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Ocean Unite

KEY ISSUES

MARINE RESERVES

Marine Reserves

It’s time for a 30×30 Ocean vision: at least 30% of the Ocean should be declared marine reserves by 2030, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, coastal to High Seas areas and everywhere in between. Protection equals regeneration. The Ocean needs safe havens where nature can replenish, and fortify itself against climate change and other threats, such as industrial fishing. Networking works! Networks of highly connected marine reserves with large coverage are better for Ocean biodiversity and climate resilience than isolated islands of protection.

TALKING POINTS: Regenerating Ocean life

Download talking points

  • About 70% of our Earth’s surface is Ocean, yet despite the declaration in 2016 of the world’s largest marine reserves in the Antarctic and the Pacific, according to MPA Atlas.org, only 6.4% of the global Ocean is currently protected, with 2.7% strongly protected from  human activities as marine reserves. A further 1.4% of the world’s Ocean has been proposed for protection. There is still a lot of work to do.
  • Marine reserves are highly protected marine protected areas (MPAs) where no destructive or extractive activities such as fishing or mining, can take place.
  • Marine reserves can help reduce and buffer the impacts of climate change on the Ocean, and they can help to rebuild species abundance and diversity, restoring and restocking marine life. They are the best tool we have to help the Ocean regenerate.
  • For a short summary of marine reserves explained simply check out this great short animation by National Geographic.
  • Marine reserves must be declared around the world, from the Arctic to the Antarctic and everywhere in between, covering at least 30% of our Ocean by 2030
  • In September 2016, the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, with the support of 89% of governments and 94% of NGOs, agreed to Motion 53, that urges world leaders to protect 30% of the Oceans by 2030.
  • We need to deploy more influential voices so that decision makers get the message about the importance of acting. Your voice has been so important on this issue, and now we need to work on how we activate more so that the idea of achieving 30% of the Ocean fully protected by 2030 resonates with political and business leaders in the same way as the 1.5ºC target or achieving zero emissions by 2050.
  • EO Wilson recently said: ‘If you save the living world, you will save the non-living world; but if you save only the non-living part, you will lose them both.”
  • Marine reserves have significant benefits beyond their boundaries, and their size matters.

BENEFITS BEYOND BOUNDARIES

Numerous scientific studies have shown that no-take zones have many long-lasting benefits. These include:

  • More fish, bigger fish, and more types of fish both within the reserve but also outside due to the “spill-over” effect. A recent study found that strategically expanding the existing global MPA network by just 5% could improve future fisheries catch by at least 20%, generating between US$15 and US$19 billion as spill-over revenue annually. This significantly outweighs the US$2 to US$6 billion cost of managing the additional MPAs each year.
  • The recovery of areas that have been damaged and more marine life (not just fish) within the protected area.
  • The prevention of coastal erosion and mitigation of the impacts of natural disasters (such as hurricanes) through the protection of coastal habitats such as mangroves and coral reefs.
  • The sequestration and storage of carbon also through the protection of coastal habitats such as mangroves, seagrass beds and salt marshes.
  • Reducing poverty, by providing food and employment for some of the billions of people around the world that directly rely on a healthy Ocean for survival.
  • High financial returns. Protecting 30% of the Ocean has been estimated to cost between US$223-228 billion, but it has been estimated that the financial net benefits from the increased ecosystem goods and services (once all costs have been taken into account) range from US$490 billion to US$920 billion by 2050. In the financial world that is a return on investment no-one would turn down!
  • The case has also been made that protecting 30% of the Ocean by 2030 through a network of protected areas could contribute to climate change mitigation and buffer nature and humanity against the changes caused by a warming world.
  • A global review from 2009 of temperate and tropical MPAs in 29 countries looking at the impacts of marine protected areas on fish found that fish biomass (weight) increased by 446%, it was denser (more fish) by 166%, species size increased by 26% and there were 21% more types of fish.
  • An example of the benefits of marine protected areas, is the Apo Island Protected Area in the Philippines. Since establishment in 1986, the population of the main local fisheries species, surgeonfish and jackfish, have tripled, the biomass of large predator fish has gone up 8-fold, and fishermen are now catching 50% more fish in less fishing time.

SIZE REALLY MATTERS!

  • Whilst small marine reserves can have local benefits, large-scale marine reserves have been shown to be even more effective, including areas that have already been damaged.
  • Large marine reserves are also more cost-effective to implement and manage, and the larger the area, the better the protection from activities outside the boundaries.
  • In particular, they play a vital role in enabling the Ocean to withstand the effects of climate change.
  • By creating a sanctuary for marine life that protects it from activities – such as fishing and mining – it has a better chance to adapt to the increasingly warmer and more acidic waters.
  • Not only is size important but establishing a network of strongly protected areas has also been proven to have greater benefits than isolated pockets of protection.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN?

