance density and biomass of fish relative to Open areas, NTRs yielded significantly higher biomass of fish within their boundaries relative to PPAs. The positive response to protection was primarily driven by target species. There was a large degree of variability in the magnitude of response to protection, although the size of the PPA explained some of this variability. The protection regime within the PPA provided useful insights into the effectiveness of partial MPAs. We conclude that MPAs with partial protection confer advantages, such as enhanced density and biomass of fish, compared to areas with no restrictions, although the strongest responses occurred for areas with total exclusion. Thus, MPAs with a combination of protection levels are a valuable spatial management tool particularly in areas where exclusion of all activities is not a socio‐economically and politically viable option.