The Environmental Defence Society today released a
working paper on marine protected areas (MPA) setting out
how progress can be made to better protect the country’s
rich marine biodiversity and help secure broader oceanic
health. The report, titled Protecting the Sea: Rethinking
Marine Protected Areas, is co-authored by Raewyn Peart and
Deidre-Koolen-Bourke.
“New Zealand is far behind
international best practice for MPA legislation and practice
and is far from meeting its international biodiversity
obligations,” said EDS Policy Director Raewyn
Peart.
“At the same time, the degradation of our
marine environments is escalating. The current MPA system
has long not been fit-for purpose and there is strong
consensus around the need for
change.
“The working paper draws on an
extensive literature review, MPA debates in Parliament,
submissions made on various MPA initiatives, and interviews
with a range of interested parties. In total, we spoke to 28
people from the commercial fishing, recreational fishing,
environmental NGO, iwi, science, law and government
sectors.
“This included several former
Ministers of Conservation who sought to progress MPA
legislative reform. There have been three attempts to reform
the now very dated Marine Reserves Act 1971, none which
reached fruition.
“This research enabled us to
identify a number of contentious issues that have hindered
MPA reform in the past, as well as topics on which there is
broad consensus and can be built on.
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“Our research
made it clear that, overall, the greatest progress on MPAs
has been made through collaborative processes. New Zealand
has very rich experience in this area to build
on.
“We have recommended developing a new Marine
Protected Areas Act which:
- Provides a clear
overall purpose for marine protection - Ensures MPAs
are well designed - Provides a range of spatial
protection tools - Uses collaborative processes to
design MPA networks - Addresses impacts on
fisheries - Addresses Treaty rights and
interests - Builds in flexibility
- Ensures
effective and active MPA management - Ensures adequate
resourcing.
“The new legislation should also
provide for the development of an updated MPA Policy and a
focused MPA Action Plan setting out priorities for spatial
marine protection around the country.
“We note that
National Party policy for the 2023 general election included
a commitment to update the Marine Reserves Act. We want to
see progress on meeting this commitment in the current term
of government.
“We will be discussing these issues
further at EDS’s Oceans Symposium in Auckland on 12
May.
“There is no time to waste if we
are to retain our unique indigenous marine biodiversity and
rebuild healthy marine
systems.
“Therefore, while progressing
MPA legislative reform we need to simply get on with the
job. For this reason, we have also recommended establishing
further collaborative marine planning processes without
delay,” concluded Ms Peart.
Read
Protecting the Sea
Report
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