Save 30 per cent of oceans from humans, say York scientists

Scientists believe more ambitious targets must be set to protect the seas from human influence.
Current sea protection targets are not the end point, the York University scientists said.Current sea protection targets are not the end point, the York University scientists said.
Current sea protection targets are not the end point, the York University scientists said.

A new York University study suggests that setting aside at least 30 per cent of the ocean would benefit not just conservation but fishermen and other stakeholders.

The study reviewed more than 100 earlier studies and found a surprising consensus around an ambitious target for ocean protection, despite the fact that these studies looked at a range of different goals, from protecting wildlife to supporting fisheries.

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Professor Callum Roberts and Dr Bethan O’Leary from the University’s environment department led the study with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Prof Roberts said: “There’s been huge interest and controversy over how much of the sea we really need to protect in order to safeguard life there and the benefits it provides to humanity. The science says we should raise our ambitions and protect something of the range of 30-40 per cent of the oceans from exploitation and harm.”

This is well above the United Nations target of 10 per cent protection by 2020, set under the Convention on Biological Diversity. But it is consistent with the recommendation of at least 30 per cent protection made by the World Parks Congress in 2014.

Currently, approximately six per cent of the global ocean has been set aside as marine protected areas (MPA) or is earmarked for future protection, according to the MPAtlas.

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The York researchers identified studies that asked how much of a particular ocean area should be in MPAs to achieve a particular management goal. They found 144 such studies, which they grouped according to five goals: protecting biodiversity; ensuring population connectivity among MPAs; avoiding fisheries and population collapse; maximising or optimising fisheries value or yield; and satisfying multiple stakeholders.

More than half the studies reported that protecting 30 per cent or more of the area under consideration was necessary to achieve the stated management goal, while three per cent of the studies found that the goal would be met by protecting 10 per cent of the area.

The researchers tested whether the choice of goal made any difference in the level of coverage a study recommended. They found that a figure of 30 per cent or more held up regardless of whether the goal was to conserve ecosystems or sustain fishing.

None of the 144 studies examined for this research were designed to produce a target for protection at the global level. Instead, they were a mix of theoretical and case studies of smaller ocean areas. The latest research therefore does not provide an explicit recommendation, but this large body of evidence indicates that the current UN target of 10 per cent is too low to safeguard marine life and secure sustainable fisheries in the long term.

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“What we’ve done is to extrapolate from their results, to blend the results for a whole variety of different approaches that people have taken, and to come up with a big-picture figure,” Prof Roberts said.

“The answer isn’t a few per cent of the sea, which is what we have protected right now. It’s a few tens of per cent of the sea. The UN 10 per cent by 2020 target is politically ambitious, but it is only a way point, not the end point for effective ocean management.”

Dr O’Leary added: “The natural world needs substantial space free from significant human impact to thrive. The fact that we currently exploit far too much of the sea is one of the root causes of recent fisheries decline and environmental degradation.”

The results of the study have been published in the Conservation Letters journal.

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A UN committee will meet for the first time on March 28-April 8 to begin negotiations on developing an international treaty to conserve and protect marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, including through MPAs.

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