Governing Marine Protected Areas

In this innovative volume, the author addresses some important challenges related to the effective and equitable governance of marine protected areas (MPAs). These challenges are explored through a study of 20 MPA case studies from around the world. A novel governance analysis framework is employed to address some key questions: How can top-down and bottom-up approaches to MPA governance be combined? What does this mean, in reality, in different contexts? How can we develop and implement governance approaches that are both effective in achieving conservation objectives and equitable in fairly sharing associated costs and benefits? The author explores the many issues that these questions raise, as well as exploring options for addressing them. A key theme is that MPA governance needs to combine people, state and market approaches, rather than being based on one approach and its related ideals. Building on a critique of the governance analysis framework developed for common-pool resources, the author puts forward a more holistic and less prescriptive framework for deconstructing and analyzing the governance of MPAs. This inter-disciplinary analysis is aimed at supporting the development of MPA governance approaches that build social-ecological resilience through both institutional and biological diversity. It will also make a significant contribution to wider debates on natural resource governance, as it poses some critical questions for contemporary approaches to related research and offers an alternative theoretical and empirical approach.

In this innovative volume, the author addresses some important challenges related to the effective and equitable governance of marine protected areas (MPAs). These challenges are explored through a study of 20 MPA case studies from around the world. A novel governance analysis framework is employed to address some key questions: How can top-down and bottom-up approaches to MPA governance be combined? What does this mean, in reality, in different contexts? How can we develop and implement governance approaches that are both effective in achieving conservation objectives and equitable in fairly sharing associated costs and benefits? The author explores the many issues that these questions raise, as well as exploring options for addressing them. A key theme is that MPA governance needs to combine people, state and market approaches, rather than being based on one approach and its related ideals. Building on a critique of the governance analysis framework developed for common-pool resources, the author puts forward a more holistic and less prescriptive framework for deconstructing and analyzing the governance of MPAs. This inter-disciplinary analysis is aimed at supporting the development of MPA governance approaches that build social-ecological resilience through both institutional and biological diversity. It will also make a significant contribution to wider debates on natural resource governance, as it poses some critical questions for contemporary approaches to related research and offers an alternative theoretical and empirical approach.

Although the ocean-and the resources within-seem limitless, there is clear evidence that human impacts such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution disrupt marine ecosystems and threaten the long-term productivity of the seas. Declining yields in many fisheries and decay of treasured marine habitats, such as coral reefs, has heightened interest in establishing a comprehensive system of marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas designated for special protection to enhance the management of marine resources. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate how MPAs can be employed in the United States and internationally as tools to support specific conservation needs of marine and coastal waters. Marine Protected Areas compares conventional management of marine resources with proposals to augment these management strategies with a system of protected areas. The volume argues that implementation of MPAs should be incremental and adaptive, through the design of areas not only to conserve resources, but also to help us learn how to manage marine species more effectively.

In this book the authors examine the governance of marine protected areas (MPA), and in particular they compare two different forms of governance - co-management (CM) and adaptive co-management (ACM). The authors show that there is a symbiotic relationship between mutually-enforcing ecological, socio-economic, and governance factors.

Protected Area Governance and Management presents a compendium of original text, case studies and examples from across the world, by drawing on the literature, and on the knowledge and experience of those involved in protected areas. The book synthesises current knowledge and cutting-edge thinking from the diverse branches of practice and learning relevant to protected area governance and management. It is intended as an investment in the skills and competencies of people and consequently, the effective governance and management of protected areas for which they are responsible, now and into the future. The global success of the protected area concept lies in its shared vision to protect natural and cultural heritage for the long term, and organisations such as International Union for the Conservation of Nature are a unifying force in this regard. Nonetheless, protected areas are a socio-political phenomenon and the ways that nations understand, govern and manage them is always open to contest and debate. The book aims to enlighten, educate and above all to challenge readers to think deeply about protected areas—their future and their past, as well as their present. The book has been compiled by 169 authors and deals with all aspects of protected area governance and management. It provides information to support capacity development training of protected area field officers, managers in charge and executive level managers.

