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No water, no life. No blue, no green. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer
Fauna&Flora The magazine of Fauna & Flora International
Putting marine conservation on the map
Blue sea thinking John McIntyre
Forging new strategic partnerships to tackle the crisis in our oceans
Coast benefit analysis Five years of community-managed marine protection in Kenya
Support us by: Becoming a member Remembering FFI in your will Joining the Friends Against Extinction group Making a one-off donation
What lies beneath Hidden treasures in offshore Ecuador
Innovative conservation since 1903 www.fauna-flora.org
Blueprint for success Coastal and marine conservation in Aceh
Issue 14 | October 2011
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From the Helen Tinner
Chief Executive As a species we have a profound, emotional bond with the sea. It has been our benefactor, our solace and our source of inspiration for thousands of years. That it should now be suffering at our hands unites us again, only this time not in solace, but in dismay. Because we work in nature conservation, because we are obliged to understand the operational biology of ecosystems, because we study and implement different approaches to restoring habitats and the species that inhabit them, we know we can restore the virtues of the marine environment. From our work around the world there are numerous examples of rapid and consistent recovery.
we know we can restore the virtues of the marine environment. But those examples occur in less than one per cent of the world’s seas and oceans. Terrestrial conservation is way ahead. Knowing this to be the case, earlier this year at a dinner in London one of our Conservation Circle members asked us what incentives and penalties might be introduced to encourage the restoration of the deep oceans. The question was well informed. There is a large-scale economic picture to be addressed. We are tackling people who approach fishing from a short-term commercial perspective – the extraction of protein at a certain cost, and pay little heed to the environmental damage that is reducing the catch year by year. Our challenge is to continue developing and to increase our own capacity to implement conservation programmes that make a difference. Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin through their Arcadia Fund have provided us with the springboard to do just that – with a $5m challenge grant. We are now rolling out a programme of work that builds on the success of our endeavours in terrestrial conservation. So when I cast my line off my boat on the Orwell estuary I’ll be doing so in the knowledge that Fauna & Flora International and its partners have begun to take decisive action and make waves in marine conservation. There is a long way to go before the tide turns.
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Contents 4 Taking the plunge
Expanding FFI’s marine remit
8 Deep trouble
Tackling the crisis in our oceans
12 Blueprint for success
Riding the wave of the Aceh Green Initiative
15 Offshore Investment
Ocean stewardship and offshore oil & gas
17 What lies beneath
Hidden treasure off the Ecuador coast
22 Coast benefit analysis
Working with Kenya’s fishing communities
26 Around the world Putting marine conservation on the map
32 Conservation Leadership Programme
Grouper solutions
33 Partner profile Blue sea thinking
34 Who’s who Joy Juma
36 Supporting conservation Glad tidings
38 Species profile Grey nurse shark
40 Tools of the trade Into the blue
Mark Rose
42 Gallery Deep and meaningful www.fauna-flora.org | 3
From the beach, the sea still looks to be an untouched natural system. As a conservationist, however, I am well aware that if I looked beneath the surface of those waves I would see a different picture.
Taking the Plunge 4 | Fauna & Flora
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Fauna & Flora International is responding to the current crisis in our oceans by expanding and deepening its marine conservation remit, as Dr Abigail Entwistle, Director of Science, explains.
On the beach one does not see the millions of tonnes of fish being removed from the seas each year. One does not see the damage being done to the seabed by bottom trawling gear and industrial developments. From the beach the only visible symptoms of our oceans’ declining health are the rash of plastic jetsam disfiguring the surface and the technicolour ribbon of indigestible waste regurgitated onto the strandline. Being a predominantly land-based species, most of us only ever encounter the sea from our vantage point on the beach. We therefore
largely overlook what is happening beneath the waves. Until we immerse ourselves, it is perhaps easy to think that all is well with our oceans. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Callum Roberts so eloquently explains elsewhere in this issue, the very tapestry of life within our oceans is being gradually but inexorably unpicked. As key species are depleted, the balance of life in the oceans changes, resulting in the emergence of new (and sometimes damaging) dominant species. In addition, since we can no longer catch the species we used to enjoy eating, we are invited to sample new delicacies from ever more remote areas of the oceans (think of orange roughy dragged up from the ocean floor where it lives at depths below 500m). Add to this mix the impacts of pollution, coastal development and habitat destruction (from coastal mangroves and saltmarshes to ecosystems deep offshore, where bottom trawling gear
Dead reef, Indonesia. Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
Koh Rong coast, Cambodia. Jeremy Holden/FFI
I’m lucky enough to live next to the sea. Playing on the beach at the weekend with my children, I watch the waves and revel in the wild force of the ocean. From the beach, the sea still looks to be an untouched natural system. As a conservationist, however, I am well aware that if I looked beneath the surface of those waves I would see a different picture.
www.fauna-flora.org | 5
is damaging seabeds and seamounts). Throw in the growing threats from ocean warming and acidification – both direct impacts of rapidly increasing atmospheric CO2 – and you soon have a recipe for disaster. This lethal combination of factors undermines the ability of marine environments to recover, since there is never any respite. As a result, the oceans are failing to bounce back from this kind of constant barrage, hence the phenomenon of socalled ‘dead zones’. The need for marine conservation is both evident and urgent. FFI may be better known for its terrestrial projects – be it in the savannahs of Africa, the rainforests of Central America or the mountains of Central Asia, but we have been working on priority issues for marine and coastal biodiversity for a number of years, and are extremely proud of the achievements of our marine projects. For example, our work in Nicaragua has had important results for marine turtles. Last year alone FFI and our local partners helped an estimated two million turtle hatchlings to reach the ocean as a result of antipoaching efforts initiated at a series of beaches, including most recently
6 | Fauna & Flora
Estero Padre Ramos in Nicaragua, now considered one of the most important nesting beaches for hawksbill turtles in the entire eastern Pacific. A recent review of our operations revealed an under-representation of marine and coastal biodiversity in the FFI portfolio – with only 10% of our field projects addressing issues in marine and coastal environments. In response, and in recognition of the scale of threats facing the world’s oceans and coasts and the global importance of these ecosystems, FFI has committed to expand its focus on marine conservation. Over the last 18 months we have been working to realise this vision and to develop our ability to bring about real
change for key marine habitats. Responding to suggestions from the field, we have identified three specific priorities. With this in mind, our efforts will focus on securing marine protected areas as refuges for marine life, reversing key policies that damage the oceans, and supporting the growth of local marine conservation organisations across the world. Our ability to turn this nascent plan into action was underpinned by a generous, and largely unanticipated, donation, the details of which you can read about in the Supporting Conservation section (page 36). During the past year our teams have increasingly focused on the marine environment, and into developing a wider suite of projects that we believe
Last year alone the antipoaching efforts of FFI and our local partners helped an estimated two million turtle hatchlings to reach the ocean.
can make a tangible difference both locally and through their replication on a much wider scale.
Working in this way means our efforts are effectively amplified through the organisations we help.
secure the substantial finance necessary to underpin the establishment of the Chagos Marine Reserve.
It has been a year of growth for us – both developing our existing partnerships and forging new alliances. We have had the chance to bring in new staff with strong backgrounds in marine science and conservation. Within all of our regions we have seen the emphasis on the marine environment increase, with field teams taking the opportunities to showcase and share exciting examples of effective marine conservation. As always, we operate hand-in-hand with local partners, and the continued effectiveness of this approach is evident from the project examples described elsewhere in this issue. Alongside our existing marine work we have developed new and exciting projects to extend our marine portfolio, including work on marine protected areas in Kenya, policy engagement in Ecuador, and support to local marine institutions in Sumatra.
Over the last year we have also developed productive relationships with a range of other international marine conservation groups. FFI looks to add value, and bring its own unique experience and track record of conservation management to these new partnerships. For example, we have been working alongside the newly formed BLUE Marine Foundation, led by the team behind The End of the Line (see page 33). We have been able to offer them core support, which has helped them to
We now have an ambitious plan for marine conservation in place for the next five years, building on our existing strengths, and helping us to develop new skills. FFI has moved resolutely beyond that metaphorical beach. Far from merely dipping our toe in the water, we have already taken a number of decisive steps into the open ocean and begun to immerse ourselves in the vital task of restoring the health of our marine ecosystems. Experience tells us that we will not be out of our depth.
Marine conservation obviously presents a unique set of challenges. The scale of the issues we face; the lack of physical barriers to these threats; the level of large-scale political intransigence and power of the fishing lobby; the lack of ownership and rights over large tracts of the oceans; the difficulties in implementing protection out at sea. The list goes on.
Our support for the BLUE Marine Foundation has helped it to secure the finance needed to establish the vast Chagos Marine Reserve.
Nevertheless, many of the solutions to these problems rely on the conservation processes that we use every day – building consensus, developing plans with the appropriate interested parties, making clear economic arguments for change, finding novel sources of finance, lobbying for change…. FFI can bring to bear its significant experience, expertise and capacity in these areas. In addition, FFI’s modus operandi of identifying and supporting influential local organisations means we can significantly increase our impact in marine conservation. By using our core skills to help these partners develop (whatever their particular speciality), we can ensure they reach their full potential, which in turn maximises the broader conservation benefits.
Red mangrove, Benner Bay. Katie Fuller 2009/Marine Photobank
Catch of orange roughy. Stephen McGowan, Australian Maritime College, 2006/Marine Photobank
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
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Deep trouble
In 1993 a young pygmy sperm whale stranded on the shore of Galveston Island in Texas. It was taken to a holding tank, but died later. A bin liner, corn chip packet and bread wrapper were all it took to kill, lodged in the narrow entrance to its last stomach compartment. At about three and a half metres long, these are not the mightiest of whales. But it gives you pause to think that such innocuous bits of everyday rubbish could prove fatal. Since then the thickening broth of plastic and other rubbish drifting at sea has risen higher in the public consciousness. The remote Pacific island of Midway is dotted with neat heaps of pens, bottle tops, gas lighters, golf balls and sundry other bits and pieces, each of which marks the passing of an albatross chick. Their parents fly thousands of miles for this worthless ‘junk’ food. Evolution has not prepared albatrosses for plastic. Thirty years ago, soon after I first dived a Red Sea coral reef, I decided to become a marine biologist. I was overwhelmed by the beauty and variety of reef life. Schools of bright orange fish tinted with electric blue hovered above spreading coral tables.
