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Where do Marine Protected Areas fit within an Ecologically Sustainable Development Framework?

Rick Fletcher

Department Of Fisheries, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, NORTH BEACH, AUSTRALIA

Theme: TH1

The concept of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) requires consideration of the ecological impacts of activities along with their social and economic costs and benefits plus the governance arrangements employed. Many fisheries in Australia are now actively implementing ESD principles within their management arrangements to meet a growing number of government and community requirements. Given the frequent claims about the importance of marine protected areas to the ongoing management of marine resources, how will these systems fit together? It will be argued that with the wide variety of management tools usually needed to effectively manage most species within marine habitats, the main use of complete no-take MPA’s in Australia will not be to meet sustainability objectives. Rather they will be used to meet objectives within the governance aspects of ESD. Specifically, their primary use will be in the allocation of “access” shares for the stakeholders who wish to protect specified areas from any form of exploitation, such as eco-tourism operators and sports divers who want direct access to such areas, plus various conservation groups and individuals who may not need direct access but wish to have “no-take” areas developed to meet other objectives. Despite this latter group not wishing to catch any of these resources, such “no-take” areas still require a specific allocation of access, just as each of the catching sectors (i.e. commercial, recreational and, where relevant, the charter boat and indigenous sectors) need specific allocations for capture. Taking such an holistic approach will be necessary for implementing integrated fisheries management. Moreover, treating these debates as allocation issues rather than philosophical arguments about how best to manage natural resources should make them easier to resolve. Finally, the use of the National ESD framework to assist in the resolution of appropriate allocations of shares amongst these competing sectors will be discussed.