The marine environment does not naturally respect arbitrary international boundaries. The establishment and management of transboundary marine protected areas therefore presents major governance challenges. This book analyses a series of marine transboundary conservation initiatives embedded in varying contextual situations to examine the underlying reasons for their success or failure. Utilising an adapted ‘pathways of influence’ framework, it provides insights into the development of marine transboundary conservation initiatives looking at the effectiveness of international rules, international norms and discourse, market forces and direct access to policy making. Examples come from a wide range of jurisdictions, including territorial seas, continental shelves, exclusive economic zones and areas beyond national jurisdiction. Case studies include initiatives in the Coral Triangle, West Africa, Central America, the Wadden Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. In addition the authors assess the potential for developing wider international cooperation as a result of relationships forged though involvement within these marine transboundary conservation initiatives.

There are growing academic and policy debates on how best to govern MPAs, concerning the benefits and risks of different governance approaches and instruments. This echoes the broader debates on the roles of state hierarchies, markets, and community participation in governing societal affairs. This study investigates the roles of different actors involved in governing MPAs, and the strengths and weaknesses of MPA governance in China. The research questions are addressed through three detailed case studies. Despite some variations, the three case study MPAs show major similarities in governance structure. In all three cases, the attitudes of key actors towards biodiversity conservation and their influences on MPA decision-making can be characterised by: 1) an unenthusiastic state, which often adopts a non-interventionist strategy in MPA management and law enforcement, as long as the MPAs exist on paper; 2) corporatised local governments, which are keen to influence and dominate MPA decision-making and law enforcement to promote economic development; 3) a growing private sector, which can both strengthen or undermine MPA governance by forming alliances with government institutions; and 4) silent local communities, whose influence on MPA governance has been very limited. In addressing the key conflicts in governing MPAs in China, the use of economic instruments appears to be the most important steering mechanism. Both state steering and community participation are used less effectively. Overall, the imbalance of power in governing MPAs and the over-reliance on market-based approaches arguably leads to failures in protecting the interests of biodiversity and local communities. Restoring the balance of power in MPA governance in China may therefore mean repositioning the central state and empowering local communities, which will allow diversified and balanced use of different steering mechanisms. Returning to a balance of power will also provide for more effective and equitable governance outcomes.

Marine Protected Areas in International law – an Arctic perspective, introduces and analyzes the legal rights and obligations of states under international law, using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a tool to protect marine biodiversity. The fragile Arctic marine environment is under growing pressure from climate change and the prospect of increasing human activity affecting previously untouched areas. The conservation of Arctic marine biodiversity is a pressing and global concern, not least because the melting of sea ice will have widespread effects. By analyzing regional cooperation through the OSPAR Convention and under the Arctic Council, Jakobsen examines the implementation of the global legal framework for biodiversity protection and conservation in the Arctic. The book has a particular focus on the possibilities of the states to regulate shipping within the MPAs, as the increasing shipping activities represent a major threat to the sensitive marine Arctic.

"Conserving the Oceans: The Politics of Large Marine Protected Areas documents the efforts of activists and states to increase the pace and scale of global ocean protections, leading to a new global norm in ocean conservation of large marine protected areas exceeding 200,000 km2. Through an analysis of domestic political economies, the book explains how states have protected millions of square kilometers of ocean space while remaining highly responsive to the interests of businesses. It argues that states design environmental policies above all around two key features of a given space: (1) the composition of extractive versus non-extractive industry interests; and (2) the salience of various industry interests, defined as the degree to which businesses would suffer tangible and significant costs in response to new environmental regulations. Through an analysis of large marine protected area advocacy campaigns in Australia, Palau, and the United States, this book demonstrates how the political economy of a given marine space shapes how governments align their environmental and economic goals, sometimes strengthening conservation but more often than not undermining it. While recognizing important global progress and growing ambition to conserve ocean ecosystems, Conserving the Oceans demonstrates that even ambitious large marine protected areas have so far not fundamentally challenged a neoliberal paradigm of environmentalism that has caused considerable ecological harm"--