Search:
You are here: Home › Resources › Publications & Reports ›
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) is working on a Representative Areas Program to enhance protection of the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). This Program is part of Australia’s national Representative Areas Program and builds on previous work conducted at the Authority and with stakeholders from 1996 to 1998. This document outlines the significant and unique qualities of the GBRWHA and the importance of maintaining the biological diversity it contains. The steps involved with the Representative Areas Program are described. Answers to some commonly asked questions are also included. Most importantly this document outlines an approach to ensuring that views are heard in regard to the planning of representative areas—areas important for all our futures.
This is a revision to the 1992 Management Plan. It is a result of 15 months of work by the Central Group, involving a large number of meetings, workshops and fishing summits, finally culminating in a high degree of consensus and co-operation over the management of the marine reserve. The plan covers the aims and objectives of the plan, the legal framework of the management of the reserve, the management principles for the reserve, a description of the uses of the reserve area, an overview of the marine reserve administration and management, the zoning of the reserve, the regulations for the reserve and the different programs in place.
This paper explores the status of commercial marine fisheries in the US, the reasons for its decline and potential solutions to the problem. It places emphasis on the excess competition and poor management in today’s fisheries, the tens of thousands of jobs at stake, the impact on the economies of coastal communities and the risk being placed on valuable natural and cultural heritage. The paper discusses the potential effects of pursuing conservative policies, alleging there to be scope for the current catches to be more than doubled and depleted fish populations to be rebuilt. It states that increasing annual catches to long-term sustainable levels could add at least $1.3 billion to the U.S. economy, potentially restoring and creating tens of thousands of family wage jobs and substantially boosting local and regional fishing economies.
This paper explores the wide-spread use of consensus-based approaches to environmental decision-making which are used in an attempt to enhance public participation in conservation and to facilitate the potentially incompatible goals of environmental protection and economic growth. The authors submit that while such approaches may produce positive results in immediate spatial and temporal contexts and under some form of governance, their overuse has potentially dangerous implications for conservation within many democratic societies. They go on to suggest that such approaches can lead to the dilution of socially powerful conservation metaphors and legitimise current power relationships rooted in unsustainable social constructions of reality. They suggest an argumentative model of environmental decision-making rooted in ecology will facilitate progressive environmental policy by placing the environmental agenda on firmer epistemological ground and legitimising challenges to current power hegemonies that dictate unsustainable practices.
This report is a study of six separate and distinct efforts to designate MPAs in the United States. Based on the assumption that within their unique details lie lessons that can be broadly applied to other efforts, the authors selected case studies to represent diverse geographic areas and a spectrum of social, political, and ecological complexity. The authors submit that their assumption was correct. Through review of the written record and numerous interviews with those intimately involved in and affected by the six MPA designation processes, the authors found patterns that formed the basis for important, broadly applicable lessons.
Full title: Technical advice on the establishment and management of a national system of marine and coastal protected areas - Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Marine and Coastal Protected Areas. This document provides technical advice on the establishment and management of MCPAs and networks of MCPAs. The document contains the key relevant information that is needed to make MCPAs function at the national level. The document is a result of a forum in which researchers from around the world came together, reviewed the scientific knowledge base on MCPAs and their contribution to sustainable use, and provided advice on their establishment and management.
This short document discusses the importance of stakeholder involvement in the establishment and management of marine protected areas. The document briefly sets out ideas for involving stakeholders meaningfully in the process.
This report reviews 112 independent measurements of 80 reserves to assess how marine reserves actually affect the area they are intended to protect. The authors submit that their study shows that the higher average values of density, biomass, average organism size, and diversity inside reserves (relative to controls) reach mean levels within a short (1–3 y) period of time and that the values are subsequently consistent across reserves of all ages (up to 40 y). Therefore, biological responses inside marine reserves appear to develop quickly and last through time. They conclude that this result should facilitate use of marine reserves in the management of marine resources.
This report examines the concept of marine reserves. It explores and summarises some of the voluminous literature on marine reserves. Case studies of marine reserves on the West Coast of the United States receive particular emphasis.
This study acknowldges the vast array of other studies undertaken already on New Zealand’s marine environment. This study purports to take a different approach: by focusing on whole marine systems, or from a ‘systems thinking’ perspective, a broad assessment of strategic opportunities and risks has been able to be undertaken. The study emphasises the importance of involving the many people and groups with an interest in New Zealand’s seas and coastal resources, as we advance the sustainable management and development of the marine environment. It approaches the marine environment not only from a scientific perspective, but from a wider social, cultural and economic perspective. The report covers four key areas: the importance of the marine environment to New Zealand; the it is currently managed; the rights various stakeholders have; and the adequacy of our knowledge about the marine environment.
