ITMEMS - Keynote address: Marine Protected Areas in the New Millennium

Dr Nancy Foster
Assistant Administrator, National Ocean Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA

Introduction

It is a privilege to join you today. In this ‘International Year of the Ocean’, this Symposium is itself something to celebrate!

Today I would like to identify some challenges and share a few concerns that I have as I follow Graeme Kelleher as the incoming Vice Chair — Marine of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

We often tout marine protected areas (MPAs) as refuges for biodiversity, gene banks for miracle cures, saviours of commercial fisheries, foundations for traditional cultures and subsistence living, and sentinels for climate change. Marine protected areas have become all things to all of us.

In fact, worldwide over 1300 marine protected areas have been identified, as described in A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Of these 1300 MPAs, the recently published Reefs at Risk estimates that 400 contain coral reefs in more than 65 countries and territories.

Looking at the status of MPA management at the site-specific level, perhaps less than one-third of the MPAs are effectively managed. Some are not managed at all and most are plagued by poor funding and over- and destructive use.

Furthermore, more than 150 of the coral reef marine protected areas are less than one square kilometre in size. Many of the MPAs do not include the coral itself, much less the surrounding coral reef ecosystem.

In light of these obstacles, the concept of MPAs as an important tool for conserving our world's marine resources works in theory, but in practice, MPAs are not achieving our goal.

How then can we enhance MPAs as effective tools for conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity?

Goals

I believe that the case studies and summary statement of this conference should begin to help bridge this gap between the dream and reality — that by the year 2002 (whether at ITMEMS II or at the World Parks Congress) we should be far ahead of where we are today.

One of our primary goals for the next century would be that:

MPAs become exemplary systems of integrated and participatory management serving as ‘building blocks’ for sustainability through integrated coastal management.

How do we get there? I suggest we utilize at least four ‘navigational aids’ as guides along this new course:

• an ‘ecosystem approach’ to management;
• emphasis on public participation by putting people first;
• integration of fisheries management with MPA management; and
• sustainable tourism for all MPAs, but particularly coastal ecosystems.

An Ecosystem Approach

The 1990's international policy community has adopted new approaches to marine and coastal management including a shift toward an ecosystem approach. Since the 1960s, coastal policy-makers have preached ecosystem management, but today I believe we are actually trying to do it.

First, the global environment facility has thrown its considerable weight behind the ‘large marine ecosystem’ (LME) approach with several important projects in the Gulf of Guinea, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea. However, the contribution of MPAs as management tools in LMEs has not emerged at practical level.

Second, IUCN, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the World Bank raised the standard of global discussion of MPAs with their publication of A Global Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. Published in 1995, the four-volume report targets action at the local and national levels, calling for national representative systems of MPAs forged by local communities and national teams. The report recognizes that networks of MPAs at national and regional levels can provide a basis for sharing knowledge, experiences, expertise and resources, which play a unique role in safeguarding biodiversity at a regional level.

Third, we have reconfirmed the merits of basin-wide and global coral reef monitoring with the successful monitoring of bleaching ‘hotspots’ associated with El Niño this year. Reef systems in many MPAs were affected by this global bleaching episode.

Fourth, in considering an ecosystem approach, the Convention on Biological Diversity formally linked conservation and sustainable development, and through the Jakarta Mandate, elevated coastal area management and MPAs among its top concerns.

Fifth, the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities embodies the ecosystem approach. A recent article in the Marine Pollution Bulletin noted that in Indonesia stresses from land-based pollution area were associated with 40–70% reductions in coral species diversity illustrating the need for greater ecosystem management.

Yet, despite the fact that we can point to these examples of increasing recognition of ecosystem management as a viable approach, if you look at MPAs around the world MPA managers are typically limited to managing ocean-based activities within their MPA boundaries with no jurisdiction, and limited influence, over land-based activities. Ecosystem-based management strategies that address the breadth of both land- and ocean-based activities affecting the MPA resources are needed.

As the United States has begun to address this issue, one example, management of the Florida Keys, has taught us that conservation gaps result in the demise of coral reef resources. Over the past 40 years we reinvented the boundaries of management in the Florida Keys four times.

