This section explains how various components of IUCN work on marine conservation issues, from species-based approaches to area-based planning.
The Species Survival Commission (SSC) – MCSC and Specialist Groups
Within the SSC, the Marine Conservation Sub-Committee (MCSC) is an advisory body that aims to ensure that decisions taken by policy-makers and resource managers on the management of marine resources are based on sound and scientific knowledge. The MCSC is Co-Chaired by Dr. Claudio Campagna and Dr. Yvonne Sadovy and has a membership that brings expertise on a variety of marine issues and is representative of a number of IUCN’s partner institutions and SSC Specialist Groups. The next meeting will be held on 14-15 June 2010.
The following is a list of the MCSC members for 2009-2012:
• Dr Claudio Campagna (MCSC Co-Chair)
• Prof Kent Carpenter (IUCN Species Programme staff observer – for GMSA)
Mr Bruce Collette
• Ms Sarah Fowler
• Ms Julie Griffin (IUCN Species Programme staff observer)
• Prof Dan Laffoley
• Dr Finn Larsen (IUCN Marine Programme staff observer)
• Dr David Obura
• Prof Anna Occhipinti-Ambrogi
• Dr Nicolas Pilcher
• Dr Alex Rogers
• Dr Yvonne Sadovy (MCSC Co-Chair)
• Dr Frederick T. Short
Reports from past MCSC meetings can be found here: http://iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/our_work/marine/what_we_do_marine/governance/index.cfm
Species Programme
The Species Programme contributes to marine conservation by supporting the marine Specialist Groups and the Marine Conservation Sub-Committee of SSC. The core programme work on marine species is the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) jointly coordinated by Prof. Kent Carpenter and his team with Old Dominion University and Conservation International. The GMSA is the largest global Red List project to date and is working towards assessing 20,000 marine species. The GMSA team includes Beth Polidoro (Research Associate/Senior Red List Officer), Heather Harwell, (Post-Doctoral Associate/IUCN Programme Officer), Mia Theresa Comeros-Raynal (Research Assistant/Red List Officer), Cristiane Elfes (BAU Programme Officer), Jonnell Sanciangco (GIS Research Associate), Andrew Hines (Graduate Research Assistant), Andrew Calhoun (Undergraduate Research Assistant), Landon Knapp (Undergraduate Research Assistant), and Emilie Stump (Undergraduate Research Assistant). Learn more: http://sci.odu.edu/gmsa/
WCPA–Marine
WCPA–Marine is the World Commission on Protected Areas’ (WCPA) marine biome network of experts whose mission is ‘to promote the establishment of a global, representative system of effectively managed and lasting networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)’. As part of the WCPA they work in partnership with IUCN's Global Programme on Protected Areas and IUCN’s Global Marine Programme. It aims to:
• Convene, coordinate and network, in order to help governments and others to plan, develop and implement MPAs, MPA networks, and the global system, and integrate them with all other sea and coastal uses and maritime sectors;
• Ensure better application of the best science, technical and policy advice on MPAs, MPA networks, and the global system;
• Generate, synthesize and disseminate knowledge on MPAs, often in the form of best practice advice, to a diverse range of players;
Prof Dan Laffoley is WCPA Marine Vice Chair. Contact: +44 1733 455 234,
Email: dan.laffoley@naturalengland.org.uk or danlaffoley@btinternet.com .
Learn more about WCPA-Marine: http://cms.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/wcpa/wcpa_what/wcpa_marine/ and http://www.protectplanetocean.org/.
Global Marine Programme
The IUCN Global Marine Programme (GMP) is a thematic programme based at Headquarters in Switzerland, but with staff posted at numerous IUCN offices around the world (see http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/marine/marine_contacts/). It works closely with both the SSC and the World Commission on Protected Areas to help deliver IUCN’s mandate on marine conservation and sustainable use.
GMP’s work falls under eight broad themes: Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation; Conserving Threatened Marine Species; Energy & Industry; Fisheries & Aquaculture; Managing Marine Invasive Species; Marine Protected Areas (MPAs); Ocean Governance; and Securing Coastal Livelihoods.