8 | Fauna & Flora
Albatross caught as bycatch on longline. Projeto Tamar Brazil/Marine Photobank
By Callum Roberts
Desolate reef. David Burdick/Marine Photobank
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Thick-set stonefish hid in full view, their immobile bodies virtually indistinguishable from the rocks. Snowflake morays gaped from dark crevices while busy blennies grazed nearby. I fell in love with fish and for the next few years thought of little else. It was only later that I began to see that reefs were threatened by people. Overfishing and sediment pollution resulting from land-based development caught my attention first. About the same time, reefs across the world began to suffer troubling mass bleaching events in which corals first turned deathly white, and then usually died. Warm water was to blame. In the 1980s and ‘90s disease epidemics swept the Caribbean, clearing its reefs of the two main species that build them. Bad luck or a sign of growing stress? It turned out to be the latter. Coral reefs are still glorious places to visit and a few remain almost pristine. But I can’t help feeling a little sorry for my students embarking on careers in coral reef research, knowing that reefs are in such deep trouble. In the Caribbean, they have lost 80% of their coral since I began my career. Average coral cover now stands at just 10%. It
In the Caribbean, they have lost 80% of their coral since I began my career. can’t go much lower before we will have to stop calling them ‘coral’ reefs. As if global warming, pollution, overfishing and disease were not enough of a problem, along came ocean acidification to spice the cocktail of misery. Global warming is caused by fossil fuel burning, which produces carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide dissolves in the sea to produce carbonic acid, which is what gives fizzy drinks their tang. Higher acidity makes it harder for animals with chalky shells or skeletons to grow. Coral reefs are at the forefront of humanity’s grand experiment in planetary modification. Many of the world’s foremost coral reef experts now predict the demise of reefs within the next hundred years unless we quickly bring greenhouse gas emissions under control. The oceans are changing faster today than at any time in human history. In fact, it is hard to find any period in the
four and a half billion years our planet has existed when changes were anything like as fast or far reaching. Sea levels have risen several millimetres a year for the last few decades and the rate will increase to a centimetre a year by mid-century. Much of this rise is due to ocean warming, which itself is leading to a massive redistribution of life, as some areas become unsuitable and others open up. But for those that can’t move polewards as the seas warm, life is going to get tough. As the Mediterranean heats up, species that like it cool have been pushed towards its northern shores. If temperatures go too high, they will disappear, because the landmass of Europe halts any further progress on the march north. Animals and plants are also on the move under human influence. In the Mediterranean, a kind of seaweed called Caulerpa has spread like plague
www.fauna-flora.org | 9
Those same ships also fill the oceans with noise, levels of which have risen by thirty times since 1950. Whales like the critically endangered northern right whale now struggle to hear each other even a few miles apart in the busy seaways of eastern North
America. In the past, they could call to one another from over a thousand miles away. There are only a few hundred northern right whales left from the tens of thousands that once travelled the North Atlantic. Their parlous state today is a legacy of past hunting that drove down populations of all the great whales. For most whales, the killing ended in the mid-20th century, but the comeback will be prolonged for animals that are so long-lived and produce young so slowly. Of all the many ways in which we are changing the sea, humanity’s relentless quest for food and other products remains the greatest threat to wildlife. Solid estimates indicate that upwards of 73 million sharks are slaughtered every year to supply Asia’s burgeoning trade in shark fin soup. And in our globalised world, they are taken from almost every sea on the planet. Shark populations have plummeted in less than fifty years, in many cases falling by more than 95%.
Alessio Viora/Marine Photobank
Right: Sunfish entangled in a tuna net. Accidental bycatch is having a devastating impact on many marine species.
Of all the many ways in which we are changing the sea, humanity’s relentless quest for food and other products remains the greatest threat to wildlife. 10 | Fauna & Flora
Phillip Goeltenboth/ W WF
from Monaco, where it was introduced by mistake from the aquarium. It now chokes hundreds of square kilometres of seagrass beds from France to Croatia. As our world has globalised, a growing fleet of cargo ships now more than thirty thousand strong criss-crosses the seas to carry goods and materials from place to place. They carry stowaways attached to their hulls or sloshing in bilge water, which may be released inadvertently into new territories where they can establish themselves and, in some cases, cause trouble. The Chinese mitten crab, for instance, has invaded estuaries of southern Britain and northern Europe where it is destabilising estuarine mud banks with its burrows and killing native wildlife.
In the process of extracting life from the sea, industrial fishing causes immense collateral damage to creatures like turtles and albatrosses that are hooked or become entangled in lines and drown. On the seabed, bottom trawlers drag nets fifty or a hundred metres wide that mow down corals, sponges, sea fans and seaweed in their pursuit of fish. These impacts have become so severe as fishing has intensified that they have pushed some of the world’s most iconic species to the brink of extinction. The sleek Atlantic bluefin tuna is one of the world’s fastest fish, reaching speeds of 50 miles per hour. But with a body up to 700kg and three metres long, it is highly valuable and a single fish can sell for over US$100,000 in Japanese markets. Without urgent action, the species could be gone in twenty years. Likewise, the Pacific leatherback has declined from over ninety thousand nesting females a few decades ago to fewer than five thousand today. The world’s largest sea turtle, this giant chelonid has an evolutionary history that extends far back into the age of dinosaurs, but longline fishing has brought it heartbreakingly close to extinction.
Gerick Bergsma 2010/Marine Photobank
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
The oceans are vast and the threats they face are growing rapidly in number and scope.
Above: Coastal communities that rely on fishing are finding their nets empty. Above right: Overexploitation has resulted in bluefin tuna stocks reaching critically low levels.
The growing crisis for marine life has not escaped the attention of FFI. The organisation has come a long way since its earliest incarnation as a protector of large African land mammals and has gained widespread recognition for its innovative approach to terrestrial conservation worldwide. This approach is also starting to bear fruit in a marine context. Whilst many of its highest profile successes relate to terrestrial ecosystems and to landbased fauna like mountain gorillas, Sumatran tigers, Antiguan racers, Vietnamese primates and the Arabian oryx, FFI has been quietly but actively involved in coastal marine conservation for well over a decade, from mangrove protection in Indonesia to sea turtle conservation in East Africa and Nicaragua. With the oceans in crisis, however, there is an urgent need to focus more resources offshore and beneath the waves, a fact acknowledged when
FFI officially launched its marine programme in 2010. The oceans are vast and the threats they face are growing rapidly in number and scope. But there is much that can be done to protect life and improve the outlook for ocean-going megafauna and the wider marine habitats on which they and countless other species depend, including our own. By good fortune it turns out that solutions that can benefit wildlife are usually in the best interests of those who make a living from the sea. Marine protected areas that are placed off limits to fishing can rebuild populations of commercial fish as well as affording safe havens for vulnerable animals like turtles, seals and birds. The offspring of protected fish can replenish fishing grounds as they disperse from protected areas. In places like the Caribbean and Ecuador, networks of marine protected areas
are being designed with the input of fishermen to promote conservation and sustainable fishing. Protected areas cannot on their own hold back the forces of global change, but by growing populations out of the danger zone they can give ocean wildlife enough resilience to cope with human pressures and sustain themselves as we wrestle to bring these forces under control. This is why FFI is committed to strengthening marine protected areas, especially for critical habitats like coral reefs, and building local capacity to manage them. In parallel, the team is working to find ways to reduce the catalogue of background stresses that threaten life in the sea. FFI has been tireless in its efforts to protect terrestrial habitats and wildlife in the last century; it intends to put the same energy and commitment into securing the future for ocean life in the next hundred years. Callum Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation at University of York and a member of the FFI Council. His book, The Unnatural History of the Sea (Island Press), documents the effects of a thousand years of hunting and fishing on life in the oceans.
www.fauna-flora.org | 11
Blueprint for success Dr Matthew Linkie, head of FFI’s Aceh Programme, explains how a successful formula for conserving the province’s rich marine resources is being embraced by coastal communities.
The new green In 2004 political detainee Irwandi Yusuf escaped from prison and cheated death by climbing onto a roof after the tsunami that devastated Aceh province ploughed through the wall of his cell in Banda Aceh. Perhaps even more remarkably, within two years he had become the first democratically elected Governor of Aceh and, during his first year in office, had already designed and launched an innovative sustainable economic development strategy, known as the ‘Aceh Green Initiative’. FFI had been working in Aceh since 1998 and was actively involved in the post-tsunami recovery process. It was therefore able to respond quickly to this unprecedented opportunity by aligning its forest and marine conservation programmes to provide full support for the initiative.
A blueprint is born FFI’s marine work had a humble beginning on the small but biodiversityrich island of Pulau Weh (located off the northern tip of mainland Aceh). FFI’s project sought to deliver a model conservation strategy for ensuring that coastal communities received fair and ongoing livelihood benefits from the post-tsunami fisheries sector and a strengthened legal base from which to operate. The initial consultation process revealed that the most effective and culturally appropriate way to achieve our objective, and simultaneously tackle illegal fishing, was to establish a Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) network around Pulau Weh. The LMMA concept, which would allow for co-management by coastal communities and their local government, was integrated into FFI’s approach (see Box), an approach comprising three separate but mutually complementary components.
12 | Fauna & Flora
Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI
The Locally Managed Marine Area concept addresses many of the most fundamental livelihood constraints facing coastal communities.
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Marine conservation strategy in Pulau Weh – The three-point plan 1. Implement an enhanced marine management system By strengthening the traditional marine leaders or commanders of the sea’, establishing a community-based conflict resolution system and helping to set up joint communitygovernment marine patrols. 2. Strengthen the coastal community economy By introducing community-based nature tourism and a micro-credit revolving fund with built-in environmental safeguards. 3. Make marine conservation an integral part of Government of Aceh policy By supporting local policy development to ensure LMMA implementation and community ownership.