This evolution began with the designation of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the world's first underwater park in 1960. In 1975 and 1985 we expanded the boundaries of coral reef protection and in 1990 the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was statutorily designated covering the entire reef tract, an area of over 9500 square kilometres.

However, even these boundaries are not adequate to encompass the land-based threats to the marine ecosystems. Concerns have been raised about the development of South Florida and its impacts on the South Florida ecosystems, including the coral reefs. Altering the water flow of South Florida over the years has transformed the region into one of the fastest growing metropolitan, agricultural and tourism areas in the United States. These changes have pushed the ecosystem to the point that it is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in the nation. Degradation of the marine environment threatens the large tourism and fishing industries which depend on a healthy ecosystem. In order to mitigate this environmental and economic crisis, interagency restoration efforts are being coordinated costing the United States millions of dollars. We have learned at great cost the importance of an ecosystem approach to coastal and marine management.

This brings us to the second of our navigational aids — putting people first!

The Human Dimension

Thirteen years ago, while working to establish a marine sanctuary in Puerto Rico, I was hanged in effigy and had to be police escorted from public meetings. More recently the superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was burned in effigy even as he led a broad public consultation of the draft management plan. Roughly three years ago the Ecuadorian army had to intervene in the Galapagos to bring calm to a bristling dispute over the sea cucumber fishery.

‘Putting people first’ — I’ll admit it's a ‘sound bite’, the kind our politicians love. Nevertheless the necessity of the human dimension was a recurring theme at the ICRI 1995 Symposium in which Dr Bernard Salvat, a director of the International Society for Coral Reef Studies, underscored the need for a better understanding of the linkages between human societies and the integrity of coral ecosystems. Further emphasizing the point, the Philippine environment minister, Dr Angel Alcala, told the Symposium participants that, ‘local communities — whether they are village fishermen at Apo island and Bais Bay or dive boat operators in St Lucia — are central to the success of all coral and coastal management efforts.’

In response to this growing recognition of the need to incorporate the human dimension, today across the globe, we:

• create stakeholder dialogues as the cornerstone of the collaborative management process;
• consider guidelines and case studies on indigenous peoples and protected areas;
• engage non-governmental organizations and local communities as manager of MPAs; and
• survey socio-economic community values — a tool of management that is becoming a standard part of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Perhaps one of the most useful tools for putting people first is the development of guidelines for conducting socio-economic assessments: a new science-based tool to empower public participation in management. This initiative, which is being coordinated by the global coral reef monitoring network, the United States, and Japan, will produce a manual for marine managers with strategies for assessing and incorporating socio-economic issues into management programs.

Fisheries

One of my particular interests and areas of expertise is fisheries. An effectively managed MPA that successfully contributes to a sustainable fishery truly puts people first.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) code of conduct for responsible fisheries was adopted in the early 1990's, as the fisheries community inched toward multi-species management, identification of essential fish habitat, and incorporation of the larger ecosystem. However, the concept of MPAs as essential tools of sustainable fisheries has not taken hold in much of the globe.

In the United States, we are just beginning to look at MPAs as viable tools for fisheries management. Only this year was the concept validated by a study by the National Academy of Science.

Our challenge will be to demonstrate the potential for MPAs to protect and restore marine fisheries biodiversity and to provide a core component of sustainable commercial fisheries.

In the United States, as we were preparing for last month's first meeting of the President's coral reef task force, we found that almost 50% of all federally-managed fisheries species depend on coral reef ecosystems for some part of their life cycle. Yet we are only beginning to explore MPAs as operational tools of sustainable fisheries management.

As a critical step toward bridging fisheries with MPAs, IUCN and the World Bank are developing demonstration projects to show how MPAs can contribute to sustainable fishing in Samoa, Tanzania, and Vietnam by:

• protecting critical breeding, feeding and nursery areas for important fishery species; and
• prohibiting unsustainable fishing methods, such as cyanide and blast fishing.

These approaches are designed to demonstrate that MPAs are beneficial to fisheries because they:

• contribute to increased fish catch outside areas where fishing is prohibited;
• provide a reference area to allow monitoring of the health of marine ecosystems including status of fish stocks; and
• contribute to the sustainable subsistence fishing needs of local people.

