It is natural to want to return to normal from this pandemic. But before COVID-19, most MPAs lacked adequate funding to meet their goals, and way too many MPAs were paper parks. That was our normal. We need to build a new one.
OpenChannels News
MPA News reported on Brijuni in 2014 and said it might be the most revenue-savvy MPA in the world, with multiple income streams. When COVID-19 happened and tourism slowed, Brijuni’s budget took a hit. MPA News returns to Brijuni to see how the MPA has responded, and what lessons it could provide on lowering costs, securing revenues, and rebuilding a tourism base.
Even before COVID, the MPA field was in need of new ideas and tools for financing. We highlight three new concepts, and how practitioners are exploring their possibilities.
This year amid the ongoing pandemic, MPA News has been compiling related resources for our readers. Here is our latest collection:
The 5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) is confirmed for 23-29 June 2022 in Vancouver, Canada.
These recent articles on MPA-related science and policy are each free to access:
Several more nations commit to the 30x30 target
The target of protecting 30% of national and global waters by 2030 (30x30) continues to gain momentum, with a growing number of national governments making commitments to it:
It has been a long four years for those in the environmental field here in the US – four years filled with rampant attempts by the Trump administration to remove, weaken, or circumvent environmental protections; promotion of climate science denialism; and obstruction of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This amplified the relentless, global march of climate change and its associated natural disasters and was all topped off by a worldwide pandemic and recession.
The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris promises a significant shift in policies in many areas, including ocean management – but what exactly needs to be done and how likely are changes to occur? We hear from eight US ocean policy experts about what they expect and/or hope for in terms of US ocean management under the incoming Biden-Harris administration.
In 2017, MEAM (now The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management) interviewed 17 social science and interdisciplinary researchers from around the world to learn how their work could improve marine conservation and management practice. We updated this coverage in our previous issue. More examples of social science and interdisciplinary researchers doing innovative social science work to advance marine conservation and management practice are below.
By Erik Thulin and Rocky Sanchez Tirona, Rare
Editor’s note: Erik Thulin is the behavioral science lead for the Center for Behavior & the Environment at Rare. Rocky Sanchez Tirona is the vice president of Rare Philippines and the Pacific Islands. They can be contacted on LinkedIn here and here respectively and on Twitter @EThulin and @Rare_org respectively.
The environmental field is full of cooperative dilemmas: in other words, what is best for the individual is different than what is best for the group. This creates a clash in priorities and sometimes results in ecosystem collapse. At Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, we believe that these behavioral challenges require behavioral solutions.