To expedite the development and implementation of a provincewide marine management strategy, Governor Irwandi created a multistakeholder Marine and Fisheries Task Force, and the FFI Marine Manager was transferred to the Aceh Green Secretariat to coordinate this on a full-time basis. The strategy aimed to deliver sustainable economic benefits to the 21% of Aceh’s population that inhabit coastal areas. A vital first step to achieving this was to identify the locations of the LMMA sites. With FFI providing technical support and data from its 2008 Aceh-wide coral and fish stock surveys, the Task Force conducted what is referred to in the trade as a spatially-explicit priority setting analysis, which recommended 265,000 hectares of sea be included within a provincial LMMA network. In 2010 FFI’s Aceh Programme received a marine development grant. This enabled it to document the best management practices that it had initially developed for its Pulau Weh project with support from the Merchant Foundation and replicate these on two more of Aceh’s priority outer islands (Pulau Simeulue and Pulau Banyak). In collaboration with the provincial level Task Force and the district-level government Marine and Fisheries Agencies, FFI expanded its marine programme. It quickly became apparent from initial meetings that
The Task Force was quick to respond and began producing high-quality maps for each district and every LMMA site, which would form the basis of the community-government consultation process. Through a comprehensive series of workshops, the Task Force began discussing in detail the LMMA concept, the recommended LMMA site boundaries, the different types of management zones within these sites and the most effective way to incorporate site-specific customary marine resource use rules and regulations and how to combine these with the district government regulations. The consultation process has been remarkable, especially as neighbouring sub-districts have invited each other to participate in
the LMMA concept was directly addressing several of the most fundamental livelihood constraints facing coastal communities; in particular, an ambiguous legal status over customary-claimed marine areas and consequent inability to manage their marine resources effectively or resolve associated disputes satisfactorily, particularly with neighbouring communities. The alacrity of the local partners was exemplified by the Pulau Salapan community (consisting of three villages) and their sub-district government. After several meetings they had drafted a ‘Marine Natural Resource Management Decree’ for their LMMA in Pulau Banyak. For the first time, this codified the customary laws for their coastal waters and put in place a conflict resolution system, including fines and equipment confiscations. The signing of the decree attracted wide attention in Aceh and acted as a catalyst, with numerous district governments subsequently requesting Task Force support in establishing their own LMMAs, and as soon as possible.
FFI’s project sought to deliver a model conservation strategy for ensuring that coastal communities received fair and ongoing benefits from the post-tsunami fisheries sector.
Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI
Empowering local partners
The multiplier effect
www.fauna-flora.org | 13
The coastal communities were not alone in embracing the LMMA concept. Compelling evidence of the government’s strong sense of ownership and commitment to the process is provided by the decision of the Aceh Marine and Fisheries Agency to allocate an extra US$1.5m of its annual budget for LMMA implementation in eight districts and for coordination at the provincial level. Above right: Devastation wrought by the 2004 tsunami. Below right: The reconstruction process in Banda Aceh continues to make remarkable progress.
Future positive What a difference a decade can make. Back in 2004, at which point Aceh’s civil conflict movement had been engaged in 30 years of intense fighting with central government to gain independence, the current situation would have been unimaginable. Paradoxically, it was the catastrophic tsunami that brought the conflict to an end. Aceh’s remarkable transformation from putative rogue province into the model province that we see today is exemplified by its thoughtful sustainable natural resource policy. The Government of Aceh (which is strongly represented by members of the former combatant movement) is now engaged in constructive policy discussions with central government about how, for example, the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries can best support its Aceh counterpart in LMMA implementation and, conversely, how the Aceh LMMA model can support national strategy development for its replication across the Indonesian archipelago. As Governor Irwandi recently said, “Aceh Green is for the people of Aceh; its future lies in their hands.” He is right, of course, but there are already strong indications that the benefits of the LMMA concept and other Aceh Green initiatives will extend far beyond his own province.
Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI
discussions over their respective LMMAs, in order to mitigate any potential conflicts to which the LMMA designation might give rise in future. For example, allowance has been made for neighbouring communities to travel through each other’s LMMA in order to reach more remote fishing areas. All meetings to date have been well attended, lively and constructive, epitomising the spirit of collaboration that will make this concept succeed. The overwhelmingly positive response is well illustrated by the final maps drawn up for demarcation, with 36 LMMAs covering 318,000 hectares in eight districts identified – 20% greater than the original target area set by the Task Force.
Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI
Aceh’s remarkable transformation is exemplified by its thoughtful sustainable natural resource policy.
14 | Fauna & Flora
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Offshore investment Pippa Howard, Director of FFI’s Business & Biodiversity Programme, explains why we urgently need a global initiative to align offshore oil and gas development with stewardship of ocean ecosystems. Fauna and Flora International works with a broad spectrum of local, national and international partners. These include governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral donors, academic institutions, businesses and, most importantly, the local communities whose wildlife and ecosystems are at stake. For over 15 years, FFI has developed a number of collaborative alliances, including cross-sector partnerships and innovative initiatives with the business community. Our global reach enables us to play an important role in encouraging constructive dialogue between different sectors of society. We recognise that the world needs energy and that offshore oil deposits are a fundamental and valuable reserve of hydrocarbons. Until and unless we can reduce our dependence on oil, risky and unconventional methods of mining petroleum deposits will continue to be a fact of life.
FFI encourages companies engaged in the exploitation of offshore oil and gas, to apply the principles of the mitigation hierarchy (avoid, minimise and mitigate impacts and, where residual impacts remain, to offset) in the management of carbon emissions, water and biodiversity and ecosystem impacts, and where necessary will work with companies committed to its application. We encourage genuine initiatives to improve the sustainability of the industry and the achievement of no net loss or a net positive impact to biodiversity.
Main image: Controlled burn of Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The future looks black for marine wildlife unless we can reduce the environmental impact of deep-sea drilling.
Following a meeting in Houston in November 2010 among leading oil and gas companies, conservation organisations and research institutions, FFI highlighted the value of collaborative cross-sectoral partnerships with respect to:
• Development of industry best
practice guidelines, e.g. Energy & Biodiversity Initiative
• Research, e.g. Akvaplan Niva in the
John Kepsimelis, US Coast Guard/Marine Photobank
Barents Sea
We encourage genuine initiatives to improve the sustainability of the industry and the achievement of no net loss or a net positive impact to biodiversity.
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Medium-term objective By 2015 a collaborative sciencebased approach to upgrading and disseminating best practices, conducting and applying marine conservation research, and catalysing effective marine management, including marine protected areas, is implemented in five priority regions. These regions should be recognised marine conservation priorities (both shallow and deep water) and together make up a portfolio spanning tropical, temperate and polar environments and areas where the participating NGOs and companies have interests and capacity. Regions that have been initially suggested for consideration could include, but may not be limited to, the Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Guinea, Coral Triangle, western Indian Ocean, and south-west Atlantic (Brazil). Engagement with governments would be crucial to the success of all regional efforts. All the regional partnerships would be designed to demonstrate:
to ensure protection of marine species and biodiversity in key geographical regions around development activities, e.g. FFI – Eni partnership in the Arctic Ocean
• Creation and implementation of
decision-support tools, e.g. risk and opportunity assessment tools
Such partnerships and collaboration contribute to local and regional initiatives that have scalable impacts with global influence. These alliances and initiatives are needed to keep pace with the rapid expansion of offshore oil and gas development in sensitive and threatened marine environments throughout the world. In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it appears that industry efforts have focused predominantly on industrial safety measures to mitigate the risk of future accidents and to improve spill response capabilities. Examples include the Global Industry Response Group created by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, and a joint venture launched by ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips to improve rapid disaster response capabilities for deep water drilling operations. A comparable level of effort is needed to ensure that crucial marine conservation science is fully integrated into environmental impact assessments and development decisions, in order not to undermine the resilience of ocean ecosystems.
1. Global best practices for oil and gas development. Companies, in collaboration with NGOs, will upgrade global best practice guidelines for oil and gas development in sensitive marine environments (e.g. strengthen Energy and Biodiversity Initiative
FFI has been working with Eni Norge in the Barents Sea, advising on the design and implementation of long-term monitoring programmes for application alongside the company’s exploration and development projects in the Arctic. This programme’s fundamental premise is the need to establish an understanding of the ecosystem of the full water column within which the company operates. This will help us to understand the potential vulnerabilities with respect to oil and gas production in the area, and help to avoid, manage and mitigate any impacts. Full acknowledgement of the other ocean users is important to understand the ecosystem services values within this context. FFI has also had input into the development of a biodiversity management plan for the operation. Pippa Howard/FFI
Long-term goal
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2. Marine conservation research and protection. The research institutions and NGOs will carry out research on the presence, sensitivity and vulnerability of marine ecosystems and ecosystem services in the key geographical areas, in order to understand better the potential impacts of oil and gas development and to develop actions necessary to prevent damage to these sensitive environments. This will include, but not be limited to, promotion of marine protected areas and other manage ment interventions to ensure longterm protection and improved resiliency of these ecosystems to energy development impacts. These research and conservation activities will inform the global best practices being developed.
Case Study: FFI demonstrates appetite for Arctic role
FFI is working with other international NGOs in promoting regional initiatives that will provide a focal point for pursuit of a longer term vision over a period of decades, combined with ambitious goals to demonstrate meaningful progress during the next several years. The long- and mediumterm goals could be framed along the following lines:
All offshore oil and gas exploration, development and transport activities are fully informed by and aligned with marine conservation science and the value of ecosystem services provided by the world’s oceans.
provisions dealing with deep water drilling). Companies will implement and monitor the application of global best practices at select operations in key geographical areas that are priorities for marine conservation and energy exploration and development. The implementation of these guidelines will be documented and promoted within the industry to ensure widespread adoption and dissemination of lessons learned.
Aerial view of coral reefs. Juan Pablo Moreiras/FFI
• Research and conservation planning
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Hidden treasure off the Ecuador coast
What lies beneath What does it take to create an effective marine reserve? Rob Bensted-Smith, Regional Director of FFI’s Americas and Caribbean Programme, examines new approaches to marine conservation in Ecuador. The Galera-San Francisco Marine Reserve lies within one degree of the equator, but as you stand on the cliffs overlooking the reserve, you will not see colourful coral reefs gleaming through crystalline waters, for these eastern shores of the Pacific keep their biological wealth out of sight in the dark ocean. Nevertheless, the diversity of marine life is there for those who go looking for it, like the divers of the Nazca Institute for Marine Research and the San Francisco University of Quito, who have found remarkable numbers of species. In fact, they have recorded about twice as many species of molluscs, corals, worms and jellyfish in Galera-San Francisco as in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, some 1000 km to the west. The inventory includes
important populations of two kinds of ‘black coral’, which are globally threatened because of their use in jewellery. Larger, more familiar creatures frequenting the reserve comprise five species of sea turtle, twenty kinds of whale and dolphin (including humpback and sperm whales), hammerhead sharks, whale sharks, manta rays and hundreds of fish species.
