Five days in Chile diving in Global Marine Protected Areas

e Today is the closure of the International Marine Protected Area Congress in La Serena, Chile. Five days of discussions on marine conservation and management where participants from around the world, including NGOs, managers of protected areas, governments and scientist shared their experience in marine protection. The congress has also been the platform for exciting new announcements in global marine conservation, such as the new Chilean marine reserve in Easter Island, covering more than 600.000 squared kilometers approved by the Rapa Nui people. 

Regarding Spain, the new LIFE project INTEMARES was announced, which will develop the management plans for the new marine reserves that Spain has approved in the last years, moving from 1% protection to 8%. This project is directed by Fundación Biodiversidad with the help of the Environment ministry and WWF, and will take a participatory approach to design successful regulations of marine protected area users in Spanish waters. All these initiatives are extremely important to overcome current marine protection coverage and reach the 10% coverage Aichi Target for marine conservation.

Future Oceans Lab attended the congress this week and shared some updates on the activities. Elena also presented ongoing work in CLOCK in collaboration with Eréndira Aceves-Bueno and Laura E. Dee on the role of marine reserves in fisheries adaptation to climate change. This work has been developed this spring and summer thanks to the visit of Eréndira to our lab. It has been a good experience and we have learn a lot.