Marine Corridor Planning

The underlying principles for terrestrial and marine biodiversity conservation and corridor planning are often similar. However, it is imperative to take into account a number of crucial differences in ecosystem processes in order to best inform these principles. Successful management and conservation of marine species and areas will require a comprehensive knowledge of terrestrial and marine approaches. The areas of focus and study are similar for both systems: - Biological/Ecological - Sociological - Governance - Political and Legal - Economic - Business models

Marine Considerations The main differences between marine and terrestrial conservation strategies concern the relative importance of ecological processes. Connectivity Pelagic distribution of larvae require potentially different models Threat Differences Overexploitation A major threat for majority of marine species, reflecting in entire ecosystems Fishing pressure: predominate threat but we have very little knowledge regarding impact of fisheries / capacity to deal with threat Fragmentation Needs to be addressed in separate context, not comparable to terrestrial threat level Pelagics generally unaffected by fragmentation—still have long distance dispersal Mostly affects mobile benthic species at finer site scale

Marine Considerations (cont.) Scale Species distribution scale for defining endemism is much greater for marine than terrestrial systems (exception being limited range species endemism for island and seamount areas) Ecological biomes and boundaries Hard to define spatial units due to mobility and fluidity Larvae don’t necessarily rely on benthic habitat -- strong interdependence between systems Dynamic and transitional boundaries Governance Ownership of ocean: coastal, economic exclusive zone (EEZ), high seas Migrations Vertical and seasonal Aggregations of populations for spawning very common

Questions to Address Define marine wilderness areas/hotspots How do we define these? Where are they? What do they look like? Example: are there deep sea wilderness areas/hotspots? No people but high impact Don’t have marine “Amazons” or “Saharas” defined yet Data (estimated to have 5% of the amount of terrestrial data) How much is enough for species and habitat? How do we move forward in the absence of an abundance of data? KBA criteria/thresholds and monitoring habitat change/indicators Current approaches and similarities/differences to marine systems Identify context analysis gaps

Marine Corridor Planning Process Guiding marine strategy Focus on species, however, we need to concentrate on processes in order to build the strategy Can’t concentrate effort on distribution of species alone Institutional responses should be based on our global expertise Essential to get buy-in and local experience from marine field staff Need for more data and capacity to adopt/modify terrestrial corridor concepts for marine ecosystems Connection and consideration of land-sea interfaces Use this corridor workshop as platform for marine process in near future Build upon similar concepts and identify and articulate differences

Current Initiatives to Address Marine Corridor / Large Scale System Questions Monitoring specialist Habitat change and indicator analyses Conservation Synthesis Marine Specialist KBA criteria and thresholds Oceanographer– Large Scale/Habitat Specialist Integration of biological/ecological and physiographic and oceanographic concepts MPA Science Center Study and application of MPA science to network/corridor conservation planning

Current Initiatives to Address Marine Corridor / Large Scale System Questions (cont.) Learning from ongoing field projects and programs Collaboration with other CI departments Example: CABS Human Dimensions dept-- socioeconomic issues relating to links between terrestrial and marine Marine Web Portal Capitalize on little information and limited capacity to create momentum Quickly share lessons learned, coordinate information, reduce overlap, and internally enable our marine experts all over the world to communicate on this topic