Toropova, C., Meliane, I., Laffoley, D., Matthews, E. and Spalding, M. (eds.) 2010. Ocean Protection: Present Status and Future Possibilities. Brest, France: Agence des aires marines protégées, Gland, Switzerland, Washington, DC and New York, USA: IUCN WCPA, Cambridge, UK : UNEP-WCMC, Arlington, USA: TNC, Tokyo, Japan: UNU, New York, USA: WCS.
This report provides some background to the benefits and challenges of marine protected area (MPA) strategies before presenting a summary of global progress towards the 10% challenge set by countries party to the CBD in 2006. The results, which came from data held in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) showed that 1.17% of the global ocean was ‘protected’ in 2010
The second section of the report reviews global targets at a regional scale. Chapter 4 covers the South Pacific and presents results from Govan (2009). On average, between 3 and 4% of territorial seas were protected in the region, with Fiji and New Caledonia reaching 10% and 24% protection respectively. Marine managed area coverage represented under 0.2% of the combined national EEZs, and only Fiji (0.8%) and New Caledonia (0.9%) were within reach of the global average of 1.5% of EEZ protected (Govan et al. 2009)
The final chapter tackles the issue of enhancing MPA effectiveness which includes moving from isolated MPAs to MPA systems or networks. There is a section discussing the Micronesia Challenge which is described as precedent setting and the Coral Triangle Initiative.
