Have you ever wondered how Brazil meets its marine conservation objectives?
Brazil is generally known for it’s forests, football and parties but the country’s marine resources are also spectacular, and includes bays where over thousands of dolphins aggregate as the sun sets over the ocean. To understand how well these resources are protected, Rafael Magris and colleagues undertook a marine gap analysis, assessing how well Brazil meets conservation objectives for representation and persistence. They found that the current protection of the marine environment in Brazil is poor with less than 1.9% of the marine jurisdiction within MPAs and 0.14% within no-take areas. This percentage coverage is much lower than the 10% national objective and the 30% best-practice. Increasing the protection of the marine environment in Brazil is critical; not only to achieve government commitments but also to ensure marine resources are sustained through time. Their study can be used to guide future ecologically effective expansion of MPAs in Brazil.
You can read more about the findings from this study at:
Magris R, Mills M, Fuentes MMPB, Pressey B (2013) Analysis of progress towards a comprehensive system of marine protected areas in Brazil. Natureza & Conservação 11(1):1-7.