Establishing the Galera-San Francisco Marine Reserve This marine life may be out of sight to the cliff-watcher or the tourist on the beach, but it is well known to the people of the seven fishing communities spread out along the reserve’s 37 km of coastline. They are also well aware that many onceabundant resources – snapper, grouper and lobster, for example – have declined drastically in the past couple of decades, the obvious causes
The fishing communities are well aware that many once-abundant resources have declined drastically in the past couple of decades.
being over-fishing, the destructive effects of shrimp trawling and the degradation of coastal habitat. Elaercio Trejo, a 40-year-old local fisherman, recalls how they used to just step on the spiny lobsters at low tide to catch them. People could make reasonable money from selling lobster 30 years ago. That was how he became a trader. Nowadays it is just a side job that sometimes brings extra money to the household. “These days lobsters are scarce and small. Most of them don’t even reach the legal size.” Concern about their already tenuous livelihoods has motivated these communities, together with the Nazca Institute, to lobby for the creation of a marine reserve. They gathered substantial NGO support and their persistence was rewarded by the creation of a 54,000-hectare multiple-use marine reserve – on paper. After this came the difficult bit: who should manage the reserve, how, and with what resources? The reserve was clearly the communities’ baby – and their means of survival – but what role would they have in its management? Precedents were few and conflicting (see Box overleaf ), so the people and the institutions of Galera-San Francisco would have to forge their own path.
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At this point, FFI was able to start helping Nazca, the communities and the Ministry of Environment to address these questions, thanks to funding from the Darwin Initiative. We teamed up with the Foundation for the Future of Latin America (FFLA), which is a regional organisation working on sustainable development processes. FFLA has specialist expertise in governance of protected areas in addition to valuable co-financing from Conservation International and IUCN. For the Nazcaled team preparing the management plan for the marine reserve, the central challenge was to enable the informal local group of fishing cooperatives and other local organisations to negotiate with local and national government bodies an effective, participatory system of governance. Another big concern was the one glaring gap in the draft management plan – the potentially contentious issue of zoning. And both these issues led on to another sensitive question: who should have access to the resources of the reserve? The project is still very much a work in progress, but it is advancing on these big issues – governance, zoning and access rights – which are fundamental for the ambitions aims of large-scale conservation in the Americas. By pushing for the right to protect the marine resources on which they depend, the determined fisherfolk of Galera-San Francisco are shining the spotlight on issues of national and regional importance.
Participatory governance Perhaps because of the ‘invisibility’ of marine ecosystems, their conservation management in many countries has existed only on paper, not at sea. In Ecuador, responsibility rests with the Navy and the Fisheries authority (Sub-Secretary for Marine Resources), except in protected areas where the Ministry of Environment is in charge but has to work with the other two institutions. The role of communities has been a passive one: to comply with the rules and support the authorities (or not, as the case may be). The Navy has boats and personnel but scant operating funds and other priorities, notably smuggling and security at sea. The Fisheries authority has a major industrial fishing fleet to worry about. Despite much increased concern about artisanal fisheries, its
field capacity and funds are limited, so its main role is to set regulations and record landings of caught fish. Control is weak; for example, last year monitoring revealed that 98% of lobsters caught in the Galera-San Francisco area were under the legal size limit. Since the creation of the reserve, the Ministry of Environment has established a presence, posting a park director and four rangers to the area, and all three authorities have agreed to coordinate their work in the area, but the real question is what role the communities can play. They are present all the time, they see what is happening – and their livelihoods depend on it. FFLA has facilitated a long process of debate and negotiation, at the end of which it is clear that the Ministry of Environment is constitutionally obliged to retain
By pushing for the right to protect the marine resources on which they depend, the determined fisherfolk of Galera-San Francisco are shining the spotlight on issues of regional and national importance.
Governance precedents In Ecuador There are positive and negative precedents for the construction of the participatory governance system at Galera-San Francisco. The Galapagos Marine Reserve, established in 1998, started with a local stakeholder body that was given a significant, formal role in decision making, provided that it could reach full consensus. Regrettably, internal conflicts, lack of operational funding and changing government policies have weakened its influence. At Machalilla National Park, the marine section of which is the only long-established marine protected area on Ecuador’s mainland, the ‘management committee’ 18 | Fauna & Flora
encompasses many stakeholders and government institutions, but it is purely consultative and its influence has waxed and waned, according to the preferences of successive park directors. The real groundbreakers, however, are not official protected areas at all, but a form of concession to manage mangrove swamps and harvest crabs and cockles from them. The Ministry of Environment has entered into ‘protection and use agreements’ with communities and fishing cooperatives, who are given exclusive use rights to harvest the marine resources in exchange for a commitment to protect the mangrove swamp and manage it according to an approved management plan.
Could the mangroves – forests with their feet in the water –help to bridge the gap between the land, where we are accustomed to concessions, leases, use rights and other forms of delegation, and the sea, where communities struggle to gain any formal power in the management of their resources? There are crucial differences in legal framework, patterns of use and ease of defining boundaries, yet some of the principles are surely transferable. Through our Darwin Initiative project, FFI and FFLA are working with mangrove concession holders and the Machalilla NP management committee, so we are well placed to make the connections.
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Juan Dumas/FFLA
Zoning can be a winwin for conservation and fishing, but it is contentious because a fisherman feels he is losing a valuable fishing ground.
ultimate responsibility but could empower local communities to play a big role in management decisions and activities, such as surveillance to protect the reserve. A local agreement on a structure to achieve this ran into objections from the Ministry’s lawyers (to the relief of some traditionalists in the protected area system). So a modified version that complies with existing decrees is now being inserted into the management plan. Once that is formalised and functioning, FFI will help the local communities to make the most of their new role – and to resume negotiations with the government for a change in the legal framework. Ultimately, FFI and partners want to see the communities further empowered as custodians of the protected area that they have brought into existence. Zoning FFI Council member, Professor Callum Roberts (see page 8), is a prominent global advocate for the establishment of protected zones with no fishing – known as No Take Zones (NTZs) – and has marshalled volumes of data that show the impacts of fishing and the effectiveness of zoning in sustaining not only biodiversity but also fisheries in adjacent areas. His team’s research in St Lucia showed how, seven years after the introduction of zoning in an over-
exploited marine area, fish biomass had not only quadrupled in the NTZs, but also tripled in the fishing grounds. Productivity, diversity, resilience to climate change, recovery from damage... all can benefit from setting aside NTZs. That zoning can be a winwin for conservation and fishing does not make it any less contentious, because even a small NTZ can make a fisherman feel he is losing a fishing ground. Furthermore, a subsistence fisherman with a marginal livelihood may find it hard to cope during the interim period between setting aside NTZs and demonstrating their tangible benefits. In the case of the Galera-San Francisco management plan, Nazca Institute had compiled many layers of valuable information, but the task of designing the zoning scheme was quite neglected, perhaps because it can lead to conflict. When FFI, FFLA and Nazca highlighted the gap, the Ministry of Environment not only concurred but also asked us to work on it immediately, so that it would be ready for inclusion in the final management plan. There followed an intensive process of local workshops to discuss the whole idea of zoning and its costs and benefits, to collect additional data about the values of different areas, and finally to debate potential zoning scenarios for the
reserve. Bold as ever, the communities opted for a scheme that includes an NTZ of almost 5,000 hectares in the middle of the reserve, extending from the shoreline to a depth of 200 metres, and a total of nearly 1,500 hectares, divided into smaller areas to give each community special responsibility for ‘its’ stretch of coast and nearshore waters. Each community area is itself divided into a mosaic of zones for different purposes, including NTZs, according to the communities’ own recommen dations. The next steps are to mark the zones clearly and manage them effectively, with communities carrying out surveillance and collaborating with authorities on enforcement. We also need to make a serious investment in participatory monitoring to measure how the ecosystem and its biodiversity (and local livelihoods) change under the new regime. There are three reasons why this monitoring is important. First, the local authorities and stakeholders need to know the effects of management, so that they can adapt and improve it. Secondly, this will be the first NTZ of a reasonable size on the coast of Ecuador, so that lessons learned here will be of huge national scientific and educational value with a view to replication in other coastal areas. Thirdly, the employment and services associated with the monitoring programme will inject
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money into the local economy and make it easier for the communities to cope with the constraints that they themselves have decided are necessary to restore ecosystem productivity. If we can support the communities through the transition period and reach that win-win goal of abundant marine life and more valuable, sustainable fisheries, then demand for replication will surely follow.
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wealthy few (assuming there was the capacity to enforce them in the first place). We have to find a way to grant preferential access to the local residents, while being fair to artisanal fishermen from neighbouring localities, who have traditionally fished here in certain seasons – and who have let Galera-San Francisco fishermen use ‘their’ waters too. We have to understand the culture of fishing communities who are used to roaming far and wide, as well as the ecological connections between different areas of ocean. And we have to accommodate the needs of the people with fewest options as to how they use resources, such as the women and children harvesting molluscs in the inter-tidal areas (that is part of the thinking behind the community-managed zones within the reserve, mentioned above). Ecuador has already shown its willingness to look for innovative solutions, with the mangrove
Naturally, communities want to be confident that they will be the ones to reap the rewards of their collective conservation effort.
Isabelle Gravez/FFLA
Isabelle Gravez/FFLA
Access to marine resources Naturally, the fishermen and women of the Galera-San Francisco communities want to be confident that they will be the ones to reap the rewards of their collective conservation effort, which involves no small sacrifice and hard work. In the words of Daniel Ulloa, an artisanal fisherman from Galera: “Local communities have identified reproduction and nursery areas to manage and allow resources to recover. This is a great effort for us as poor people. If we are not able to care for and benefit from those areas and show other community members the value of NTZs, other locals are not going to believe anymore and not get involved, even worse be against such processes.” That raises the sensitive question of who should have the right to fish in the marine reserve. Land can be owned by individuals or communities,
but the sea – with a few exceptions like the traditional community ownership of coral reefs in the southwest Pacific – has been open to all comers. And that has been their downfall, for without some kind of preferential use rights there can be no incentive for long-term conservation. For example, let’s fast-forward five years to a time of increasing size and abundance of lobster and fish in Galera-San Francisco, but continuing depletion along the rest of the coast. The inevitable influx of fishermen would soon drive the resources back down towards the scarcity prevailing elsewhere. And that is just with legal fishing, never mind the difficulty of enforcement against the combined pressures of outsiders with nothing to lose and locals disillusioned by the invasion of freeloaders. So the model has to change. Not to a crude ‘privatisation’ of the seas, nor to allocation of individual quotas that would soon be bought up by the
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
The Darwin Initiative project, and now Halcyon marine funding too, have enabled FFI to start working intensively on marine conservation in Ecuador. Though our project has focused on specific sites along the coast, it has delved down to three fundamental, inter-connected issues driving the conservation or degradation of marine ecosystems. How can coastal communities gain and exercise the right to participate in the management of the ecosystem on which they depend? How can we break down the barriers to establishing No Take Zones, which are essential for a flourishing, productive, resilient ecosystem? And how can countries move from the doomed system of open access to one that grants preferential access to local users, but fits with local culture and social conditions?
