Conservation 2.0 - The Next Big Ideas in Conservation - Taking Private Conservation to the Sea

 

Lynne Hale, Global Marine Initiative

Lynne Hale is an ardent coastal and marine conservationist who directs the Conservancy's Global Marine Initiative. She leads the Conservancy’s efforts to substantially expand its programs in coastal and marine conservation. Prior to joining the Conservancy in 2003, Hale served as associate director of the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center and senior coastal technical advisor for the Alaska Native Foundation.

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"Private conservation tools represent a paradigm shift in marine conservation."

— Lynne Hale
director of the Conservancy's Global Marine Initiative

The Conservancy’s Global Marine Initiative

Learn how we're turning the tide of coastal degradation and shaping a future of healthy oceans.

big ideas in conservation – future of conservation – nature picture – Kimbe Bay – Papua New Guinea

By Lynne Hale
Director, Global Marine Initiative, The Nature Conservancy

Marine conservation needs some fresh thinking — and land might be just the place to look for it.

Many marine resources around the world are already threatened, while human demands on the oceans continue to accelerate. Yet coasts and oceans remain among the most unprotected places on the planet.

We need new and innovative tools for protecting these vital resources while enabling access for fishermen, beachgoers, divers, communities, businesses and industry.

What Works on Land Can Work on the Water, Too

On land, The Nature Conservancy often uses private conservation approaches (such as concessions, easements, leasing and outright ownership) to help individuals, communities and organizations manage access to natural resources.

In the fluid ocean environment, where open access can easily lead to over-exploitation, we’re now finding that modified versions of these tools can be applied as well:

  • Through our ownership of 13,000 acres of underwater land at the bottom of Great South Bay off Long Island, we are catalyzing restoration of this entire critical marine ecosystem. With the area’s baymen, we have added over 1 million clams to the bay and protected them in spawner sanctuaries — allowing this essential "ecosystem engineer" to once again filter and help clean the bay's water as well as rebuild its once-abundant marine populations.
  • By buying fish-trawling vessels and permits from willing sellers in California, we led the creation of a no-trawl zone the size of Connecticut — 3.8 million acres. We are now working to lease back these permits with stipulations and easements that will help local fishermen transition to more sustainable fishing — ensuring that our conservation investment will endure.
  • And we're using traditional and new governance arrangements to help communities from Mexico to Chile to Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands exercise stewardship and management rights over nearby marine resources and near-shore habitats. Early evidence from all these locations shows these communities to be effective managers of these resources.

These solutions are well-suited to conserving marine ecosystems while providing appropriate levels of access — because they engage people and economic interests as well as the needs of ecosystems.

While we're just beginning to learn how to use such approaches on a wider scale, private conservation tools represent a paradigm shift in marine conservation — one where more and more individuals, communities and organizations will share the rights and responsibility of stewarding the ocean's bounty.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Ron Geatz/TNC (Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea); Photo © TNC (Lynne Hale).