Marine Protected Areas must be evaluated for effectivenes

Source: The post is based on the article “Marine Protected Areas must be evaluated for effectivenes” published in Down To Earth on 9th February 2023

What is the News?

The 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) was held in Canada in order to discuss the solutions to address the Funding Gap of Marine Protected Areas(MPAs).

What are Marine Protected Areas(MPAs)?

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Currently, MPAs represent only about 6% of the ocean. Of this, 2.4% are fully and highly protected and 3.6% are highly protected. 

Note: Fully protected areas prevent extractive or destructive activities, while highly protected MPAs allow light extractive activities. 

Significance of MPAs: Marine protected areas help protect important habitats and representative samples of marine life and can assist in restoring the productivity of the oceans and avoiding further degradation.

– They are also sites for scientific study and can generate income through tourism and sustainable fishing.

What are the key highlights from the IMPAC5 meet?

Roughly 10 million square kilometres of the ocean must be annually brought under Marine Protected Areas(MPA) to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030.

– Countries had set a target of protecting 30% of the planet’s lands and oceans by 2030 at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in 2022.

As many as 70% of MPAs are underfunded.A well-managed and sufficiently funded MPA can restore good health to vulnerable ecosystems.

The countries also discussed ways to comprehensively monitor the effectiveness of protected areas (PA) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) at the global level.

Note: OECMs are different from PAs.

What are Other effective area-based conservation measures(OECMs)?

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