Connectivity is widely recognized as a key requirement for ensuring effective marine and coastal protection, and for sustaining essential ecological processes of the planet’s oceans. In order to achieve a wide array of environmental targets, such as protecting 30 percent of marine spaces by 2030, countries require policy tools that inform effective management and take connectivity into consideration.
Studies consistently show that fully protected marine reserves benefit people and the planet by:
- safeguarding biodiversity
- improving fish populations
- strengthening connections between indigenous communities and the natural resources their cultures depend on
- providing ecological benefits to neighboring ecosystems
- protecting predators and maintaining ecosystem stability
- strengthening the ocean’s resilience to the impacts of a changing climate.
Despite the clear benefits, current marine policy tools lag behind those in terrestrial environments, often because marine connectivity is difficult to measure. However, scientists continue to gain knowledge of distinctive marine features and their role in connectivity. This allows for policy on marine connectivity to become more widespread, and provides important legal instruments for conservation.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (1982) has an expressly marine focus, and defines the rights and responsibilities of countries with respect to their use of the world’s oceans. The convention establishes, among other things, guidelines for the management of marine natural resources. Currently, there are negotiations for revisions to the agreement on marine biodiversity conservation in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Most notably, Annex I of the proposed revisions, indicative criteria for identification of areas, includes “ecological connectivity [and/or coherence]” as a criterion for marine protected area design.
Once passed, this amendment will ensure that connectivity is taken into consideration in every ABNJ protected area. As the high seas account for 43% of the earth’s surface, this amendment has significant potential to systematically and globally integrate connectivity conservation into large marine protected areas, preserving essential natural processes and important areas for feeding, breeding, and migration.
Only a year following UNCLOS, the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) (1983) was established and has since provided the primary specialized intergovernmental framework for cooperative efforts on issues of connectivity. Several recent resolutions, adopted in 2020, relate to marine connectivity:
- Resolution 12.07 (The role of ecological networks in the conservation of migratory species) highlights the critical importance of area-based connectivity for conservation and management, recommending actions for advancing the design and implementation of ecological networks to address the needs of migratory species.
- Resolution 12.26 (Improving ways of addressing connectivity in the conservation of migratory species) emphasizes the need for establishing standard evaluation methods for measuring “sufficiency and ecological coherence of ecological networks in functional and quantitative terms.” Such standardized methods for advancing marine connectivity are particularly useful for determining progress toward international targets.
Bilateral agreements, along with cooperation on international law and policy instruments, like UNCLOS and CMS, can be used as an effective means to progress system-based marine conservation and to establish greater connectivity across borders and at larger scales. More marine connectivity policy instruments can be found at the IUCN CCSG Marine Connectivity Working Group’s Guide to Marine Connectivity Policy.
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