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Problem: Over the past several years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have realized that the creation of formal protected areas may not be sufficient to protect ocean and coastal biodiversity, particularly in areas where rights have already been granted to specific owners and users. To address this, NGOs are increasingly using Marine Conservation Agreements (MCAs) to complement other marine and coastal protection efforts.

Action: Marine Conservation Agreements include any formal or informal understanding between two or more parties in which the parties obligate themselves, for an exchange of benefits, to take certain actions, refrain from certain actions, or transfer certain rights and responsibilities to achieve agreed upon ocean or coastal conservation goals. The summary table below identifies the major elements and variables of MCAs. MCAs can be entered into by governments, communities, private entities, and pri...

Problem: It is estimated that there are 51 million fishermen in the world of whom 50 million are small-scale, subsistence, or artisanal operators mainly living and working in the developing world. Unfortunately, the common-property fish resources that these fishermen depend upon for their livelihood are in a precarious state. Why do we find ourselves in this critical situation and what can we do to correct it? Researchers and stakeholders are actively searching for new forms of fishery management, and...

Action: One of the difficulties in planning and implementing co-management is the lack of specific direction on 'how to do it'. There are a number of different activities and interventions in the process of community-based co-management. While there are a number of very good publications (many often difficult to obtain, especially in a developing country) which discuss individual activities and components of the process of community-based co-management, there is no single publication which provides a...

Problem: Fish spawning aggregations are extremely important to local ecosystems and economies, but they are not resilient to anything greater than light fishing pressure. In some cases, FSAs have been lost even from subsistence fishing1, which is often considered sustainable2.   The reasons for FSA vulnerability...

Action: This module of the Reef Resilience Toolkit focuses mainly on the conservation of Reef Fish Spawning Aggregations (FSAs). Although the problems facing global fisheries are diverse, we have chosen to focus on fish spawning aggregations because of their extreme susceptibility to over-fishing, and their importance as part of the resilience model. Maintaining healthy breeding populations (seed sources) of reef fish is c...

Problem: Las reservas marinas totalmente protegidas1 son áreas marinas completamente vedadaspara la pesca y otros usos humanos extractivos o dañinos. Desde que se establecieron lasprimeras reservas totalmente protegidas, hace más de dos décadas, han generado un inmensointerés y un gran cúmulo de investigaciones. La evidencia científica reciente indica que lasreservas no sólo son herramientas poderosas para la conservación, sino que también puedenofrecer el tan necesario apoyo para las pesquerías. Hay ...

Action: No se puede negar que la pesca está causando inmensos problemas en el mar. Especiesque alguna vez sustentaron pesquerías valiosas, como el lenguado del atlántico(Hippoglossus hippoglossus), el atún del sur (Thunnus maccoyii) y el chancharrobocacio (Sebastes paucispinus) han disminuido tanto que ahora se les incluye en laLista Roja de Animales Amenazados de la Unión Mundial para la Naturaleza. Noobstante, no es necesario que una especie sea rara o que sea un objetivo pequeroespecífico para que...

Problem: This toolkit addresses the question asked by managers pondering what they can do at the local scale to reduce the impacts of global climate change which are (1) increased sea surface temperatures, (2) increased storm frequency and intensity, (3) acidification of oceans, and (4) altered oceanic currents. Solutions involve both daily management activities and planning for change Uncertainty is what makes our current situation most challenging. However, it is possible to build flexibility and ad...

Action: This module of the Reef Resilience Toolkit focuses on the problem of coral bleaching and actions that managers can take to address this problem, specifically in the context of marine protected areas. Given the scope of global climate change and the recent mass bleaching events that have occurred in every ocean, many managers may assume that there is little that can be done on a local scale. However, there are strategies and approaches that managers can employ to minimize the impacts of bleach...

Problem: Substantial amounts of money are required to manage and protect MPAs and EEZs, and to implement and enforce international agreements on fisheries, shipping, and migratory species. A recent survey of over 80 MPAs found that a global MPA network covering 30 percent of the world;s seas might cost between $7 billiob and $19 billion annually to run. In addition, it is often necessary to provide exonomic alternatives (or even, in some case, monetary compensation) to people whose traditional or futu...

Action: This guide describes over 30 mechanism for financing the conservation of marine biodiversity, both with and outside of MPAs. Its main purpose is to familiarize conservation professionals - i.e., the managers and staff of government conservation agencies, international donors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) - with a menu of options for financing the conservation of marine and coastal ...