The Government of Ecuador is wrestling with these issues, and so are the coastal communities, from their own distinct perspective and with the motivation of knowing that their livelihoods depend on the outcome. FFI, FFLA, the Nazca Institute and other partners will continue to support the development of innovative models, especially at Galera-San Francisco, and their replication along the Ecuadorian coast. The Government has reportedly earmarked US$10 million for establish ing more marine protected areas, a sure sign of its intention to reverse the decline of marine ecosystems. The fundamental issues are not confined to Ecuador, of course. In March 2011 funding from Halcyon Land & Sea enabled a FFI/FFLA team to visit sites in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras, together with the Costa Rica-based regional NGO,
CoopeSoliDar R.L., the Nicaraguan Foundation for Sustainable Development (FUNDENIC) and the Community Tourism Network of Honduras (RECOTURH). The exchange of experiences around these themes – especially the opportunities to empower and motivate coastal communities to restore marine ecosystems – generated great ideas and energy. Watch this space for a region-wide collaborative initiative! So next time you have the chance to stand on a cliff top and look out over the ocean, you may imagine the diversity of life beneath the surface, which is not readily visible, but urgently needs conserving – and you may reflect that much the same applies to coastal communities and their culture too.
Guillermo Guerra/FFLA
Conclusions
next time you have the chance to stand on a cliff top and look out over the ocean, imagine the diversity of life beneath the surface.
Agnès Gelin/FFLA
concessions and the restricted use of the Galapagos Marine Reserve. FFI, Nazca and FFLA are working with the Ministry and stakeholders to devise an appropriate mechanism for deciding access rights to Galera-San Francisco, using criteria of residence, traditional use and active participation in management. On this issue too, we are looking to this reserve as a model for replication along the coast.
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Coast benefit analysis Celebrating five years of community-managed marine conservation
In 2006 the first Locally Managed Marine Area: (LMMA), also referred to locally as a Community Conserved Area or ‘tengefu’, was started on the Kenya coast north of Mombasa at a place called Kuruitu. After five years, this initiative has conclusively demonstrated how a relatively small community-managed area can enable a recovery of coral reef fish stocks and continue to generate sustainable livelihoods for the local fishermen and their families. Twelve more communities on the Kenya coast have now embarked on the same path towards improving the condition of reef habitats by setting up their own areas, which include either fishing gear restrictions, total or seasonal closures of fishing, or a combination of these. In the Shimoni-Vanga area of the Kenya south coast, adjacent to the Tanzania border, FFI and the East African Wildlife Society have been working together, with the support of a Darwin Initiative grant, to help local community organisations to establish seven new LMMAs – at Shimoni,
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Wasini, Mkwiro, Kibuyuni, Majoreni, Vanga and Jimbo – with a combined total area of 12,400 hectares. Although each of these areas is relatively small, their combined effect on conservation of the marine resources is greatly enhanced, since they have been planned together to form a spatial network of neighbouring areas, some
of which also adjoin the fully protected government-managed marine reserves of Kisite and Mpunguti (see map). The key community institutional unit that has enabled communities to take on responsibility for managing their own areas of sea has been the Beach
more communities on the Kenya coast have now embarked on the same path towards improving the condition of reef habitats.
Anemone fish. Bruce Davidson
Drowning in a sea of abbreviations and acronyms is an occupational hazard for a conservationist. Fearless as ever, and buoyed up by the knowledge that there is an important story to tell, Rob Brett, Regional Director for Africa, takes the plunge in order to explain how FFI is helping Kenya’s fishing communities to conserve their marine resources.
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Management Unit (BMU – see box). The project has helped set these up with full participation from each of the respective villages at Shimoni-Vanga, as well as guiding them through the legal process with the backing and endorsement of the Kenya Government Fisheries Department. Some of the communities are situated in areas with a coverage of important mangrove forest, and management and protection of around 4,000 hectares of mangroves are being devolved to Community Forest Associations (CFAs) established for this purpose.
recovery of fish stocks through spill-over effects from closed areas is a key step towards sustainability. meeting. The consequence may be that dialogue and decision-making proceed rather slowly when there happen to be individual elders (or Wazee) who are particularly loquacious. Nevertheless, the progress of the project at Shimoni-Vanga has been steady and substantial. Participatory assessments of biodiversity and resources in the LMMAs have now established the key baselines against which the overall effectiveness of the conservation measures can be monitored and demonstrated to all BMU members. Clear demonstration of the recovery of fish stocks through spill-over effects from closed areas is a key step towards sustainability of these areas and long-term observance of the measures without need for external support or subsidy.
Kenyan seashell sellers. Bruce Davidson
FFI has considerable experience of working with communities in terrestrial environments around the globe to set up Community Based Organisations (or CBOs), and this knowledge is directly relevant to working in the marine and coastal environment. Each of these initiatives has to be able to develop at its own pace, and to be owned and driven locally. Consequently, it is often difficult to predict how quickly each initiative will develop, depending on local context and social dynamics. One of the merits of the Islamic culture of the Kenya coast is strong respect for the elders, who may not be interrupted when addressing a community
Each of the BMUs has been reinforced with training programmes at the Fisheries Department for 60 members, with modules covering fisheries management, operational roles and responsibilities in marine and coastal management, development of bylaws, conflict resolution and financial management to enable the BMUs to maintain proper and transparent records and accounts. An identity card system has been set up for 500 members from the seven BMUs, to allow for identification of fishers, which is an issue given the presence of migrant fishers using a trans-boundary area with Tanzania. Most recently, FFI brought in a marine specialist from UK’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory (appropriately, a Kenyan with considerable knowledge of the project area) to help the communities
Coral support – Protecting a precious marine habitat
MARINE PROTECTED AREA COMMUNITY CONSERVATION AREA NO FISHING ZONE
KENYA Majoreni
Kibuyuni
Shimoni
TANZANIA
Roger Ingle/FFI
Vanga
MPUNGUTI MARINE RESERVE KISITE MARINE NATIONAL PARK
Situated in the southcoast region of Kenya, within the Indian Ocean Sanctuary established by the International Whaling Commission, the project area harbours highly significant marine biodiversity, with 64 coral genera (including black corals), nine species of mangrove and 12 species of seagrass already recorded there, as well as five species of turtles and dolphins. Small islands within the project area provide overwintering and feeding grounds for over 15% of the global crab plover population.
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Seagrass bed. Bruce Davidson
prepare management plans for the south coast LMMAs. Working with the respective BMUs, each area was mapped and different management strategies for particular zones were identified and agreed. These included 18 different fishing areas grouped into three categories: (a) sustainable fisheries areas where certain fishing gears will be excluded, (b) ‘total closure areas’, and (c) areas where fishing is seasonally closed dependent on the season (North East or South East Monsoon). These new management plans for the LMMAs are the first and currently the only management plans developed for coastal Beach Management Units in Kenya, and the Fisheries Department has now indicated its willingness to adopt the management plans as templates for other coastal communities with funding from the World Bank.
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Although the important foundation and strength of each LMMA and the BMUs that manage them is the community ownership, their selfsufficiency will be improved in the long term through establishing a network of support and services provided by a local umbrella institution. Building on the structure and function of Kenya’s Northern Rangelands Trust, FFI is now starting to build a constituency of support for a number of small-scale community-
based organisations, LMMAs and coastal conservancies in the TanaLamu area of the Kenya north coast. With all the severe challenges that the coastal communities of Kenya may face in the future, including impacts of climate change and several major development projects, the best that we can do is enable them to have a diversity of options to make a living, for which sustained and productive reef fisheries and mangrove forests will certainly be essential.
WE NEED TO EQUIP KENYA’S COASTAL COMMUNITIES WITH THE MEANS TO DEAL WITH THE SEVERE CHALLENGES THAT THEY MAY FACE IN THE FUTURE.
Brain coral. Bruce Davidson
Focus on Coastal and marine conservation
Beach Management Units
Beach Management Units (BMUs) are established under government guidelines that promote the sustainable use of resources by communities. A BMU is a community-based local organisation that is geared towards sustainable management, conservation and protection of marine and coastal resources. It is the foundation of fisheries co-management and brings together everyone involved in fisheries at a beach – boat owners, boat crew, traders, processors, boat builders and repairers, net repairers and others – to work with government and other stakeholders in managing fisheries resources and improving the livelihoods of the community members.
Key attributes of BMUs are that they have legal status and everyone working in fisheries and using landing sites must be registered with a BMU or be a member. BMU committees require representation from all stakeholders, including women’s groups, and assemblies of all registered members meet regularly to oversee the work of the committee and its officials. BMUs were first established for the fishing communities at Lake Victoria, and their total number there now exceeds 1,000. Networks of BMUs are also formed to link BMU management together with government at local, district and national level in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Above: Kenya’s precious marine habitat includes numerous species of seagrass and rare corals.
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Around the world Putting marine conservation on the map
Nicaragua A haven for hawksbills (Page 28)
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Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Ecuador Hands across the water in Central America (Page 28)
Kenya Joined-up thinking along the coast (Page 29)
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Around the world
Turkey Potential partners in the eastern Med (Page 29)
Cambodia Beachcombing reveals presence of rare shells (Page 30)
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Philippines A river runs through it (Page 30)
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Philippines A fillip for local marine interests (Page 30)
Myanmar Giving more teeth to shark protection (Page 31)
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Around the world Oceans 2011 Whilst a number of FFI’s marine conservation projects are well established and have been achieving tangible results for over a decade, others are still at an embryonic stage. Here is a brief insight into some of the most recent initiatives in our marine programme that are expected to make a significant impact in the months and years to come.
did you know? YOUNG HAWKSBILL TURTLES ARE UNABLE TO DIVE DEEP.
Americas & Caribbean A haven for hawksbills on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast
Agnés Gelin/FFLA
The hawksbill turtle is the least known of the world’s three critically endangered sea turtle species. During a research mission in July 2009, the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative identified Estero Padre Ramos Natural Reserve in Nicaragua as a priority conservation site for this species. The visiting team estimated that the reserve could host up to 100 nests in a typical season. In early 2010 FFI initiated conservation work at Estero Padre Ramos in close collaboration with the local fishing cooperative COJIZOPA (Cooperativa Multi-Sectorial de Jiquilillo, los Zorros y Padre Ramos), which leads local implementation of the hawksbill conservation programme. During our first season of work here, our team recorded (and protected) over 257 hawksbill nests, observed and tagged more than 64 individual hawksbills, and released more than 10,000 hawksbill hatchlings. Based on our findings, sea turtle experts now consider Estero Padre Ramos to be one of the most important hawksbill nesting sites not only in Nicaragua, but also in the entire eastern Pacific.
