Question: What are the targets of MCAs?
Answer: Marine Conservation Agreements can target “protection” of biodiversity or “provision” of ecosystem services.
How organizations articulate conservation targets and associated conservation goals depends primarily on three factors:
- The organizational mission and funding objectives
- The legal framework under which the MCA will be entered into
- The stakeholders who can influence the MCA and who will be affected by the MCA
Based on these three factors, organizations may want to articulate their conservation targets as protecting marine biodiversity or providing marine ecosystem services, or both. While biodiversity protection and ecosystem services provision are technically different targets, they are compatible within one another and can be used inter-changeably if needed.
In some cases organizations may have to convince stakeholders (including the owners, users, or managers who will enter into the MCA) that the MCA will not simply tie up areas for no use (i.e., setting areas aside to protect them). Instead, organizations may have to convince stakeholders that the MCA will provide a service to the community. Providing something to the community (and others) may be considered more of a productive use which may be easier for stakeholders to understand, accept, and authorize. As such, articulating that the MCA will provide ecosystem services to the community may be necessary in order to protect biodiversity.
The table below identifies discrete elements of biodiversity and ecosystem services that conservation organizations may consider protecting or providing with MCAs. For more on ecosystem services, see Ecosystem Valuation.
Whether stakeholders will be receptive to messages of biodiversity protection or ecosystem services provision is a determination that must be made on a case-by-case basis. In any event, MCAs can achieve both.
Identification of Rights and Interests
MCAs should be crafted so organizations can directly or indirectly acquire or help manage specific rights, such as:
- Ownership rights or interests
- Management and development rights or interests
- User rights or interests (such as harvest or access rights)
Given the legal framework under which MCAs will be entered into, organizations must consider which ownership, management and user rights and interests can and must be acquired or managed to protect the targeted biodiversity elements or provide the targeted ecosystem services. Similar to the stakeholder receptivity determination mentioned above, this is also a case-by-case determination. Whichever is the case, the listings below give examples of biodiversity elements and ecosystem services that could be targeted within MCAs to protect or provide.
Potential MCA Targets
| Biodiversity Elements | |
|---|---|
| Elements | May be Protected by MCAs |
| Land Can be adjacent coastal uplands, intertidal lands (between the high and low tide lines), or subtidal lands (below the low tide line). |
|
| Plants Can be attached to bottom sediments, floating in the water-column, or floating on top of the water. To note is that rights to protect plants which are attached to soil and sediments can be directly or indirectly connected to rights associated with land. |
|
| Animals Can be permanently or temporarily embedded in the bottom sediments (usually sessile), live on top of the substrate (usually somewhat mobile), live in the water column (usually very mobile), or live above the water. To note is that rights to protect animals which are embedded in soil and sediments can be directly or indirectly connected to rights associated with land. |
|
| Water Can be intertidal or subtidal. |
|
| Air |
|
| Human structures Can be in, on, or over land, water, or air. The rights to protect structures can be directly or indirectly connected to rights associated with land. |
|
| * Typically, these biodiversity elements can only be indirectly protected through MCAs. For example, if the MCA is for shellfish restoration, then protection of the water quality, quantity, and column may be possible because these elements are legitimately required to undertake and maintain the shellfish restoration efforts. | |
| Ecosystem Services 1 | |
|---|---|
| Services | May be Provided by MCAs |
| Provisioning The products obtained from ecosystems. |
|
| Regulating The benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes. |
|
| Supporting Ecosystem services that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. |
|
| Cultural The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience. |
|
| Preserving Services that keep options open for future human use. |
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1 Taken largely from: UNEP (2006) Marine and coastal ecosystems and human wellbeing:
A synthesis report based on the findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. UNEP. 76pp