GEOGG061 – Marine Conservation

Staff

Peter Jones

Aims

This module is focused on the challenges of conserving marine biodiversity and ecosystems and the approaches that are being developed to address these challenges.

Content

• Differences between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their implications
• The role of marine protected areas and the challenges of governing them
• The impacts of fishing and the options for addressing them
• The role of the ecosystem approach and marine spatial planning

Assessment

2000 word (max) essay to be submitted by 12.00 (mid-day) Monday 28 April, based on one of the following titles:-

Discuss the particular challenges for the conservation of subtidal biodiversity in inshore seas, the approaches which have been adopted to address these, related issues and conflicts, and the prospects, with specific reference to MPA initiatives in the UK or another country of your choice

Whilst the focus of this essay title is on MPAs, you should also refer to wider marine spatial planning and fisheries management policies, where appropriate.

Discuss the case for and against no-take marine reserves as win-win solutions to the conservation of fish stocks and marine biodiversity and give a substantiated assessment of the necessity of and prospects for such designations

This essay should include examples of actual initiatives from different countries in order to ground and illustrate your arguments, rather than just being a purely theoretical review of the literature. Whilst the focus of this essay title is no-take marine reserves, you should also refer to partially protected MPAs and wider fisheries management policies, where appropriate.

Format

This course is taught through a programme of lectures. All lectures are 11.00 – 1.00 each Tuesday (except reading week) of term 2, room G07, Pearson Building.

14/1/14            Introduction to module and marine ecosystems

21/1/14            Introduction to marine protected areas (see Jones 2001)

28/1/14            Fishing impacts (see Jennings et al 2001)

4/2/14              Fisheries management (see Jennings et al 2001)

11/2/14            Reconciling fisheries and biodiversity conservation (see Jones 2007)

25/2/14            MPA governance – introduction (see Jones 2013 and Jones et al 2013)

4/3/14              MPA governance – various case studies around the world (see Jones 2013 and Jones et al 2013)

11/3/14            MPA governance – further case studies, including Chagos (Jones 2013, Jones et al 2013 and De Santo et al 2011)

18/3/14            MPAs in England case study (see Jones 2012)

24/3/14                        Ecosystem-Based Marine Spatial Planning, UK Marine Act, module round-up (see Katsanevakis et al 2011 and Appleby and Jones 2012)

Learning outcomes

• Appreciate the differences between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and their implications for conservation
• Understand the role of marine protected areas and the governance challenges of effectively implementing them in different international contexts;
• Understand the links between fisheries management and marine conservation and the challenges of integrating these policies;
• Have a knowledge of the emerging approaches for implementing the ecosystem approach and for marine spatial planning, with particular reference to emerging UK policies

*Appleby T. and Jones P.J.S. (2012) The marine and coastal access act - A hornets’ nest? Marine Policy 36(1), 73-77. doi:10.1016/ j.marpol.2011.03.009

*De Santo E.M., Jones P.J.S. and Miller A.M.M. (2011) Fortress conservation at sea: a commentary on the Chagos MPA. Marine Policy 35(2), 258-260.

*Jennings S et al (2001) Marine fisheries ecology. Good introductory textbook

*Jones P.J.S (2001) Marine protected area strategies: issues, divergences and the search for middle ground. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 11(3), 197-216. doi:10.1023/A:1020327007975

*Jones P.J.S. and Burgess J. (2005) Building partnership capacity for the collaborative management of marine protected areas in the UK: a preliminary analysis. Journal of Environmental Management 77(3), 227-243. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.04.004.

*Jones P.J.S. (2006) Collective action problems posed by no take zones. Marine Policy 30(2), 143-156. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2004.10.003

*Jones P.J.S. (2007) Point of view - Arguments for conventional fisheries management and against no-take marine protected areas: only half of the story? Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 17(1), 31-43. doi:10.1007/s11160-006-9016-8

*Jones P.J.S. (2008) Fishing industry and related perspectives on the issues raised by no-take marine protected area proposals. Marine Policy 32(4), 749-758. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2007.12.009

*Jones P.J.S. (2009) Equity, justice and power issues raised by no-take marine protected area proposals. Marine Policy 33(5), 759-765. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2009.02.009

*Jones P.J.S. (2012) Marine Protected Areas in the UK: challenges in combining top-down and bottom-up approaches to governance. Environmental Conservation 39(3), 248-258. doi:10.1017/S0376892912000136.

*Jones P.J.S. (2013) Governing marine protected areas: resilience through diversity. Earthscan/Routledge. Essential core text. (based on report available at www.mpag.info; Nature news feature 'Ocean Conservation: uncertain sanctuary' discusses some of the findings of this report and the editorial of this issue of Nature discusses this news feature: 'Troubled Waters')

*Jones P.J.S., Qiu W. and De Santo E.M (2013) Governing Marine Protected Areas: social-ecological resilience through institutional diversity. Marine Policy, doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2012.12.026

*Kaiser et al (2005) Marine ecology : processes, systems, and impacts. Good introductory text book

*Katsanevakis S. et al. (2011) Ecosystem-based marine spatial management: review of concepts, policies, tools, and critical issues. Ocean and Coastal Management 54(1), 807-820. doi:10.1016/ocecoaman.2011.09.002

*PISCO - Science of Marine Reserves booklets -  European, international and US versions available here; excellent source of other natural science focused MPA references, European version being the most up-to-date. Paper related to European version doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2012.02.021

*Roberts C.M. (2007) The Unnatural History of the Sea: the past and future of humanity and fishing. Tracks the long history of overfishing and discusses the options for restoring marine ecosystems, with a particular focus on marine reserves. Strongly recommended. Google books

*Roberts, C.M. (2012) The Ocean of Life: the fate of man and the sea. A lighter read than his 2007 title; a compelling introduction to threats to marine ecosystems and options for addressing them, particularly marine reserves

*Toropova, C., Meliane, I., Laffoley, D., Matthews, E. and Spalding, M. (eds.) (2010) Global Ocean Protection: Present Status and Future Possibilities. Good recent review of MPAs and related issues. http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2010-053.pdf

*Worm B et al. (2006) Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services. Science 314, 787-790. Note that several critiques of this pivotal study have been published: Branch (2008) Marine Policy 32(1), 38-39, and Various (2007) Science 316, 1281- 1285. See also:-

*Worm et al. (2009) Rebuilding global fisheries. Science 325, 578-585. A much more optimistic analysis than Worm et al (2006).