The Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) gathered in February 2023 in Vancouver, Canada with the overarching goals to “demonstrate global support for marine conservation efforts such as networks of marine protected areas and marine spatial planning.” Participants included ocean conservation professionals, youth ambassadors, Indigenous leaders, high-level government officials, and other ocean advocates. Presentations were held in both in-person and virtual formats.
Members of the Marine Connectivity Working Group participated virtually in a session titled ‘Marine Connectivity Conservation ‘Rules Of Thumb’: Applying Guidelines to MPA and MPA Network Design and Management’. Presenters included Barbara Lausche (MCWG Chair) from Mote Marine Laboratory, Demian Chapman from Mote Marine Laboratory, Anna Metaxas from Dalhousie University, Maria Morgado from the UN Environment Programme, Simon Pittman from University of Oxford, and Jonathan Gardner from Victoria University of Wellington. For your convenience, the video links to the six presentations of our MCWG members are available.
This year’s conference was organized around the following five themes which shaped presentations and discussions: building a global MPA network, advancing conservation in the blue economy, actively managing MPAs and human activity, conserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis and connecting Ocean culture and human well-being.
IMPAC began as a response to the growing field of marine conservation and the rising number of MPAs globally. At IMPAC5 over 100 events took place over the weeklong conference. Other talks relevant to the MCWG mission included Vladimir Ryabinin from the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission speaking to the use of marine spatial planning and inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in the mission to protect the Ocean; Zau Lunn’s from Flora and Fauna International discussing the use of communities to strengthen MPA networks; and Bani Maini from Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society presenting on Marine Refuges in Canada and the standards that are necessary in order to protect current and future conserved areas. Recorded presentations from the Keynote Speakers can be found here.