  • In 2010, Governments committed at the United Nations under the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect at least 10% of the Ocean by 2020. The international community has fallen short of this goal, with currently only 6.4% of the global Ocean protected.
  • The 15th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, originally scheduled for October 2020, is now planned for October 2021. This must include the target to strongly protect at least 30% of the Ocean in marine reserves by 2030 (30×30).
  • Despite missing the 10% protection of the Ocean, 2020 was a big year for Ocean protection, with the tiny island nation of Palau protecting more than 80% of its national waters from all extractive activities including fishing and mining. The Seychelles also hit 30% marine protection target by extending protection to marine area twice the size of Great Britain.
  • Over seventy countries have joined either the High Ambition Coalition or Global Ocean Alliance to champion an international commitment for a minimum 30% of the global Ocean to be protected by 2030
  • Click here to find out how you can support this #Love30x30 vision.

Safiya Sawney is currently the Caribbean Policy Lead for Ocean Unite. Most recently she was the Ocean and Climate Policy Advisor to the Mission of the Republic of Palau to the United Nations representing the President of Palau at the High-Level Panel for the Sustainable Ocean Economy and leading Palau’s engagement at the UN Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit. Safiya was also the project coordinator for the UN Office of Project Services providing strategic support towards the 2020 Our Oceans Conference.

Formerly, Safiya was the lead policy advisor on a Blue Economy partnership platform between the Governments of the Netherlands and Grenada with support from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Safiya has fostered many innovative partnerships to spur action on ocean plastics and environmental awareness for small islands states including partnerships with Parley for the Ocean and Adidas, PangeaSeed, UN Environment, United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and others.

Safiya has provided policy support to Climate Analytics Inc. on Caribbean climate strategies, was the deputy coordinator for the Caribbean team that executed the 2013 Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) Summit in collaboration with Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Unite and The Nature Conservancy and served as technical advisor to Alliance of Small Island Developing States at the UN.

Jon Bassford, CAE, JD, MBA is an association and nonprofit operations professional. Jon has worked for c3 to c7 organizations across many different roles and responsibilities but has carved out an expertise as an efficient and effective operations professional. Through his consulting firm Lateral Solutions, Jon leads several organizations as a part-time operations director as well as client work in college student/campus outreach, organizational development, innovation, and strategy. Jon has truly carved out an expertise helping organizations launch and run internal operations in an efficient and effective manner using digital tools.
 
Across his membership and operational roles, Jon has 15 years of experience leading organizations.

Renee brings nearly a decade of internal operations experience to the Ocean Unite team. Prior to joining the team, Renee worked for eight years at The Pew Charitable Trusts where she began as an administrative assistant supporting their Shark, Tuna, and Whale conservation campaigns as well as the Senior Director of International Ocean Conservation. Particularly adept at identifying operational issues and developing methods to solve them, Renee moved into an operations role working across Pew’s international Ocean conservation projects, then all their environment conservation projects, and later the breadth of Pew’s programmatic work. She has degrees from California State University, San Bernardino, and Temple University in Philadelphia, and recently relocated from Washington, DC, to the California coast. As hard as this team works to protect our magnificent Ocean, Renee is the only person on the team who lives at the beach and relishes in enjoying the beauty of the Ocean every day.

Brittney is Ocean Unite’s digital and social media manager and is a consultant for Communications Inc. Comms Inc. is an agency which works with the not-for-profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change. (www.communicationsinc.co.uk)

One of the principals of Communications Inc., Sophie has nearly 20 years of experience in strategic communications. Comms Inc., is an agency which works with the not for profit sector, with a particular specialism in the ocean and wider environment. They are well known within the international ocean community and enjoy the trust of, and a working relationship with, most of the large international environmental NGOs and coalitions. Recognised for their ability to deliver fast, cost-effective and productive communications and campaigning, they are particularly valued for their strategic contribution based on a sound understanding of the issues, the political landscape within which the issues exist and a creative approach to bringing about change (www.communicationsinc.co.uk).

Nathalie has almost two decades of experience working in environmental advocacy. She worked for over 15 years for Greenpeace International, focusing mainly on biodiversity issues. For many years she worked as Senior Oceans Political Advisor focusing on international ocean governance and marine conservation. More recently she was the deputy director of the Political and Business Unit. She has wide experience of attending and leading delegations at international environmental meetings, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, and ocean-related negotiations at the UN General Assembly. When asked why she feels strongly about protecting the ocean, she says that not only is it home to the weirdest and most wonderful creatures on the planet, tomorrow’s life-saving drugs could be found at the bottom of the sea, not to mention the discovery of an anti-wrinkle cream that actually works!

Karen has over 25 years of experience working for international non-governmental organisations on environmental issues around the world with a particular focus on protecting marine biodiversity and building resilience to climate change. In 2015, Sack established Ocean Unite, co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, to engage leadership voices and the business community to accelerate ocean health and resilience. Ocean Unite is committed to helping secure the strong protection of 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. It has also developed a groundbreaking partnership with the insurance sector to address ocean risk.

She was senior director for international oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she developed their international oceans program including their ending illegal fishing strategy and initiated and was the managing partner of the Global Ocean Commission. Before that she was head of Greenpeace International’s political and business unit and head of their international oceans programme. In 2004, she was the first person from a non-governmental organization to speak at a regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she represented the concerns of over 60 environmental organizations from around the world over the plight of our oceans. Karen is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. She has master’s degrees in international environmental law and in international political economy.