How to protect, and why to prioritize, coastal waters

While territorial seas — or the waters over which sovereign states have jurisdiction — make up just 6% of the ocean, they are home to the vast majority of its biodiversity and are where 40% of fish are caught.

But this thin band of ocean that stretches 12 nautical miles from the coast is “overlooked and underprotected” in conservation efforts, said Rocky Tirona, who manages a program to reduce coastal overfishing at Rare, an international environmental conservation nonprofit.

Many coastal fisheries are insufficiently managed as overfishing, climate change, and pollution lead to declining fish stocks — which jeopardizes the lives and livelihoods of people who rely on those natural resources. Hardly any marine protected areas fall inside territorial waters, due in part to the challenges associated with setting up “no-take zones” in areas densely populated by humans, and coastal waters rarely fall under any sort of protection.

In other words, the international community is neglecting the part of the ocean that has the greatest impact on people, Tirona said at this week’s Our Ocean Conference in Palau, which closed with commitments worth nearly $16.4 billion to protect the ocean.

“We can’t allow that disparity to continue if we really want to make an impact in the lives of people,” she added.

Tirona, who is based in the Philippines — home to more marine protected areas than any other country — is among an increasingly vocal group of ocean conservationists calling for more attention, funding, and action in these coastal waters.

Only 4% to 12% of ocean philanthropy goes toward sustainably managing the territorial seas, even though they contain all the world’s mangroves, seagrasses, and kelp forests, as well as most of its coral reefs — which provide essential habitat for thousands of species, prevent erosion and protect the land, and serve as carbon sinks, clearing the air by absorbing and storing the carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.

“Managed access with reserves,” Rare’s approach to sustainable fishing in these coastal waters, points to ways that other organizations can safeguard biodiversity while also protecting the rights of local communities to access the waters they need for their livelihoods, Tirona told Devex, adding that this work can only be scaled up if philanthropy, official development assistance, and ultimately private capital take these territorial waters into account.

Rare focuses on behavior change to increase sustainable resource management, working with local communities to adopt more sustainable behaviors in farming, fishing, and other practices.

In the case of Fish Forever, the fisheries program that Tirona manages, she and her colleagues work with communities to collectively visualize the problems of overfishing — and then work together to prevent it. Often, they start by playing a game with spoons, chopsticks, and scoops to round up plastic fish on a table and then use tape to designate no-take zones, illustrating how managed access versus open access can preserve fish for the following season.

Tirona, who helped start Fish Forever at Rare, now manages the program in eight countries. Across these geographies, the Rare team introduces protected reserves — or marine protected areas — that are off-limits to fishing so that stocks can replenish. Rare also sets up managed access areas where fishing can be done sustainably. The organization tries to provide local fishers with exclusive access to the fish, giving them an incentive to protect the waters.

Rare typically sets up a network of no-take zones, which are located inside or next to the managed access areas, giving fish populations a place to regenerate. After their numbers increase, they later spill over into the fishing area.

“Bigger is not always better,” Tirona said at Our Ocean. “Sometimes networks of smaller reserves put together can actually yield better results and are actually more acceptable for the community.”

Rare works to elevate the role of community and local governments, giving them the data, tools, and authority they need for decision-making.

“Behavior change is a really critical part of this work,” Tirona said. “If community members come up with the rules, they’re more likely to follow them.”

This sense of ownership is critical for community members to be stewards of their coastal waters.

Marine protected areas are typically established far from the shore. For example, 30x30, a campaign to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, calls for a global network of marine protected areas in the high seas, far beyond these coastal marine environments that are so critical to biodiversity, food security, and livelihoods. It’s not always socially or politically feasible to set up no-take zones in densely populated areas, Tirona said.

To scale up these community-led conservation approaches on coastlines around the world, it’s critical that conservation efforts like 30x30 prioritize — not ignore — the territorial waters, Tirona said.

“If we want 30x30 to make an impact on not just nature but people, we need to address this issue,” she added.

Initially, most funding will come from philanthropy or official development assistance, but once fish stocks recover and catch improves, there will be space for more blended finance and private capital, Tirona said.