Hawksbill turtle and diver. Susanne Skyrm/Marine Photobank
Hands across the water in Central America
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FFI is forming a new regional collaboration to promote innovative approaches to marine habitat conservation across Central America. This initiative will benefit from lesson sharing among a series of experienced partners from Costa Rica (CoopeSoliDar R.L.), Honduras (RICOTUR), Nicaragua (FUNDENIC) and Ecuador (FFLA). Multi-partner site visits and a workshop on marine conservation and governance have already taken place. Our collaboration focuses on addressing areas of common interest relating to marine governance, community participation in natural resource management, and access rights, through the development of site-specific projects that respond to the local context.
Around the world
Eurasia
Joined-up thinking along the Kenyan coast
Talking Turkey with potential partners in the eastern Med
Northern Kenya’s rapidly growing coastal communities are largely dependent on marine resources for a living. With pressure on the region’s marine biodiversity increasing by the day, FFI’s proposed Tana-Lamu Coast programme on the north coast of Kenya is a timely initiative. Analyses of marine and terrestrial conservation needs and opportunities have already been completed. FFI’s work to date has revealed that there is scope to develop an integrated programme linking marine, terrestrial and cultural components in the Tana-Lamu area. Preliminary field trips to this part of the Kenyan coast have confirmed the appetite for a collective management approach based on the Northern Rangelands Trust model, whereby a home-grown umbrella organisation would support and coordinate a series of community-led marine conservation initiatives.
There is no shortage of challenges for marine conservation in the eastern Mediterranean. Unsustainable levels of fishing, rising water temperatures as a result of climate change, and an explosion in the number of invasive species are creating a perfect storm that is threatening to overwhelm the region’s rich biodiversity. FFI has already begun to establish collaborative links with former and prospective partners in Turkey with a view to addressing these challenges. We are spearheading moves to create a unified network of communities and organisations that will work together to develop a range of local and regional marine conservation initiatives.
Heap of trawl bycatch. Sarah Lelong/Marine Photobank
Green turtle in Kenyan village. Linda Schonknecht/Marine Photobank
Africa
did you know? 650 MILLION TONNES OF SEWAGE ARE DUMPED annually INTO THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
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Asia-Pacific This year FFI is starting a new project in the Philippines at Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, which protects the world’s second longest underground river. We will be working with both coastal and inland communities who live on the fringes of the park, helping them to establish Community Conserved Areas that will enhance protection of the national park itself and increase the total area under effective conservation.
did you know? PUERTO PRINCESA SUBTERRANEAN RIVER NATIONAL PARK IS ONE OF 28 GLOBAL FINALISTS IN THE ‘NEW 7 WONDERS OF NATURE’ COMPETITION.
Filipino woman shows off a fish caught by small-scale fishers. Rebecca Weeks/Marine Photobank
A river runs through it
Did you know? There are 31 species of shark in Myanmar waters.
A fillip for Filipino marine interests
Rachel Austin/FFI
Building on its existing strengths and partnerships in the Philippines, FFI is poised to expand its work with indigenous communities into the marine realm, focusing on Southern Luzon. Under Philippine law, indigenous people have the right to manage their territorial waters (i.e. areas of sea traditionally used for fishing or considered sacred). FFI aims to provide support to these communities to help them secure tenure of marine areas and manage them effectively for the benefit of local livelihoods and conservation.
Beachcombing in Cambodia reveals presence of rare shells
did you know? THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF DIRECT POACHING OF MARINE TURTLES IN CAMBODIA.
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In partnership with the Fisheries Administration, FFI has been conducting rapid assessments to determine the status of marine turtles in Cambodia. We are delighted to report a number of sightings of the critically endangered hawksbill turtle on some of the country’s remote island beaches. FFI hopes to build on this discovery by helping to ensure that these potentially vital nesting beaches receive appropriate levels of protection in the future.
Around the world
Giving more teeth to shark protection in Myanmar
did you know? There are 32 species of sharks in Myanmar waters.
Marine survey. Jeremy Holden/FFI
Blacktip shark. Doug Perrine.
At the end of 2010 FFI conducted a scoping mission to the Myeik archipelago in Myanmar. Covering an area of 36,000 square kilometres, this vast archipelago comprises around 800 pristine islands, biologically rich coral reefs, seagrass meadows and some of the most pristine mangroves in South-east Asia. FFI has since been invited by the Department of Fisheries in Myanmar to help strengthen its marine management capabilities. We have been asked to focus in particular on two shark reserves, which, despite their designation, have remained ineffective to date.
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Matheus Freitas with grouper. Gustavo Castellanos
conservation leadership programme
Grouper solutions Fauna & Flora International is a founding partner of the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), which has provided grants, training and networking opportunities to young conservationists for over 25 years. Stuart Paterson explains how the CLP has helped to bridge the geographical divide between two young marine biologists with a shared interest.
Big problem The world’s great oceans are home to some real giants of the natural world: the blue whale, the whale shark, the Great Barrier Reef and giant kelp immediately spring to mind. Less familiar, but equally impressive, is the aptly-named goliath grouper, a fish of truly gargantuan proportions that is found in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Goliath groupers can grow to over 8ft (2.5m) and weigh up to 1,000lbs (455kg). Because of their size and value they are a prized catch for recreational and commercial fishermen alike. In recent years their numbers have plummeted and their name has been added to the list of critically endangered species most at risk of extinction.
Learning the ropes Counting fish and assessing their conservation status is a tricky business and there is a lack of scientific knowledge available to determine numbers and evaluate suitable conservation measures. In 2011 two marine biologists received
funding from the CLP to take part in a learning exchange programme allowing them to test methodologies to conserve the goliath groupers off the coasts of South America. The salient feature of this relatively new CLP support mechanism is that the scheme enables young conservationists to pass on their knowledge in a peer-to-peer mentoring process that benefits both parties.
When Matheus met Gustavo Brazilian marine biologist Matheus Freitas is a multi-talented researcher who is equally comfortable groping grouper gonads as he is dealing with senior figures in authority. His innovative research combines the use of fishermen’s traditional ecological knowledge with the dissection of fish and analysis of their reproductive organs to determine where fish gather to reproduce. The results of his work have led to the creation of a marine protected area off Brazil’s Atlantic coast where groupers are now known to congregate each year to spawn. When Matheus met Gustavo Castellano, a young Colombian researcher working to conserve the Pacific goliath grouper (a relative of the Atlantic species) off Colombia’s Pacific coast, the question that bubbled to the surface was: could Matheus’ methodology be transferred from Brazil to Colombia?
From coast to coast Over a two-week period Matheus mentored Gustavo and his team during fish dissection classes, interviews with fishermen and underwater fish-tagging exercises. The exchange proved very worthwhile and, having adapted methodologies to the local context, Gustavo is now hoping to develop the first standard protocols for the continued study and monitoring of goliath groupers in Colombia’s Pacific waters.
Scaling up In the long term both Gustavo and Matheus would like to increase the scope of their activities and forge a partnership in an effort to increase the technical knowledge of fisheries management associations in the Atlantic and Pacific, thereby aiding in the conservation of groupers and other marine species. In an era when concerns over depleted fish stocks continue to make waves, collaborations like this might play an important role in the international management of marine resources. That counts as a big plus for the goliath grouper in these turbulent times.
The knowledge I acquired from the researchers and fishermen in Colombia will contribute to the action plans for the management and monitoring of Brazilian reef fishes. 32 | Fauna & Flora
Partner profile
Blue sea thinking Partners in brine There are several striking parallels between Fauna & Flora International and the BLUE Marine Foundation (BLUE), a new UK charity that has emerged in response to the current global marine crisis. In its original incarnation, FFI was instrumental in establishing several of the great national parks in Africa and India, in order to protect terrestrial wildlife and its habitats from ‘appalling destruction’. Nearly a century later, BLUE’s ambition is to do the same for the oceans. Co-founded by George Duffield and Christopher Gorell Barnes in 2010, BLUE is the brainchild of the team responsible for the groundbreaking documentary feature film, The End of the Line, based on Charles Clover’s book of the same name, and hailed as ‘An Inconvenient Truth for the Oceans.’ This hard-hitting expose focused worldwide attention on the devastating impact that human consumption is having on life in our oceans. One of BLUE’s primary objectives is to increase the area of ocean protected by marine reserves from 1% to 10% within a decade. It has already made an impressive start by enabling the creation of the world’s largest marine reserve, around the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
BLUE is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the political momentum that first The End of the Line and now the Chagos reserve have created. With UK government support there are opportunities to protect enormous areas of the global ocean, starting within UK domestic and overseas waters and then expanding to the waters of other nations. BLUE aims to unlock more of the ocean’s conservation value by buying back assets theoretically in common ownership, but in practice being exploited by vested interests, and finding new ways of managing them. The need for effective marine conservation is global and BLUE is strategically positioned to drive this process in the UK, the UK Overseas Territories and internationally. Like FFI, BLUE is far more than just another NGO; it is also an enabler of NGOs, tackling the crisis in our oceans by creating partnerships that provide tailored solutions to particular marine conservation problems. Mindful of the potential synergy between the two organisations, FFI has been supporting the development of BLUE through the Halcyon Fund, and its Chief Executive Officer, Mark Rose, is a board member.
Blue Vision u Create new partnership opportunities for the sea, working with the private sector to raise critical funds for marine conservation.
Marine protection on a grand scale In April 2010 the then UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, announced the government’s intention to turn 210,000 square miles (544,000 square kilometres) of ocean around the Chagos Archipelago, known also as the British Indian Ocean Territory, into a no-take marine reserve. The area involved is larger than California and 60 times bigger than Yellowstone National Park. This act doubled the area of ocean under full protection. The Chagos is a rare and globally significant marine ecosystem. The area harbours unique and critically endangered species, including over 220 types of coral and over 1,000 species of fish. In recognition of its unparalleled importance in terms of science and biodiversity, the area is now fully protected, with fishing banned for 200 nautical miles around the 55 coral islands. BLUE was able to secure the funding required to enforce the protection of the Chagos from the Bertarelli Foundation, a visionary, family-run donor organisation. The money covers the cost of protecting Chagos for the first five years, after which the government undertakes to internalise the costs and to enforce the reserve indefinitely. It is an extraordinary, historic deal. Henry Bellingham, Foreign Office minister for Overseas Territories, said the agreement was ‘a great example’ of how government could form ‘innovative partnerships with the private sector to deliver ambitious objectives.’
u Work with governments to construct the right legislative framework for marine conservation and make the establishment of marine reserves financially viable. u Help marine NGOs and scientists in their conservation efforts, work with local stakeholders, and translate what they do into measurable benefits for philanthropists, inspirational stories for the general public and effective CSR programmes for the corporate sector.
