MPA's & The Local Communities

On the 24th of April, Conservation Collective (CC) hosted an internal webinar on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the power of local communities to boost their designation and ensure their effectiveness. The webinar focused on initiatives that foundations across the network have helped develop, and some important and inspiring milestones in marine protection they have been part of to date.??

The webinar timely coincided with the Our Oceans Conference that took place in Athens the week before where CC joined a donor coalition, spearheaded by the Pew-Bertarelli Ocean Legacy , which pledged 60 million USD for protecting the Mediterranean Sea .?

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Anni Mitropoulou, Executive Director of the Cyclades Preservation Fund (CPF) presented the Amorgorama project (learn more here ). After years of supporting the fishing community of Amorgos and bringing in other experts such as Blue Marine Foundation , a fisheries-restricted area was officially designated by the Greek government at the conference. A management plan has been developed by the fishing community within the Cyclades area, including the following pillars:??

A seasonal closure to all fishing for 2 months (April & May), of zones stretching 1.5 miles around the island, a crucial breeding period for many fish.??

A permanent closure of around 1,000/2,000 hectares of sea with high biodiversity.?

Collection of discarded fishing nets, plastic, and other waste.??

A gradual switch to more sustainable fishing gear.?

At the centre of this initiative, and the key to its success, is the fact that the local fishing community, while experiencing firsthand the collapse of their fisheries, originally envisioned the solution. CPF and Blue Marine Foundation helped to make it possible with new funding opportunities and increased access to experts and government institutions. The leadership and ownership of the project, however, always stayed within the Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos.? At the conference the lights were on the government, putting pressure to elevate the project and make the government go no other way than to approve it.?

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Stephan Hornsey, Project Manager of the St Vincent & the Grenadines Environment Fund (SVGEF), presented the new national fisheries regulation protecting conch (threatened sea snails) that was announced in December 2023.? The closed season, the first one in the history of SVG , will come into effect from the 1st of September until the 30th of November 2024. The months of the closed season were decided by the fishers themselves and backed by science.?

Achieving this landmark was possible thanks to the collaborative effort between the fisherfolk, the Fisheries Ministry and environmental organisations (SVGEF and Blue Marine Foundation). Data collected from a series of baseline studies on conch populations, recording their decline and vulnerability to overexploitation. Discussions with fishers provided valuable feedback and insights into their fishing practices, understanding how decisions made in policy affect them, but are also necessary to keep their livelihoods at sea intact.?

The next steps of this project are focusing on what sustainability looks like after the closed season. It’s about looking at other places for sustainable fisheries, whilst being careful about the livelihoods of fisherfolk. In addition, SVGEF is working on an artificial nursery on land which will contribute to the output of existing wild ones.??

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Ambra Messina, from Sicily Environment Fund , was unfortunately unable to join us but, over the past three years, we have seen her work with Blue Marine Foundation to tackle overfishing on the island of Salina and lay the ground for a new, and effective, Marine Protected Area.??

The strategy has focused on engagement with the local fishing community, educational programmes for schools and informative community events. This bottom-up approach is complemented by top-down pressure at local, regional and national levels through political advocacy. In addition, results from a socio-economic study of the effects of the designation of the Salina MPA, and the creation of an MPA Committee , led to the three mayors of the island finally agreeing to start the establishment process.??

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There are multiple other similar examples across the network, such as a participative governance model for the Isla del Aire MPA in Menorca , and the research funded by Ionian Environment Foundation on the insufficient enforcement of Natura 2000 sites.??