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 Editorials | Environmental | October 2007 
Latin America Has Turned Its Back on the Sea
 Marcela Valente - Tierramérica
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 |  | If Latin America wants to be a world leader in protected areas, it has one pending debt: the sea.
- Imčne Meliane,IUCN |  | |
Bariloche, Argentina - Latin America and the Caribbean have as much land territory as marine area. But while more than 10 percent of the land is protected, not even one percent of the sea is.
"If Latin America wants to be a world leader in protected areas, it has one pending debt: the sea," Imčne Meliane, of the global marine programme of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), told Tierramérica.
"The region has the world's most productive seas, but has its back turned to them. If you say 'Latin America' you think of mountains and jungle much more than the sea, the whales or sharks," said the expert from Tunisia who lives in Costa Rica.
Meliane spoke with Tierramérica following a workshop on protected marine areas at the 2nd Latin American Congress on National Parks and Other Protected Areas, held last week in Bariloche, a mountain resort city 1,600 km southwest of Buenos Aires.
According to a commitment made by the international community in 2002 at the Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, by 2012 the protected marine areas should be connected in networks to allow for more effective conservation of natural resources.
Furthermore, the World Parks Congress held in 2003 in the South African city of Durban recommended protection for at least 10 percent of the oceans - also with a deadline of 2012.
"In Latin America, we don't reach even one percent of marine areas protected, and if we don't count the conservation area around the Galápagos archipelago (Ecuador), the largest in the region, we're left with almost nothing," said Meliane.
That stands in sharp contrast to the total protected land area, which has doubled in the past decade to 10 percent. "There are some 300 protected marine areas, mostly in the Caribbean, against 4,000 protected land areas," she noted.
"Brazil has a good number, but Argentina is just creating its first" in the southern province of Chubut. Of South America's protected marine areas, Meliane cited Chile, where there are about 20 areas under shared management by different sectors.
"Fishers tend to have a short-term mentality, which is why a pioneering approach by the Chilean government is interesting, because it involves them, granting them joint management of areas where fishing is regulated," she said.
Georgina Bustamante, a Cuban scientist with the Network and Forum of Wider Caribbean Marine Protected Marine Areas, explained to Tierramérica that many species require vast areas for their reproduction.
"We must coordinate management efforts among countries," she said. The network links scientists and directors of protected marine areas, but has no governmental representation.
The Marine Conservation Corridor of the Pacific was presented during the Bariloche congress. The corridor is an initiative of the governments of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama, and includes the Galápagos, Costa Rica's Isla de Coco, and other archipelagos.
The aim is to establish a joint management system for the conservation and sustainable use of the protected marine areas in those countries.
But even in these cases, which are in "the vanguard" of setting up conservation networks, there are numerous obstacles, says Bustamante.
For example, the lack of political will among governments, pressures from the tourism and fishing industries, and the lack of education about the importance of protecting natural resources beyond national borders.
Marco Araya, director of protected areas at Costa Rica's environment ministry, told Tierramérica that in his country the lack of resources threatens the conservation of Isla de Coco.
"Many ask why there are more protected land areas than marine areas. For us, protecting Isla de Coco costs 10 times more than a protected land area," he said.
Costa Rica is the only country in the region that does not have a military marine corps, which could provide logistical support for preserving the seas of this Pacific island, located 500 km west of the continent.
"Sometimes we have to leave our boats docked due to lack of parts for repairs. We have to turn to non-governmental organisations for repairs or use private boats for our park rangers to reach the island," said Araya.
Isla de Coco, which attracts 3,500 to 4,000 tourists annually, is unique for its natural diversity, the number of autochthonous species and its isolation.
Despite the many shared difficulties, Argentine biologist Claudio Campagna, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, proposed preserving the southwest Atlantic beyond the exclusive economic zone.
"We want to create a 'protected ocean area' at high seas, in the basin where there is a great diversity of resources," he said, announcing that scientists from many conservation institutions are working on that proposal.
Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. |
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