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Ashton Williams
Born and raised in Kenya, Joy Juma was, until recently, Programme Coordinator for FFI’s East Africa Programme. A crucial facet of her role was to ensure that community livelihood issues were adequately addressed. Previously she worked as a volunteer for the East Africa Wildlife Society, one of FFI’s strongest long-term partners in the region. Joy is currently studying for an MPhil in Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge.
Who’s who: A series of interviews with FFI staff, partners and associates
Where did you grow up? I lived in Nairobi as a child, but my happiest childhood memories are of the regular camping trips that I participated in during the school holidays. These trips were my introduction to the stunning diversity in my country. They took me from the white sandy beaches of the coast to the breathtaking landscape of the Rift Valley. When did you start to take an interest in conservation? I’ve been interested in the environment since I was a child. In particular, I remember attending a special event at the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi. A selected group of students from primary schools in Nairobi was invited there to discuss various
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Joy Juma
issues facing the country. I was selected due to my interest in environmental issues. We took part in discussions and role-playing activities. It was this experience that was the catalyst for my subsequent interest in conservation. Was it easy to find a job working in conservation? Unfortunately it is very difficult to find a job in any field in Kenya. Conservation is no exception. Due to this fact, I chose to volunteer my time with the East African Wild Life Society (EAWLS) after completing my undergraduate degree. How did you support yourself? As volunteers we were entitled to a basic travel allowance of approximately US$75 per month.
The amount was inadequate to cover all my expenses, so my mother covered the other costs. She has always been very supportive of my career as a conservationist. How did you come to be working for EAWLS? I became aware of the work that EAWLS was undertaking through a brochure I came across at a restaurant that is a corporate member of the organisation. As I was due to undertake my internship as part of my undergraduate degree, I sent in an application. I was offered a position working for the Deputy Director, who was also the Head of Conservation Programmes. I focused on their Wetlands Programme. At the end of the three-month internship, I was offered a contract as a volunteer project assistant.
who’s who
What achievements at FFI are you most proud of? I am proud of what the Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry, our main partner on Pemba Island, Tanzania, has been able to achieve with the support of FFI. The department has been working with local communities to protect the remnant indigenous forests on the island and the endemic Pemba flying fox. The two largest forest patches were designated as forest reserves and the fruit bat was down-listed from Critically Endangered to Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. Also in Tanzania, FFI and the Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative have helped two villages to achieve the first Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate for a community-managed natural forest in Africa. In Kenya, FFI and EAWLS have supported six communities along the coast to establish Community Conserved Areas that promote the sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. The ecological, social and economic benefits of the project have led to requests from other communities for assistance in replicating the model. What is the secret of your success? FFI is aware of the needs of poor, vulnerable or marginalised people that are dependent upon or live adjacent to natural resources. Wherever possible we seek to conserve biodiversity in ways that enhance local wellbeing and social equity. I believe that communities have the knowledge and ability to manage their own natural resources sustainably. I therefore always encourage our partners to actively engage local communities in conservation projects.
What are the biggest challenges for conservation in Kenya? The latest census in 2009 placed the population at 38.6 million, with this figure expected to rise to 63 million in 2030. Habitat destruction due to population pressure is an increasing problem. Deforestation within the country’s watershed is threatening food and water security. Only 2% of the total land surface of the country remains forested. Marine related challenges include unsustainable fishing practices, mangrove destruction and unregulated coastal developments. Then there are the expected impacts of climate change on biodiversity. There is plenty to keep me busy! What has the Conservation Leadership course taught you so far? My studies in Cambridge are helping me to develop my leadership and management skills. The course has empowered me to approach conservation problems in a holistic and innovative manner. It has also given me the opportunity to engage in the current conservation debates, thus broadening my perspective on certain issues. Is there a practical aspect to the course? The course has a practical component where each student is placed in one of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative organisations to undertake work experience that will enhance
leadership skills. I am currently based in Antigua & Barbuda for seven weeks to evaluate the marine governance structure in the twin island state on behalf of FFI. How does Antigua compare with Kenya? In the course of work, I have had the opportunity to compare marine governance in both Kenya and Antigua. It has been an interesting and exciting process highlighting the similarities and differences. Both countries are similar in many ways when it comes to a shared vision to protect their marine and coastal resources. Both are striving to engage local people and implement effective context-specific conservation initiatives. The main difference that I have identified is the focus on joint management of natural resources in Kenya as opposed to the current situation in Antigua. There is, however, a growing awareness of the benefits this system would offer. What’s next? After completing my MPhil I expect to return to Kenya to work on the FFI East Africa marine programme that I was actively involved in. In the long term, it is going to be vitally important to support local communities and help them to manage their marine and coastal resources sustainably.
Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force – Coast Guard
What were your first impressions when you joined FFI? The shift from a national to an international charity seemed daunting initially, but once I had begun to interact with the amazing staff and partners I became more confident. I was impressed by the commitment of the staff to conservation and their efforts to maintain relationships.
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Glad tidings
Dr Chris Greenwood, Director of Development & Communications, brings news of a tremendous boost for FFI’s marine conservation ambitions. I am delighted to be able to tell you about the substantial donation for marine conservation awarded to us by the Arcadia Foundation. FFI has been granted US$2.5m over five years with an additional US$2.5m available to us should we be able to find donors to match it. This will make a big difference to our organisation’s capacity – essentially, a US$7.5m difference. As with many donations, there is a story to tell. Last year, at a Conservation Circle dinner hosted by Charles Whitbread, Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin made a personal donation to FFI of £1m. Their aim was to kick-start the organisation’s marine strategy. That contribution has enabled us to go back to Lisbet and Peter and spell out what we think needs to happen next in the world of marine conservation. As may seem familiar to members of long standing and donors who know us well, we
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This grant is a mark of confidence in our technical ability to make conservation work all around the world. deployed Lisbet and Peter’s initial donation at a local level (in the main) funding exploratory work we’ve long wanted to get under way. We now know a good deal more about how communities might manage their marine resources better and we have a list of sites around the world where we can put our plans into action because of this support. As you will have read elsewhere in this issue of Fauna & Flora, we’ve been learning in Kenya, on and off the southern coast, as we implement a Darwin (UK Government funding) grant to work with local collectives of fishermen. They are following a model of marine resource management developed in Uganda on Lake Victoria. The government gives the fishermen
the right to draft and implement local bylaws, identify members of the collective and monitor the catch through beach management units (known as BMUs in the inevitable jargon). The UK government is funding scientific underpinning of this process and FFI is introducing this same concept at a number of sites around the world that Lisbet and Peter’s funding, through their foundation, Arcadia, will allow us to reach. In Ecuador, we are working at a site called Galera-San Francisco to support local lobster fishermen in their efforts to regenerate their local resources, all but fished out. Much of the work is of a replicable nature, once understood through the eyes of an international NGO thinking about different marine
supporting conservation
This grant is most encouraging for FFI. We take it as a mark of confidence, a sign of Arcadia’s trust in our technical ability to make conservation work locally all around the world. We often raise funds for specific projects – for example, plenty of people recently supported the establishment of a sanctuary for Cross River gorillas in Cameroon – but less often are we able to raise funds for a whole sphere of activities. Getting a matched funding grant in there as well helps us to demonstrate to other parties that they can have confidence in others’ confidence. Where, of course, we will always want funds is unrestrictedly, to the core of the organisation, so we can respond to the various challenges that arise on an almost daily basis. I write this from Kyrgyzstan having just visited the aweinspiring Naryn Reserve. Awe-inspiring because it rises from 2,600 metres to nearly 5,000 metres in a blink, repeatedly; because one can witness golden eagles and griffon vultures hunting in high alpine pastures and steppe; because the sight of nomadic horse herders caught in the full sun gladdens the heart and quickens the spirit; because the reserve itself stretches in a three-day ride across astonishing terrain to the Chinese border; and because the reserve staff manage this place successfully on a budget we would expect to underpin a rural post office or a small convenience store. These people are dauntless, certain of their vocation, and like the landscape that surrounds them, unflinching when faced with the threats of a railway line through the heart of the reserve, unflinching when confronting Chinese surveyors greedy for minerals and gold, unflinching when working
at -30C and more to tend to the critically endangered populations of deer and other fauna. Humble too: they didn’t twist our arms or plead poverty, despite the fabled riches of the west. Instead they asked us for a fridge (to store vaccines for deer and other animals). In my way here I have written about restricted funding, partially restricted funding, matched funding and unrestricted funding. These terms are our daily business at FFI. If you will, we hunt them out rather like the rare minerals sought after by those Chinese surveyors. Such terms are not immediately accessible to donors who want to fund the conservation of wildlife, wild places and the people who support these fragile resources. But I feel we ought to explain, to open up the workings of our organisation to those who are interested.
overwhelming need to conserve, or because there is an overwhelming desire for conservation. FFI conducts its conservation in a most particular manner – it has most particular supporters. Long may they coexist.
Have you considered joining our Friends Against Extinction group? Please contact Gavin Shelton at gavin.shelton@fauna-flora.org for more information.
It may seem obvious that charities and NGOs exist to tackle the world’s problems, or at least to show the way to governments and corporations, but in my view we exist because donors and other supporters want us to exist. We are a mechanism, a means by which conservation can happen and, whilst we exist to make that conservation happen, we also exist because people want conservation to happen. The two are inextricable, of course, but I wouldn’t want to have to decide whether we are there more because there is an
Bruce Davidson
Guillermo Guerra/FFL A
populations and various kinds of legal framework. Now we have the funding in place, and the prospect of a good deal more, we will be able to nuance, replicate and develop the good work of the Nazca Institute for Marine Research in various different contexts, for the benefit of marine initiatives in Indonesia, northern Kenya and other coastal countries worldwide.
We now know a good deal more about how communities might manage their marine resources better and have a list of sites around the world where we can put our plans into action.
