Each week, the Lab selects a particularly interesting and relevant news item and presents it in a few lines. This week, the Lab focused on the PUKATAI project in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, the world's first network of educational marine protected areas.
"Children are not vessels to be filled, but fires to be lit." — Montaigne.
A context of pressure on the management of protected marine areas
In a global context of strong budgetary constraints, managers of protected marine areas must now double their efforts to ensure the effective implementation of marine biodiversity conservation measures.
In French Polynesia, the PUKATAI project was able to test the effectiveness of a new collaborative management model for the marine environment combining biodiversity conservation and environmental education: educational marine protected areas.
The PUKATAI project: the birth of educational marine areas
Following an oceanographic campaign that took place in 2012 in the Marquesas archipelago and included a component to raise awareness among Marquesan students about marine biodiversity, they expressed the desire to take responsibility for managing their own protected marine area, in the bay located in front of their school. With the support of local stakeholders, the Protected Marine Areas Agency, and the Polynesian government, the concept of a marine educational area (MEA) was launched in 2013 with the primary school of Vaitahu on Tahuata Island, in the Marquesas.
Concrete actions led by students
Since then, five other marine educational areas have emerged in the Marquesas and have federated around the PUKATAI project. The realization of the ecological states of the 6 MEAs, the establishment of sea councils, and the development of coastal and marine trails are all management actions that have been carried out or planned that contribute to raising awareness and educating children involved in the project about the environment. To encourage the creation of other MEAs, a "marine educational area" label should also be developed, rewarding schools that engage in this process.
A complementary model to strengthen public policies
This management approach certainly cannot justify governments shirking their moral obligations regarding biodiversity conservation: national funding must be strengthened. However, MPAs may likely support governments in their process of expanding and strengthening national networks of protected marine areas. Because, just like nature, whose resilience capacities rely on the diversity of ecosystems, engaging in the diversification of our management systems is the only way to build MPA networks capable of adapting to global changes that are also occurring in our society.
The work of Vertigo Lab in French Polynesia
As part of the implementation of the RESCCUE project in French Polynesia, Vertigo Lab is currently working with the Agency for Protected Marine Areas on the ex ante evaluation of the creation and management costs of a Protected Marine Area in the Marquesas. This evaluation is intended to support the Polynesian government in implementing the planned activities for the conservation of its marine biodiversity. To learn more about this mission, click here.
