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Marine Protected Areas - Interaction between Biodiversity Conservation and Fisheries Management

Pascale Baelde

University of Canberra, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

Theme: TH3

The release of Australia's Oceans Policy in 1998 included acceleration of the development of national and regional networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This is currently met with strong resistance from commercial fishers who are directly impacted by the establishment of MPAs. In this study, commercial fishers' concerns with MPAs were reviewed and analysed and compared with governments' MPA policies and planning processes across Australia. Most of commercial fishers' resistance to MPAs is related to loss of access to fishing grounds and is often perceived by environmentalists as fishers resisting changes and lacking care for the environment. However, this contribution will show that, in Australia, confusion about the role of MPAs for fisheries management significantly influences fishers' attitude. While the usefulness of MPAs for fisheries management is actively investigated in many countries world-wide, MPAs in Australia are viewed essentially as tools for biodiversity conservation. Fisheries and conservation government agencies show little willingness to cooperate on MPAs issues, and fishers do not seem to have a unanimous position on whether MPAs should have a role in fisheries management. As a result, government MPA planning processes currently fail to acknowledge and properly assess potential negative impacts of MPAs on commercial fisheries. Whether MPAs are used solely for biodiversity conservation, fisheries management, or a combination of both, has major implications for their selection and design (size, location, level of protection) and expected benefits and costs for fisheries. To improve negotiations on MPAs, fisheries and conservation agencies and commercial fishers need to seriously engage in a debate about the role of MPAs.