GMP works closely with the private sector, most notably with Sakhalin Energy on mitigating impacts from the oil and gas operations off Sakhalin Island; with Yemen LNG to give expert advice on the Company’s biodiversity plan and monitoring efforts; and with E.ON to develop a guidance document on managing the risks and opportunities of offshore renewable energy.
GMP also recognizes the importance of furthering knowledge of marine ecosystems as a way of promoting their protection. To this effect, GMP has started implementing a Global Environmental Facility (GEF) project to better understand the ecology of seamounts in the Southern Indian Ocean and to use the findings to improve fisheries management in the region. With German funding, GMP has also set up a Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative to use scientific criteria to identify high seas areas in urgent need of protection. Learn more about the Global Marine Programme: http://www.iucn.org/marine
TRAFFIC (a joint programme of IUCN and WWF)
A growing number of fisheries stocks and, increasingly, entire species are declining in the wild, driven by a global increase in demand for fisheries products and in fisheries capacity. Such species include widespread species such as tunas, several of which are classified as threatened in the IUCN Red List, and species with more restricted ranges and markets, e.g. the coral reef fish Humphead Wrasse, traded live for the restaurant trade, classified by IUCN as Endangered.
The design and implementation of fisheries harvest and trade controls are frequently insufficient to ensure that fishing is maintained within sustainable levels and/or to allow identification and exclusion of products resulting from illegal fisheries. This undermines government, private sector and local community efforts to improve fishing practices and supply chain management.
TRAFFIC is therefore working to promote more effective application of trade-related measures in high seas and nearshore fisheries to reduce both unsustainable and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and to improve management of fisheries stocks. This includes advocacy for increased application of measures such as catch documentation schemes by member States of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), increased action by RFMOs to reduce take of non-target species such as sharks, and action by consumer markets to combat IUU fishing, e.g. by monitoring and supporting the implementation of the European Union (EU) regulation on IUU fishing.
Enhancing the application of CITES in improving fisheries management and trade controls also continues to be a feature of TRAFFIC’s fisheries work.Targets for action include tunas, sharks, sturgeons, Humphead Wrasse, abalones and sea cucumbers, with coastal fisheries work to take place in countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Malaysia and Indonesia, Russia, and key consumer markets including China, the USA, and the EU.
This work supports achievement of the IUCN Global Programme Results, e.g. those linked to enabling policies and governance systems for biodiversity conservation (Core Programme Area), managing ecosystems for human well-being (Thematic Programme Area 4), and greening the world economy (Thematic Programme Area 5).
IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management’s Fisheries Expert Group (FEG)
The Fisheries Experts Group (FEG) was established during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in 2008 under the Commission of Ecosystem Management and with the support of the Global Marine Program. It consists of a limited number of senior fisheries experts from around the world. Its mission is to foster the sustainable development of fisheries and promote the conservation of related marine ecosystems.
It is established to address the need for an ecosystem-focused expert group with fisheries competence within the Commission on Ecosystem Management of IUCN in relation to marine issues. FEG is an Expert Group with global expertise on the Ecosystem Approach, as the leading paradigm in conservation and management issues, for fisheries and marine issues. FEG will also have an important role in providing a link between the fishery and biodiversity expert communities of IUCN.
The group held its kick-off meeting last year in Washington and adopted a program of work.
The FEG’s most important achievement so far, in addition to commenting on various IUCN papers on post-2010 targets and MPAs, is the contribution to the FAO-UNEP-CBD report on destructive fishing practices, unsustainable fishing and IUU (“illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing”), for which FEG is co-author.FEG was also the co-organizer of a side event in Nairobi during the CBD SBSTTA meeting together with FAO and UNEP, and last but not least FEG is included in the list of organizations /groups to be consulted by CBD on fisheries/ marine conservation related issues.
SSC Marine Specialist Groups and Red List Authorities
Contact details and links to the Specialist Groups can be found in Directory.
Last update of this list: June 2010.
