Submitted by
Catherine.Wallace
on Fri, 06/16/2023 - 10:29
General Information
Resolution
49194
IUCN Constituent
Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand
IUCN Constituent type
IUCN Member organisation
Period covered
Geographic scope
Oceania
Pacific Ocean
Country/Territory
New Zealand
Actors involved in implementing this Resolution:
Other non-IUCN related organisations
New Zealand government agencies, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, various others
II. Implementation
Activities carried out to implement this Resolution
Activity
Policy influencing/advocacy
Description and results/achievements of activities:
ECO with others including iwi and hapu(Maori tribes and subtribes) continues to press for genuine MPAS and for the New Zealand fishing industry and Ministry to stop pretending that Bogus Protected Areas qualify as marine protected areas.
Status
On-going
Activity
Scientific/technical activities
Description and results/achievements of activities:
The Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand, ECO, has pressed in several jurisdictions and often in concert with other ENGOs, pressed for the conservation purpose of MPAs and OECMs to be a key criterion and focus of protected areas. In particular we have pressed for an end to bottom trawling on seamounts and associated features, and vulnerable marine ecosystems. We have raised the issue in both policy and in scientific fora in New Zealand and in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management areas and else where. We have called for the New Zealand "Benthic Protected Areas" to be recognised as Bogus Protected areas since they were established on the initiative of the industrial fishing interests in New Zealand as a means of avoiding conservation-inspired protected areas, not for the purpose of conservation.
Status
On-going
Describe any challenges encountered in implementing this Resolution and the measures taken
ECO is entirely voluntary so our capacity is stretched. The main problems is that disinformation that equates so-called Benthic Protected Areas with genuine MPAs that is spread from the New Zealand fishing industry and at times the Ministry of Primary Industries is widely circulated but not often recognised or rebutted as the fake claims they are.
Please report on the result /achievement of the actions taken
For a period, with the authority of the IUCN MPA classifications and the New Zealand Department of Conservation, we got a pause in the NZ government claiming that BPAs counted as MPAs, but we keep finding that the claims resurface.
Identify and briefly describe what future actions/activities are planned for the implementation of this Resolution
Future action / activity
Policy influencing/advocacy
Description
We will continue to challenge the false claims and to draw attention to the damage that industrial fishing does, and how it should not be tolerated in MPAs. Industrial fishing is hugely influential but we will continue to call out the false claims and we will continue to press for an end to damaging mobile fishing methods.
Report status
Published
Constituent type
IUCN Member