A
plan to save Earth's oceans
University
of Queensland
At
least 26 per cent of our oceans need urgent conservation attention to preserve
Earth's marine biodiversity, a University of Queensland-led international study
has found.
Dr
Kendall Jones said the international community needed to rapidly increase
marine conservation efforts to maintain the health of the world's oceans.
"Preserving
a portion of habitat for all marine species would require 8.5 million square
kilometres of new conservation areas," Dr Jones said.
"Currently
one-third of all marine species have less than 10 per cent of their range
covered by protected areas.
"Conserving
the areas we've identified in our study would give all marine species a
reasonable amount of space to live free from human impacts like fishing,
commercial shipping or pesticide runoff."
The
authors mapped more than 22,000 marine species habitats and applied a
mathematical approach to identify the minimum area required to capture a
portion of each species range.
They
also included areas of international importance for biodiversity (known as Key
Biodiversity Areas), and areas where human impacts on the ocean are extremely
low (known as marine wildernesses).
They
found that the total ocean area required for conservation varied from 26-41 per
cent, depending on the proportion of each species range conserved.
Key
regions for conservation included the Northern Pacific Ocean near China and
Japan, and the Atlantic between West Africa and the Americas.
Director of Science at the Wildlife Conservation Society and UQ scientist Professor James Watson said the findings demonstrated the need for greater worldwide conservation efforts.
"The
world's nations will be coming together in China this year to sign an agreement
that will guide global conservation for the next ten years," Professor
Watson said.
"This
science shows that governments must act boldly, as they did for the Paris
Agreement on climate change, if we are to stop the extinction crisis facing
many marine species."
Professor
Watson said it was crucial that global conservation strategies involved rapid
action to protect endangered species and ecosystems, combined with approaches
to sustainably manage the ocean in its entirety.
"This
isn't just about strict marine protected areas," he said.
"We
need to use a broad range of strategies such as no-fishing zones, community
marine reserves and broad-scale policies to put an end to illegal and
unsustainable commercial fishing operations."
The
authors stress that ocean conservation was essential for people and
biodiversity.
"Millions
of people around the world depend on marine biodiversity as a crucial source of
food and income," Professor Watson said.
"A
well-designed global conservation agreement will help preserve these
livelihoods into the future."
