Designing Protected Areas and Networks

The KBA Standard is formally taken to include definitions, the criteria and thresholds, and delineation procedures. It can be used by national constituencies to identify sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity in terrestrial, inland water and marine environments. It is important that this Standard remains stable for a period of time to enable comparisons of sites qualifying as KBAs in different regions and over time. It is recognised, however, that the criteria and thresholds may need revision in the future as experience accumulates in their application and technological advances improve our measurement and understanding of biodiversity. 

A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

This report outlines the process undertaken to define and describe the special, unique marine areas of Fiji. These special, unique marine areas provide an important input to decisions about, for example, permits, licences, EIAs and where to place different types of marine protected areas, locally managed marine areas and Community Conservation Areas in Fiji.

Full Report (Pdf)

Gombos, M., Atkinson, S., Green, A., & Flower, K. (Eds.). 2013. Designing Effective Locally Managed Areas in Tropical Marine Environments: A Facilitator’s Guide to Help Sustain Community Benefits Through Management for Fisheries, Ecosystems, Climate Change. Jakarta, Indonesia: USAID Coral Triangle Support Partnership. 

This guide was developed to help improve the design of Locally Managed Areas (LMAs) in the Coral Triangle region. 

Green, A., White, A., Kilarski, S. (Eds.) 2013. Designing Marine Protected Area Networks to Achieve Fisheries Biodiversity and Climate Change Objectives in Tropical Ecosystems: A Practitioners Guide. The Nature Conservancy, and the USAID Coral Triangle Support Partnership, Cebu City, Philippines.

This guide provides a set of biophysical principles to help practitioners design networks of marine protected areas to achieve fisheries sustainability, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change.

 Here we undertake a cost-effective approach to protected area planning in Guyana that accounts for in-country conditions. To do this we conducted a stakeholder-led spatial conservation prioritisation based on meeting targets for 17 vegetation types and 329 vertebrate species, while minimising opportunity costs for forestry, mining, agriculture and urbanisation. Our analysis identifies 3 million ha of priority areas for conservation, helping inform government plans to double the current protected area network from 8.5 to 17%. As part of this, we also develop a new technique to prioritise engagement with local communities whose lands are identified as important to conservation.

This study identifies the importance of: acquiring robust baseline data, being fully protected (no-take), using ecosystembased management, community inclusion, and of adopting an ecologically connected network approach. These features are needed for large marine reserves to maximize achieving both ecological and socioeconomic goals, with particular attention to engagement of local communities. This study opens the possibility of refining and adapting the criteria developed through the PIMR case study as starting point for other Large- Scale MPAs, as their global expansion could benefit from comparative analysis. It also acknowledges the importance of having comparative design and management guides, contributing towards globally recognized standards for large-scale MPAs.

Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs) Special places in the world’s oceans (Western South Pacific)

IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN-WCPA). 2008. Establishing Resilient Marine Protected Area Networks - Making it Happen. Washington, D.C.: IUCN-WCPA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy.

This guide provides essential information to better understand the role of marine protected area (MPA) networks to achieve marine conservation. It utilizes current scientific knowledge, institutional experience and global case-studies to present the most relevant lessons in building resilient and functional networks.

Roberts, C.M. and J.P. Hawkins. 2000. Fully-Protected Marine Reserves: a Guide. WWF Endangered Seas Campaign, Washington, DC 20037, USA and Environment Department, University of York, York, UK.

This document is divided into a number of chapters, each answering a fundamental question about no-take marine protected areas (MPAs). Thirteen case studies are also presented. Although none are from the Pacific Islands, one is from New Zealand and several are from Tasmania. The scientific information provided in this guide could be adapted for presentation to communities when working to develop fully protected areas.

Kelleher, G. and Kenchington, R. 1992. Guidelines for Establishing Marine Protected Areas. A Marine Conservation and Development Report. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland

This text offers authoritative advice on the present day planning, policies and practices for marine protected areas.

The Guidelines are intended primarily to help nations and states to establish national representative systems of marine protected areas as a vital component of the integrated management of their coastal and marine areas. The main text is supplemented by detailed appendices to assist in the planning of a system and of individual marine protected areas.

Different perspectives to best manage the Pacific Ocean in the interests of all who live there.

Hilborn, R. (2016). Marine biodiversity needs more than protection. Nature, 535(7611), 224-226. http://www.nature.com/news/policy-marine-biodiversity-needs-more-than-protection-1.20229

Charles et al. (2016). Fishing livelihoods as key to marine protected areas: insights from the World Parks Congress. Aquatic Conservation. 26, S2. 165-184 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.2648/full

During the planning phase the efficacy of different strategies to manage marine resources should ultimately be assessed by their potential impact, or ability to make a difference to ecological and social outcomes. While community-based and systematic approaches to establishing marine protected areas have their strengths and weaknesses, comparisons of their effectiveness often fail to explicitly address potential impact. Here, we predict conservation impact to compare recently implemented community-based marine reserves in Tonga to a systematic configuration specifically aimed at maximizing impact. Boosted regression tree outputs indicated that fishing pressure accounted for ∼24% of variation in target species biomass.

Sale,P.F., Lavieren, H.V., Ablan Lagman, M.C., Atema, J., Butler, M., Fauvelot, C., Hogan, J.D., Jones, G.P, Lindeman, K.C., Paris, C.B., Steneck, R., Stewart, H.L. 2010. Preserving Reef Connectivity: A Handbook for Marine Protected Area Managers. Connectivity Working Group, Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management Program, UNU-INWEH.

This report is the outcome of a review commissioned by the Protected Areas Learning and Research Collaboration (PALRC) in 2018, with the following aims: • Review the range of current models for short courses that meet protected area agency, Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) and non-government organisation land managers’ needs • Assess the potential for PALRC partners to adapt and/or develop new short courses that meet these needs

The Legal Aspects of Connectivity Conservation

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans. 2007. The Science of Marine Reserves. 2nd Edition, International Version

The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans has developed a great booklet that presents scientific information in a format that could be presented or adapted for communities.

Simplified scientific information is presented on the effects of marine reserves inside and beyond their borders with case study examples.

There are is useful guidance for reserve design (individual reserves and networks) with consideration for the human dimensions.

This paper reviews the value of, especially, no-take marine protected areas (MPAs), specifically for protecting offshore areas. It describes open ocean habitats and explores the question of whether offshore MPAs can be effective in helping to ensure the future of the open ocean’s pelagic and benthic habitats and species including large, wide-ranging and migratory fauna that inhabit all depths of the ocean. 

Full paper (Pdf)