Participants at the fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) welcomed other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) as a tool for establishing conservation structures alongside marine protected areas (MPAs) that empower Indigenous leadership and governance.
Meeting participants exchanged perspectives on areas of relevance to regional coordination and cooperation, including other effective area-based conservation measures, marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and addressing marine litter.
Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) represent unique opportunities to help achieve the 2030 biodiversity conservation agenda. However, potential misuse by governments and economic sectors could compromise the outcome of these conservation efforts. Here, we propose three ways to ensure that the application of OECMs toward meeting biodiversity targets provide benefits for both people and nature.
This site-level assessment tool enables users to determine if an individual site qualifies as an ‘other effective area-based conservation measure’ (OECM) by assessing it against the CBD definition and criteria (CBD decision 14/8) and IUCN guidance. The tool is an annex to the IUCN-WCPA Technical Report on OECMs which includes definitions and explanations of how the CBD criteria are linked to the criteria in this tool.