Marine Protected Area Management

Abstract

Globally, the protection of marine areas has been a comparatively recent initiative compared with the use of protected areas for terrestrial conservation and resource management. Oceans cover 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface and contain 97 per cent of the Earth’s water. They drive climate and weather, regulate temperature, generate much of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorb much of the carbon dioxide, and replenish freshwater to both land and sea through the formation of clouds. Oceans make up more than 90 per cent of the planet’s biologically useful habitat and contain most of the life on Earth, including nearly all of the major groups of animals, plants and microbes. This watery living system is critical to how our world works. Oceans supply food, provide leisure opportunities and generate billions of dollars for national economies. In recent decades, considerable efforts have been directed worldwide to establishing marine protected areas (MPAs). There has been a growing understanding that far more needs to be done to adequately manage our use of coasts, seas and oceans in order to ensure environmental and economic sustainability. There is an emerging realisation that effective marine protection requires us to identify and protect representative examples of marine habitats, rather than trying to protect specific threatened species or special or scenic areas (Day and Roff 2000). To be effective in protecting marine biodiversity, this approach needs to be applied in offshore waters and the open sea, as well as in near-shore and coastal areas. In this chapter, we outline the progress in establishing marine protected areas across the world’s oceans, consider the various types of marine protected areas and their benefits, and describe key aspects of their governance and management