All About Marine Protected Areas - Advanced Information

If you’re already relatively knowledgeable about the many types and purposes of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the U.S., you may be ready to learn about various mechanisms that have been created or collected by the MPA Center to better understand the complexities surrounding the nation’s assortment of MPAs.

U.S. MPA Classification System
The growing confusion over MPA terminology complicates national dialogue about whether, when, and how to use this management tool to sustain the health of the nation’s marine ecosystems. In an attempt to clarify discussion about various MPA issues, the National Marine Protected Areas Center developed a set of simple definitions for common MPA types that are intended to provide an objective and intuitive way to understand, describe, and constructively assess most MPAs found in the United States.

This classification system is:

• simple, consistent and intuitive
• an accurate reflection of MPA goals and approaches
• a tool to allow an objective assessment of the impacts of proposed MPAs on ecosystems and users
• one that doesn’t overlap with programmatic names
• one that has minimal connotations

The MPA classification system was created to simplify the often confusing diversity of MPA terminology by focusing on a few key functional features that together describe those aspects of the MPA that are of greatest concern to stakeholders, agencies, and scientists. The classification system uses five fundamental design characteristics, and options within them, that can be used to describe any MPA. The main two characteristics are Conservation Focus and Level of Protection.

Learn more about the five fundamental characteristics of U.S. MPAs.

There are other classification systems in use worldwide. Learn about the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) guidelines, or visit the IUCN’s protected areas section.

Defining Marine Protected Areas for the National System of MPAs
In order to better define the term “marine protected area” for the purpose of building a national MPA system, the MPA Center has proposed criteria based on the official definition of a marine protected area in MPA Executive Order 13158:

“…any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.”

Without further clarification, the key MPA terms of “area,” “marine environment,” “reserved,” “lasting,” and “protection” found in the MPA definition are subject to a range of interpretations. This could result in sites selected randomly for inclusion in the national system, without a standardized, unified process. An ineffective, unsuccessful national system could then ensue.

To plan carefully for the national system, the MPA Center has included criteria in its draft Framework for Developing the National System of MPAs, which is available for public comment. The draft framework defines the following five MPA criteria “area,” ”marine environment,” “reserved,” lasting,” and “protection.” In addition, the draft framework proposes that in order for an MPA to participate in the national system, the managing agency or agencies must give approval and also describe how the MPA supports the national system’s goals. To read the proposed definitions of these criteria, go here.

Links
Case studies on the MPA designation process
Clarifying Misconceptions About Marine Protected Areas
U.S. Classification system
Draft Framework for Developing the National System of MPAs
Fact Sheets
Newsletters

For More Information
Write to mpainfo@noaa.gov.