French Polynesia (also known as the Islands of Tahiti) has served as home to the world’s largest marine sanctuary for 2 decades.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designed to conserve critical marine habitats, localized fauna, and highly migratory species such as turtles, whales, and sharks.
French Polynesian President Édouard Fritch recently committed to conserving 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) of the ocean by creating a new large-scale marine protected area and establishing artisanal fishing zones around each of its 118 islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
Going Big in the Pacific Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas in the Pacific Ocean
The definition of large-scale marine protected areas in the Pacific Ocean is fundamental to the achievement of global marine conservation targets. The threatened nature of the global ocean is emphasised, the evolution of global spatial targets for marine conservation outlined and the implementation of large-scale marine protected areas in Australia and the Pacific Ocean more broadly is reviewed. The article concludes with some reflections on the efficacy of such mechanisms in the Pacific.
Status of Large Marine Protected Areas in the Pacific
Keep current on the expansion of large marine protected areas (MPA)in the Pacific. MPAtlas is a good source of information.