Story | 13 Apr, 2021

New Marine Protected Areas MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) now open

The IUCN Programme on African Protected Areas & Conservation is launching a new MOOC on Marine protected areas (MPAs). This new course will complement other courses on protected areas already available, such as Protected areas management in Africa, Ecological monitoring, Law enforcement, Species conservation, Valorisation of resources & tourism, and New technologies.

Photo: IUCN PAPACO

Overview of the MPA MOOC

The MOOC MPA completes our series of MOOCs on protected areas, and focuses on aspects related to marine ecosystems. Marine protected areas (MPA) are managed on the same basis as terrestrial protected areas. However, the specific nature of these ecosystems require special measures and considerations.

We cover topics such as the design and creation of MPA networks, governance, ecological monitoring, but also surrounding economic activities, and how to include all this to MPA management.

This MOOC was developed by experts in their respective fields, and it is paced by video case studies to help you combine theory with practice.

Registration to this course is free and open to all on mooc-conservation.org/

Learning objectives

At the end of the course you will be able to answer these questions:

What are MPAs?
What are the specificities of their management and governance?
What ecological monitoring should be applied?
How to implement effective planning and sustainable funding of MPA management?
What impact do MPAs have on marine biodiversity? What future developments can we expect and how can we promote them?
How to restore MPAs?
How to valorise spaces?
What room should be given to aquaculture?

IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme participation

Among other specialists, Aurelie Spadone from our Global Marine and Polar Programme, developed content and recorded videos for the High Seas MPAs part of the course (in English and French).