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grey nurse shark Scientific name: Carcharias taurus Status: Vulnerable
Rarely exceeding three metres in length, it has a stocky build, flattened head and characteristic, fang-like teeth that protrude even when its mouth is shut. Despite its somewhat fearsome appearance, the grey nurse shark is relatively harmless and placid. Like other sharks, it is able to detect electric currents in the water, which it senses through receptors around its snout. Grey nurse sharks are more active at night, when they feed on other fish, including small sharks, as well as cephalopods and crustaceans. During the daytime they tend to stay close to rocky caves and ledges. The grey nurse shark is thought to be unique among sharks in its habit of gulping air at the surface and storing this in its stomach to control buoyancy. Its gruesome reproductive strategy is a case of ‘pup eat pup’. The female is ovoviviparous, meaning that she lays eggs that hatch out while they are still inside her two uteri. By the time an embryo reaches about 100 mm it has developed teeth and starts to feed on its siblings (intra-uterine cannibalism). Once all other embryos in that uterus have been eaten, it feeds on unfertilised
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eggs released from the ovary (oophagy), until it is born. By the time they are born, the two surviving pups (one from each uterus) may be as much as one metre long. Grey nurse sharks have the lowest reproductive rate of any shark species, usually breeding just once every two years. This renders the species particularly vulnerable to human-related pressures. Beach safety nets, illegal fishing and accidental capture continue to take their toll on the declining grey nurse shark population. Although globally classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, the grey nurse shark is deemed Critically Endangered in east Australian coastal waters, where at one point numbers plummeted to fewer than 1,000
individuals following decades of hunting. Notwithstanding its own conservation status, this apex predator plays a crucial ecological role within the Great Sandy Biosphere, a biologically rich marine reserve that FFI and its local partners in Australia are helping to conserve. Pressure from fishing, unsympathetic tourist activity and the degradation of coastal habitats are jeopardising the future of the species that rely on Great Sandy’s ecosystems, including the grey nurse shark itself. FFI is working with the Burnett Mary Regional Group to ensure that Great Sandy and its wildlife are adequately protected against these threats, and to increase our knowledge of how climate change is affecting aquatic habitats such as the Great Sandy Marine Park.
Carley Bansemer
The grey nurse shark, also known as the sand tiger shark, inhabits coastal waters.
Carley Bansemer
Geographical range: Widely distributed around the coasts of tropical to temperate oceans worldwide, but populations are increasingly isolated Threats: Vulnerable to overfishing due to low reproduction rate and tendency to congregate seasonally in coastal areas. Flesh, fins and oil continue to be widely harvested despite its protected status. Beach safety nets and accidental capture also take their toll
species profile grey nurse shark
The Grey Nurse Shark
A new marine project was recently launched in the Australian state of Queensland, the first of its kind to collect and collate data on the population and behaviour of this critically endangered shark species. Grey Nurse Shark Watch (GNSW), the community engagement component, is a photographic identification and monitoring project that encourages divers and fishers to submit photographs to help gather information on grey nurse shark numbers, movements and distribution. Each shark displays unique spot patterns, making photographic identification an ideal way to differentiate between individuals. Photographs submitted by volunteers will contribute to a national database, which will be made available to stakeholders, researchers and managers. The GNSW database is hosted by Reef Check Australia and the project has evolved through the collaboration of FFI, Queensland Department of Environment & Resource Management, Burnett Mary Regional Group and University of Queensland, with financial support from Australian Capital Equity.
Carley Bansemer
Research & Community Engagement Project
Despite years of research and management, relatively little is known about grey nurse shark migration routes and breeding locations. We urgently need to monitor their movements and protect key breeding areas in order to ensure recovery of the species. Wolf Rock in the Great Sandy Marine Park currently supports half the pregnant female population and is the only known aggregation site where females gather to feed, mate and gestate before returning to New South Wales to pup. Protecting such sites is pivotal to the survival of the species, and one of the main aims of
the research component of this project is to pinpoint the other locations where the remaining 50% of pregnant females aggregate. Using GIS (Geographic Information System), the team has identified 200 potential sites sharing similar features to Wolf Rock. Teams will be deployed to conduct habitat analysis at prioritised sites using side-scan sonar and remote operated video, while checking for sharks with baited underwater video. Female sharks tagged with special acoustic tags in southern Queensland in November 2011 will then be tracked using underwater ‘listening stations’ installed at potential sites.
Grey nurse sharks have the lowest reproductive rate of any shark species, usually breeding just once every two years.
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Tools of the trade An insight into some of the techniques and equipment used by FFI and its partners in the field
Into the blue Survival in the world of television and the media these days requires a fair bit of technical savvy. Cameras are almost all menu-driven and the all-important concept to grasp is ‘workflow’. With tape now a thing of the past, pretty much everything is recorded onto hard drives or flash cards. Since the big switch to High Definition (HD) and the proliferation of channels, strict quality standards have been drawn up by the broadcasters. These are mostly about formats and data rates, to try to bring about some semblance of industrywide agreement. Above: Filming Caribbean reef sharks, Nassau, Bahamas.
every professional underwater shoot throughout the world now uses this set-up and the results are excellent. But for all the technological advancements, some things never change. The old rules still apply, particularly in the world of wildlife filmmaking and photography – in my case the underwater world. You still need a strong story that is well illustrated and well told. As a veteran of the Red Sea, I have filmed there many times. It’s rich in pictures and stories, everything from working for Blue Peter to my own self-shot BBC sequences on how to take good stills pictures underwater, with my brother
So ensuring the workflow is seamless means transferring rushes onto hard drives after each day’s shoot, making back-ups and – just as crucially – labelling everything so nothing goes awry. It still unnerves a lot of people who’ve been in the business for years that their entire work is stored as data – and therefore can be wiped at the click of a mouse!
Phil McIntyre
Right: Filming soft corals in the Jordanian Red Sea.
For those of us who film underwater, the previous workhorse of the business was the Sony Z1, which is an HD compromise, coupled with the excellent Gates housing and superwide Fathom port lens. The rig has now been superseded by the Sony EX1, a full HD (1080p) camera with the latest Gates housing and even larger Fathom port lens. On its own, this is not enough to satisfy the geeks at the BBC, nor the Discovery or National Geographic channels. What has made a huge difference is the use of a nano-flash recorder. This bypasses the camera’s own compression tools and takes a direct feed which can then be recorded at maximum quality. Almost
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Still image courtesy of www.plasticoceans.org
How hard can it be to find and film the biggest creature that ever lived? Without state-of-the-art kit and technical know-how, it would be a non-starter, as journalist and underwater cameraman John McIntyre explains.
tools of the trade
As the principal underwater camera on the widely acclaimed cinema release The End of the Line, I was delighted to become involved in another production for the Big Screen this year making use of even higher spec cameras. This was as a member of the underwater team for Plastic Oceans, an important new charity whose ambition is to make a film about the terrible effects of plastic pollution on our iconic ocean animals. The story and quality of imagery are fundamental to the success of this long-term project. The latest video technology allowed us to record rare footage of blue whales underwater at a resolution able to withstand the technical rigours of a cinema release. Three Red cameras, which have 4K sensors (roughly four times the resolution of an HD camera), were deployed to southern Sri Lanka. These heavy
beasts use prime lenses, just as the old cine cameras did. But once meticulously housed in the tailormade, bulletproof Gates Deep Red underwater rig, these high-end units come into their own. We were shooting at 50 frames per second to squeeze out every last drop of footage from the shoot. Blue whales may be the biggest living creatures ever to have graced our planet, but they are nevertheless elusive. These animals surface, take about four breaths, then plumb the depths for at least ten minutes, so every second counts. Myself and award winning camera operators Doug Allan and Mike Pitts spent two weeks trying to make the most of these fleeting opportunities. It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but we got the big shots in the final minutes of the final hour of the final day of shooting. I had all but given up when I decided to choose a spot in the middle of the Indian Ocean and wait. And wait. I might as well have bought a blue whale lottery ticket. Just as I was about to call the boat back, I heard an almighty, roaring blow directly behind me. There it was; a huge blue whale
Using EX1 HD Gates Housing on BBC shoot
Courtesy Stuart Cove’s Fin Photo
Phil as the subject. For him, it’s a great hobby, but as you can see his images are excellent. I’ve also made a short film about ‘Denis the Dugong’, another about cleaning up reef pollution and numerous DVDs aimed at the diving market.
calf in full frame. I just hoped I was getting the shots I needed. It slipped below the waves only to surface again almost immediately – this time even closer, presumably checking out this alien being. The video grab you see is from the rare sight underwater of the biggest animal on the planet surfacing. It was magical. The results are planned for cinematic release in 2013 once the rest of the filming has been completed.
Below: Blue whale filmed surfacing off the coast of Sri Lanka.
It sounds like a cliché, but we got the big shots in the final minutes of the final hour of the final day of shooting.
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Deep and Meaningful Wildlife imagery is a vital weapon in our battle to conserve the rich variety of plants and animals with which we share this planet. When it comes to securing footage of marine species, the technical demands can be particularly exacting, but the results can be breathtaking, as these spectacular underwater shots illustrate. Clockwise from top left: Cryptic camouflage makes a resting octopus extremely difficult to spot, but once detected they make excellent subjects to film, provided that they are approached carefully. Close-up of the Red Sea or two-banded clownfish, which, as its name suggests, is commonly seen throughout the Red Sea.
Phil McIntyre
Phil McIntyre
Diver carefully examining a small coral head in the Red Sea resort of Nuweiba.
Phil McIntyre
A jetty provides cover for a school of baitfish, which have congregated here in large numbers for protection against the hordes of predatory lionfish hunting nearby.
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Phil McIntyre
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Phil McIntyre
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Previous page: The mutually beneficial relationship between clownfish and certain species of sea anemone is a classic example of symbiosis.
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Above: This gargantuan whale shark was being filmed off the coast of Djibouti by underwater cameraman John McIntyre. Although cropped out of this particular image, John was filming within touching distance of the shark’s nose. Fortunately for him, the world’s biggest fish is a plankton eater.
Opposite: A pair of remoras hitching a ride on a green turtle in the Gulf of Aqaba. These gentle and confiding marine reptiles tend to be easily approachable for filming or photography.
Phil McIntyre
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We need your support now
No water, no life. No blue, no green. Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer
Fauna&Flora The magazine of Fauna & Flora International
Putting marine conservation on the map
Blue sea thinking John McIntyre
Forging new strategic partnerships to tackle the crisis in our oceans
Coast benefit analysis Five years of community-managed marine protection in Kenya
Support us by: Becoming a member Remembering FFI in your will Joining the Friends Against Extinction group Making a one-off donation
What lies beneath Hidden treasures in offshore Ecuador
Innovative conservation since 1903 www.fauna-flora.org
Blueprint for success Coastal and marine conservation in Aceh
Issue 14 | October 2011