One hundred percent and still not enough?

The islands are home to almost half the coral species in the Indian Ocean. Photo: NASA, Public Domain

On Friday April 2nd the area of oceans that could reasonably be called protected doubled; in a single action the British Government created a 545,000 square kilometre Marine Protected Area in its Indian Ocean Territory.

There is no doubt about the high marine values of the area: pollution levels are low and biodiversity is healthy, a fact that will allow both research and natural dispersal processes to contribute to the re-establishment of coral reefs along the east coast of Africa, with immediate positive influences on the food supply of sub-Saharan Africa.  Good things.

And the scientific and conservation components of the exercise have been supported by key institutions – PEW Environment Group, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and others.

Consultation was global; it is claimed that more than 275,000 people from more than 200 countries indicated full support for the protection of the 55 tiny islands and their surrounding waters.

Increased marine fertility will help seabirds, like this Great Frigatebird, rear broods that have a better chance of surviving into adulthood. Photo: Duncan Wright, Public Domain

But there is always a tradeoff, and in this case, as so often, it involves the rights of original inhabitants. The small island nation of Mauritius has unresolved territorial claims to the area, and the inhabitants, called Chagossians (after the Chagos Archipelago) were relocated by compulsion by the British in the 1960’s and 70’s when they leased the island of Diego Garcia to the U.S. military as a strategic airbase.  These people naturally want to return.  They fear loss of fishing rights, but only part of the area is declared a no-fishing zone.  While these issues might have been dealt with they have not been, but it is clearly an optimistic situation when the marine productivity of a vast area with few legitimate claimants has been guaranteed.  Surely there can now be just resolutions.

The big deal is the doubling of protected oceanic area.  It now totals roughly 3.2% of the ocean’s area.  While a 100% increase in anything good is not to be sneezed at, the harder reality is that if fully functioning ecosystems are the goal, a minimum of 30% protection by area is needed, and more is better.  Leading marine scientists Sylvia Earle and Charlie Veron have described this increment as a “down payment” on what is expressly needed – a “marine ecosystems recovery plan.”  Canada can help.  Our protection of marine area is less than 1% of territorial waters.  Let’s go Canada.