Marine protected area learning site for the Coral Triangle

The Ocean Race is the ultimate ocean challenge– a round-the-world sailing race through some of the most remote waters on earth. The roots of the event’s Science Programme can be traced to 2001 when onboard sensors captured data from surface water. 2015 saw teams deploy drifter buoys for the first time. 

One of the Race’s key aims, besides athletic excellence, is to advance knowledge and collect data on ocean health. This is considered particularly valuable to scientists because teams gather information from areas of the ocean that research vessels seldom access, helping to fill critical knowledge gaps. The 2022-23 race’s focus areas include measuring meteorological data, essential ocean parameters, and microplastic pollution; as well as deploying surface drifter buoys and Argo floats; marine megafauna protection; and researching ocean biodiversity. Collected data is open-source and shared with the Race’s science partners, feeding into reports that inform and influence climate policy and targets.

Strategies have been developed and implemented in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP),to achieve a critical balance between newly discovered oil for extraction and maintaining the extensive biodiversity in the area. National agencies,companies and PA managers jointly developed strict guidelines which must be adhered to during the exploration phase and beyond. Biodiversity surveys and mapping and biodiversity surveys helped identify sensitive areas avoid.

The Event Book System is an example of sustainable Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) used in many communal conservancies throughout Namibia, which allows communities to contribute to decision making in natural resource management. The main contributing factors facilitating sustainable CBNRM programmes include community involvement, multi-level implementation, simplification and standardization of methods and motivation of local community members.

South Africa and Namibia have formulated a ‘Joint Operation Strategy’, a treaty signed by both governments, which oversees the management of Richtersveld National Park (SA) and Ai/Ais Hot Spring Game Park (N). The strategy ensures that management plans, community involvement and income generation projects for the parks are collaboratively planned and all decisions must be reached unanimously through joint governing boards and committees.

In Paraguay we have managed to combine the vision of biodiversity conservation with the restitution of ancestral lands of the Mbyaguarani indigenous people. What we have called “socioenvironmental condominium” is a sample of what can be achieved between environmental organizations and indigenous peoples. Our goals are common and can be achieve by working with those who better understand conservation in situ: native peoples.

As coastal development increases in Brazil, artisanal fishers struggle to protect their resources. By leveraging the government-created Extractive Reserves’ (RESEXs) legal structure and working with government, local fishers’ organizations, and communities, Rare’s Fish Forever program in Brazil has 1) established community-led governance and authority over artisanal fisheries; 2) designated managed-access fishing areas, combined with no-take reserves; and 3) improved participation of fishers and communitiy members in fisheries management and decision-making.