Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas: guidelines for design and management

Abstract

In 2011, at Big Ocean’s third network business meeting, the original six member LSMPAs began conceptualising these Guidelines as a repository of their collective experience in designing and managing LSMPAs. The hope was that they would provide useful resources and tools for existing, new, and future LSMPAs. The development of the first draft of a manuscript commenced in 2012 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Republic of Korea. Big Ocean invited marine management professionals and international experts to contribute to the draft manuscript. In early 2013, the network established its partnership with IUCN and WCPA-Marine, which increased the momentum for the development of the manuscript. Shortly thereafter, Big Ocean was asked to help develop the IUCN WCPA LSMPA Task Force, and then became the network’s lead partner on this publication. The first publicly available consultative draft was reviewed in 2013 at the 3rd International Marine Protected Area Congress in Marseille, France. Two rounds of peer review followed, the second of which directly engaged members of IUCN’s WCPA Commission following the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 in Sydney, Australia. Intended to supplement and build upon the existing IUCN materials and MPA guidance cited throughout this document, the content for these Guidelines was extracted from four main sources: (1) shared experiences documented by Big Ocean members during the network’s first five business meetings, site-to-site exchange visits and other network events; (2) focus group interviews with senior managers, scientists and staff of member sites; (3) international partner and peer inputs, including contributions from hundreds of marine managers and conservation professionals, and (4) collaborations with key reviewers and subject matter experts. Relevant peer-reviewed and professional publications were also utilised.