As we consider how to link MPAs with fisheries, we acknowledge that more research is needed, especially at larger scales, to determine the ideal size, number and location of marine reserves necessary to optimise fisheries productivity and resource conservation. However, many of us believe that we know enough now to apply marine protected areas as a key tool in fisheries management.

Sustainable Tourism

It is time for a paradigm shift in the tourism industry to recognize that it's not the job of the manager alone to protect and conserve, restore and create, understand and operate MPAs. The tourism sector, which heavily depends on the coral reef ecosystem for tourism attractions, should work with MPA managers to maintain coral ecosystems on which the profits of tourism depend.

The tourism industry is already starting to promote sustainable tourism practices as evidenced by increasingly green hotel practices, the establishment of environmental standards for the industry, and the distribution of internationally recognized environmental awards.

A challenge to the management community represented at ITMEMS is to more effectively reach out to the tourism sector.

We must better define and promote our mutual interest in long-term sustainability of the marine ecosystems using the vocabulary and grammar of the tourism industry. As we work to establish links with the tourism sector we need to stress that a well-maintained natural resource is critical to both the short- and long-term marketability of a tourism destination.

Further, we must emphasize that MPAs can increase tourist arrivals and have a positive multiplier effect across the economy.

The benefits of marine protection to the tourism industry are well illustrated by the small island State of Saba, which witnessed a tremendous growth in tourism with the establishment of the Saba Marine Park, making Saba one of the prime dive destinations in the Caribbean.

At the same time, the park management measures such as mooring buoys and other enforcement measures, have resulted in reduced impacts on the park's marine resources, ensuring the sustainability of these tourist attractions.

In communicating with the tourism sector, we also need to recognize that if we quantify the direct and indirect long- and short-term benefits of marine resources and their use, marine managers can begin to show tourism operators the advantages of conservation in their own terms.

Such an approach was taken in Montego Bay Marine Park, Jamaica. A socio-economic assessment conducted by the World Bank found that the net present value of marine resource use associated with tourism, fishing and coastal protection is between 300 and 700 million dollars. These findings have been critical in demonstrating to the tourism industry the value of these resources and subsequently gaining their support.

But perhaps of greater importance to an individual tourism business is to see the direct benefit of supporting marine conservation to their particular business. Best management practices minimize human impacts, enhance the environment, and save money. Again if we look to Jamaica, the U.S. Agency for International Development is supporting an environmental audit for sustainable tourism program to show hotels how much they can save financially while also helping the environment. One of the most talked about examples is from Sandals Montego Bay where the hotel has cut its water bill by 25% by offering guests the option not to have their towels washed daily. It may seem a small start but this measure, if expanded to all the hotels in the area, would significantly reduce the inflow of detergents into the coastal waters.

Further, in addition to reducing costs, tourism businesses that manage their facilities in an environmentally sensitive manner can gain a marketing advantage with discerning, environmentally aware tourists. Recognizing this growing market, several organizations such as green globe have begun standardizing, validating and marketing sustainable tourism practices.

Closing

These ‘navigational aids’ are just some of the issues to be addressed as we inch toward our goals. Let me restate them as goals for the year 2002 world parks congress:

• MPAs as the jewels in the crown of national systems of integrated coastal ecosystem management;
• MPAs as essential reservoirs of biodiversity nested in national and regional systems of MPAs and as foundations of cultural integrity and diversity;
• MPAs as focal points for collaboration among the diversity of stakeholders;
• MPAs as the biological engine of recruitment for commercial and recreational fisheries; and
• MPAs as benefactors to, and partners with, the tourism sector.

In closing, let me return to putting people first, to IUCN's mission which is:

To influence, encourage, and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

It is now my challenge as the newly appointed Vice-Chair of the WCPA-Marine to further expand and build upon the work of Graeme Kelleher, my friend and colleague, who has worked for 13 years as Vice-Chair of the WCPA-Marine to build a solid foundation for a global representative system of marine protected areas. I encourage you to join me and Graeme, through IUCN, in building and using these regional networks to strengthen ICRI's implementation at regional and national levels.

After all, ICRI and ITMEMS are part of a grand social experiment in global coalition-building outside government structure and across boundaries. I greatly appreciate Australia’s leadership of ICRI over the past two years through Richard Kenchington and the staff of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and look forward to working with the leadership of the French ICRI Secretariat as a bridge to the new millennium.

Thank you.