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Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands

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Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands WWF South Africa Report Series - 2008/Marine/001 Deon Nel and Aaniyah Omardien (Editors) Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands WWF South Africa Report Series – 2008/Marine/001 Compiled and edited by: Deon Nel & Aaniyah Omardien WWF Sanlam Living Waters Partnership, WWF South Africa, Private Bag X2, Die Boord, 7613, South Africa Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] JULY 2008 Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands Contents Pg Executive Summary __________________________________________________ ii PART 1: Conserving pattern and process in the Southern Ocean: Designing a 1 Marine Protected Area for the Prince Edward Islands PART 2: Updated maps and statistics of the legal Patagonian Toothfish 36 (Dissostichus Eleginoides) fishery in South Africa’s exclusive economic zone at the Prince Edward Islands PART 3: South Africa’s proposed Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward 50 Islands: an analysis of legal obligations, options and opportunities PART 4: Draft Management Plan for the Prince Edward Islands Marine 101 Protected Area PART 5: Proposal for the proclamation of the Prince Edward Islands Marine 175 Protected Area Pg i Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands Executive Summary In June 2004, the South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Minister van Schalkwyk, announced South Africa’s intention to declare one of the largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the world around its sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. This catalyzed a partnership between WWF and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) to guide the implementation of this commitment. This report is a compilation of the work undertaken by this partnership over three years. Firstly, in order to ensure that the Minister’s commitment was implemented in a way which maximized its ecological significance and minimized its impact on the legal fishery operations, WWF and DEAT commissioned a systematic marine conservation plan for the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding the Prince Edward Islands (Part 1). After collating all available distributional data on species, benthic habitats, ecosystem processes and fishing activities, and discussions with all stakeholders, C-Plan software was used to delineate a proposed MPA, with three management zones. Compromises between conservation target achievement and the commercial fishery are apparent in the final reserve design. It was recognised that this was the best delineation that could be made on the information available at the time and that the proposed MPA boundaries could change over time as new data become available and as impacts of climate change become more evident. Subsequent to this report, further analyses were undertaken on new fisheries data to quantify the potential impact that the proposed MPA would have on the legal fishery operating around the islands. The outputs of these analyses (Part 2) were the subject of further negotiations with the industry. In these discussions it was clear that the legal fishery played an important surveillance role around the islands and that compromising the economic viability of the legal fishery could compromise the objectives of the MPA. These discussions were significant in agreeing on a set of recommended proposed regulations for each of the management zones. An analysis of the legal context for such a MPA was also undertaken (Part 3). This analysis revealed that the declaration of this MPA was consistent with South Africa’s commitments and obligations under several international legal agreements. Whilst the Prince Edward Islands themselves are declared as a Special Nature Reserve under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act of 2003 (NEMPA), it is recommended that the entire Prince Edward Islands MPA is designated under the section 43 of the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998. Pg ii Towards the Development of a Marine Protected Area at the Prince Edward Islands Further it is noted that national and international legal mechanisms exist for regulating marine traffic, which would greatly assist in the prosecution of illegal vessels in the area, by obviating the difficult challenge of proving that the errant vessel was in fact fishing at the time of detection. It was also recommended that South Africa, speedily conclude its bilateral compliance agreements with both France and Australia. Subsequent to the development of the above reports it was made clear to WWF that the Minister would not move ahead with the declaration until a management plan was developed for the MPA. WWF therefore commissioned the development of a draft management plan which is found in Part 4. The draft management plan includes biophysical, governance and compliance, and socio-economic strategic components and puts forward an integrated compliance framework for this MPA. Importantly, the draft management plan points out that the enforcement of an MPA around the Prince Edward Islands would not require the commitment of additional resources, over and above those already required to fulfill South Africa’s obligations to manage and protect the marine resources of this area as required by the Law of the Sea Convention (Articles 192 and 194). In fact the MPA is merely a spatial delineation that should facilitate more efficient protection of the most important biodiversity assets of the area. Finally, after consideration of the outputs of the above processes and following five separate stakeholder consultation processes, a set of recommendations were put forward (Part 5) for the declaration of the Prince Edward Islands, in October 2007. The marine biodiversity of the Prince Edward Islands is globally important and worthy of protection. So much so, that South Africa is in process of nominating the Islands as a World Heritage Site which would include a marine component. Unfortunately, the protection of these resources in the past has been poor, with the area dogged by rampant illegal poaching of Patagonian toothfish during the mid to late 1990’s. Four years after the Ministers’ announcement of his intentions, it is hoped that the work presented in this publication will finally culminate in the declaration of this important MPA. Pg iii Designing the Prince Edward Islands Marine Protected Area CONSERVING PATTERN AND PROCESS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN: DESIGNING A MARINE PROTECTED AREA FOR THE PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS A.T. Lombard1, B. Reyers2, L. Schonegevel2, J. Cooper3, L. Smith-Adao2, D. Nel4, W. Froneman5, I. Ansorge6, M. Bester7, C. Tosh7, T. Strauss8, T. Akkers9, O. Gon10, R. Leslie9, S. Chown11 1Marine Biology Research Institute, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa Email: [email protected] 2Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P O Box 320, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa 3Avian Demography Unit, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa 4WWF-SA, Millennia Park, 16 Stellentia Avenue, Stellenbosch, 7613, South Africa 5Department of Zoology and Entomology, Southern Ocean Group, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, Rhodes University, 6140, Grahamstown, South Africa 6Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, 7701, Rondebosch, South Africa 7Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology & Entomology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa 8Department of Nature Conservation, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Private Bag X6531, George 6530, South Africa 9Marine and Coastal Management, Private Bag X2, Roggebaai 8012, South Africa 10South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Private Bag 1015, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa 11DST Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa ABSTRACT The role of marine protected areas (MPAs) in conserving marine biodiversity while maximizing fishery benefits is gaining increased recognition internationally and was the basis for a proposal by the South African government to proclaim a major new MPA in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the Prince Edward Islands. This MPA would serve dual roles of 1) restoring populations of the commercially important Patagonian toothfish (Dissotichus eleginoides), while reducing the bycatch of the fishery, and 2) forming part of a representative global system of MPAs to protect marine biodiversity. This study follows systematic conservation planning methods to identify an MPA that will: (1) conserve biodiversity patterns and processes; (2) allow fishing to continue sustainably in the region; and (3) comprise sensible marine management boundaries. Following a significant data collation effort of distribution data on species, benthic habitats, ecosystem processes and fishing activities, we used C-Plan software to identify boundaries for a proposed MPA. The MPA consists of three zones: four IUCN Category 1A reserves (13% of EEZ), a Category IV reserve (21% of EEZ) and three Category VI reserves which cover the rest of the EEZ. The combined “no-take” area of the MPA (i.e. the Category 1A and IV reserves) thus covers 34% of the EEZ, which is greater than the 20% global recommendation but is necessary if the MPA is to achieve its objectives. Although MPA design has received much attention in recent times and management of the Southern Ocean is well developed, this study plays a vital role in ensuring the protection of representative habitats and will hopefully provide
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