Establishing Marine Protected Areas Networks - Making it happen

Abstract

Regardless of where we live, all of us depend upon healthy ocean ecosystems: either as a source of food or revenue, or as a key shaper and regulator of climate and weather. This dependency and the need to embrace sustainable development led nations of the world to agree to a series of high-level political commitments for marine conservation and marine protected areas. The World Summit on Sustainable Development, the 5th World Parks Congress, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the G8 Group of Nations have all called for the establishment of a global system of marine protected area (MPA) networks by the year 2012. In line with this commitment are strategies of marine conservation organizations and some governments to increase the development, use and effective management of MPAs as a tool for marine conservation across the oceans.