IUCN, Global Marine Programme

This document summarizes discussions that were held during a workshop in December 2011 and which focused on making progress on the identification of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas for seamounts in the high seas.

For the Aichi Biodiversity Targets to be met in full, and for the other relevant processes to be successful, examples and guidelines for the identification of important pelagic areas must be made available to policy makers involved in the process of identifying ecologically or biologically significant areas (EBSAs).

This summary is based on Crooks, S., Herr, D., Laffoley, D., Tamelander, J. and Vandever, J. 2010. “New Opportunities to Regulate Climate Change through Restoration and Management of Coastal Wetlands and Marine Ecosystems.” World Bank, IUCN, ESA PWA (renamed "Mitigating climate change through restoration and management of coastal wetlands and near-shore marine ecosystems: challenges and opportunities" upon publication in 2011).

This report builds on these and other efforts to bring to light the important carbon sequestration potential of coastal wetlands, and the significant and largely unaccounted for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the disturbance, drainage, and conversion of these natural coastal carbon sinks for agriculture, tourism and other coastal development.

Although Bonaire’s coral reefs remain among the healthiest and most resilient in the Caribbean, this IUCN report based on the IUCN Resilience Assessment of Coral Reefs highlights some of the threats that exist to Bonaire’s coral reefs, and which could have serious implications for resilience to future climate change and other threats. The report identified recommendations for addressing the current threats, as well as high and low resilience sites.

The goal of this toolkit is to help promote environmental stewardship and increase awareness of marine and coastal ecosystems among schoolchildren in Asia through the use of creative, investigative approaches. Investigative approaches allow schools to make the local environment relevant and interesting to children in coastal communities and help to reinforce the need for wise and sustainable management of our coastal and marine resources.

The World Heritage Convention is a principal protection mechanism available to recognise and protect the very best marine sites around the globe. A key step to targeted application of the Convention has now been made by the creation of the Bahrain Action Plan for marine World Heritage.

Marine News is the IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme e-newsletter. It includes news stories related to a diversity of marine-related topics such as climate change mitigation and adaptation; threatened marine species; energy and industry; marine protected areas; marine invasive species; fisheries and aquaculture; ocean governance and the Arctic. It also highlights recent marine expeditions and outstanding marine photographs.

The estimated 500 million people who depend on coral reefs worldwide regularly contend with change. Whether it is the shifting demands of a global marketplace, political upheaval at the national level, shortage of local supplies such as fuel, or fickle weather, the resilience of reefdependent people is often put to the test.