Protecting marine ecosystems through protected area designations is critical for biodiversity conservation. However, people and communities living in or around protected areas must be given sufficient consideration in the conservation equation.
Bypassing populations who depend on marine resources not only restricts livelihoods and economic development, but it also runs the risk of limiting the achievement of conservation goals. In order to achieve success, people must be allowed to interact with and benefit from their surrounding environment so long as it is both responsible and sustainable.
Conservation International addresses these issues by looking at balancing and linking economic development with biodiversity conservation goals. This fosters community relations that not only cultivate interest in conservation objectives, but also raise living standards for community members.
Life on Earth originated in the sea and it continues to benefit us every day, whether you live in a coastal fishing village or a city miles from the shore. VIDEO: An Ocean of Truth |
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On World Environment Day, 2009, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva traveled to the fishing community of Ponta de Areia, Caravelas, in Brazil’s Bahia state. There, he celebrated the creation of the Cassurubá Extractive Reserve.
Protecting the world’s oceans and the underwater life that sustains people everywhere takes many forms. CI is working on many fronts to protect our oceans, and one partnership in particular aims to conserve most of the world’s known coral species.
In 2006, researchers led by CI’s Mark Erdmann dove into the coastal waters of Indonesia’s Papua province and found a wonder world of marine life. Today, the region that Erdmann described as a "species factory" is a new marine protected area (MPA).
The benefits of restricted fishing areas to the health of fish populations is a lesson Rodrigo de Moura, a CI marine protected areas specialist, discovered for himself as a boy, spear-fishing off the Brazilian shore of Sao Paulo state, near the port city of Santos.
Years ago, Costa Rica’s Tárcoles village was much like other fishing communities in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape. Poverty was increasing as resources declined, and prices for meager fish catches stayed flat as markets were saturated by industrial operators.