One Ocean, Many Worlds of Life - Convention on Biological Diversity

Far less area has been set aside as reserves in marine and coastal waters
than on land. Whereas approximately 13 percent <strong>of</strong> the world’s terrestrial
surface area is protected in reserves, that figure is a little over 1 percent in
marine environments. However, progress is being made, particularly with the
establishment <strong>of</strong> large-scale marine reserves: Papahānaumokuākea Marine
National Monument in the northwest Hawaiian Islands, established by the
US Government in 2006; the Motu Motiro Hiva marine park around the
Salas y Gómez Islands, covering the area east <strong>of</strong> Easter Island and established
by the Chilean government in 2010; and the Chagos Marine Reserve, decreed
by the UK government in 2010, encompassing a huge area <strong>of</strong> the Indian
<strong>Ocean</strong>. Other, even larger, reserves are being considered, including the
Kermadec Islands, located between New Zealand and Tonga, and home to
11 percent <strong>of</strong> the world’s seabird species; and the Coral Sea, <strong>of</strong>f the northeast
coast <strong>of</strong> Australia, which at almost one million square kilometres would be
the largest marine reserve <strong>of</strong> all.
<strong>One</strong> clear way forward is to create economic value from protecting marine
and coastal environments and wildlife as a viable alternative to exploiting
them. For example, a 2009 report found that whale watching generates US$ 2
billion in revenues a year and is growing rapidly in the three remaining
whaling nations, where it is generating a constituency for whale protection.141
Meanwhile, the economic services and products provided by coastal environments—through,
for example, fisheries, coastal protection, cultural values
and tourism —have been estimated at nearly US$ 26 billion a year. That
figure does not include the emerging area <strong>of</strong> Blue Carbon.
Blue Carbon refers to the fact that salt marshes, seagrasses and mangroves,
in particular, each sequester far greater amounts <strong>of</strong> carbon per square metre
than do terrestrial forests: each year one square kilometre <strong>of</strong> seagrass absorbs
approximately the same amount <strong>of</strong> CO2 as 50 square kilometres <strong>of</strong> tropical
forests142. The goal <strong>of</strong> the Blue Carbon Initiative, set up by a coalition <strong>of</strong>
non-governmental and intergovernmental partners, is to develop a mechanism
by which a value can be assigned to this carbon, and a market established
under which countries would be paid to protect them—simultaneously
arresting the decline <strong>of</strong> rapidly disappearing coastal environments and
mitigating climate change.
As part <strong>of</strong> its Jakarta Mandate on marine and coastal biodiversity, the
<strong>Convention</strong> on Biological Diversity (CBD) is committed to a series <strong>of</strong>
64 Marine BiOdiversity