Biodiversité

Selon la Convention de Carthagène, ce centre travaille à mettre en œuvre le protocole SPAW relatif à la protection de la biodiversité marine et côtière dans la grande région Caraïbe, depuis le Golfe du Mexique jusqu’à la mer des Antilles.

Edito : Wasting away

Articles :

- Climate change reduces the conservation benefits of tropical coastal ecosystems

- Voluntary commitments made by the world’s largest companies focus on recycling and packaging over other actions to address the plastics crisis

- Climate change reduces the conservation benefits of tropical coastal ecosystems

- Ocean conservation boosts climate change mitigation and adaptation

In the French West Indies, more than 20 species of cetaceans have been observed over the last decades. The recognition of this hot spot of biodiversity of marine mammals observed in the French Exclusive Economic Zone of the West Indies motivated the French government to create in 2010 a marine protected area (MPA) dedicated to the conservation of marine mammals: the Agoa sanctuary. Threats that cetacean populations face are multiple but well-documented. Cetacean conservation can only be achieved if relevant and reliable data are available, starting by occurrence data. 

Dans le cadre de la 8ème conférence annuelle « Our Océan », qui se tient actuellement au Panama avec des experts et ministres du monde entier, la France a officiellement rejoint le jeudi 2 mars 2023 le Corridor Marin de Conservation du Pacifique tropical Est (CMAR).

A healthy Ocean is critical for achieving sustainable development goals but the Ocean is threatened by multiple stressors. There is a global call to increase the coverage of marine protected areas (MPAs) from 10% to at least 30% by 2030. France, a major actor for marine conservation with the second largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, with territories in all Ocean basins but the Arctic, aims at reaching the 30% by 2022, for which one third shall include a strong protection status. However, the strategy to reach this twofold target faces two challenges. First, while some standards exist to classify the levels of protection, France is currently using a case specific, loose approach to define strong protection. Second, there is no criteria that addresses the representativeness of the protection across French Ocean basins. Here, we assess the protection levels of the 524 French MPAs and their distribution across territories and habitats. While 33.7% of France’s waters are covered by an MPA, 12.5% of these areas do not impose regulations stronger inside than outside. Full and high levels of protection, the most effective for biodiversity conservation, represent only 1.6% of French waters and are unevenly distributed across Ocean basins and habitats, with 80.5% concentrated in a single territory.