5 June 2007

With the click of a button, scientists and students from around the globe can now access extensive information on how different countries manage their marine protected areas.

The online resource contains over 375 conference papers and summaries from a range of the world’s leading marine experts who presented at the first International Marine Protected Areas Congress.

The event in Australia saw some 660 international marine experts from 78 countries share their experience and expertise in managing marine protected areas around the world.

Congress programme coordinator Jon Day, from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said the online resource was an invaluable reference on a range of topics about marine protected areas.

“This is an excellent resource of interest to scientists, researchers and university students around the world,” he said.

“It deals with a wide range of key management activities such as compliance, planning and monitoring as well as important issues like fisheries, Indigenous use and climate change.

“A marine protected areas is any marine area which has some sort of legal protection, with the aim of protecting important marine values such as conservation and fisheries.

“Today there are some 4500 marine protected areas around the globe, with many others also being developed, so there is a real interest in this topic and a need for information about protecting the marine environment.”

The congress included papers about the Great Barrier Reef addressing such issues as compliance, community engagement, aquaculture, spawning aggregations and many aspects of the rezoning.

“At the conference marine experts were really keen to hear about the Australian experience and so we are pleased that we are now able to share this information with a wider on-line audience,” Mr Day said.

Other topics covered include marine protected area networks, management planning, sustainable use, community-based management, ecosystem processes and evaluating management effectiveness.

There are also a range of international case studies on the principles and best practice of managing marine protected areas.

The online report uses hotlinks throughout to make it easy to navigate or to search electronically by keyword, author, congress theme, or the topics of presented papers or posters.

The proceedings may be downloaded free from www.impacongress.org .