Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are considered effective conservation tools for sustaining ocean
ecosystems (Agardy 1999; NRC 2000). A MPA, as defined in EO 13158, is "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." Section 5 of EO 13158
stipulates, "Each Federal agency whose actions affect the natural or cultural
resources that are protected by an MPA shall identify such actions. To the extent permitted by law and to the
maximum extent practicable, each federal agency, in taking such actions, shall avoid harm to the natural
and cultural resources that are protected by an MPA." EO 13158 also calls for the preparation of annual reports by federal
agencies describing the actions they have taken over the previous year to implement the
order.
The most significant outcome of EO 13158 has been the
strengthening and expansion of the nation’s system of MPAs. The EO provides a formal,
albeit vague, definition of a MPA. Since it is currently unclear as to what specifically constitutes a MPA, the
National Marine Protected Area Center, NOAA, is developing a MPA Classification
System that will provide definitions and qualifications for the various terms used within the EO. In the fall
of 2000, criteria were developed for six key terms in the EO definition: “area,” “reserved,” duration
(lasting),” “protections,” “marine,” and “cultural.” These working criteria,
which were revised in the summer of 2002, were established to guide government
agencies in identifying sites to be included in a national inventory of marine protected
areas. This new classification scheme will allow efficient efforts to develop and
disseminate the science, tools, and training needed for the effective design, management and evaluation
of the nation's system of MPAs. Definitions of the above six criteria are found
on the national MPA website at http://www.mpa.gov/inventory/criteria.html.
Several areas of the U.S. marine environment receive
at least some level of management protection. The NOAA and the Department of the Interior (DoI)
are documenting all marine sites receiving management protection.
Concurrently, the National Marine Protected Area
Center is compiling a comprehensive inventory of all federal, state, tribal, and
local designated areas that meet certain criteria for either a Marine Managed Area (MMA) or a MPA. MMAs are similar to MPAs in that they have conservation or
management purposes, defined boundaries, and some legal authority to protect
their resources. MMAs encompass a wider range of management intents than MPAs.
They include areas of protection for geological, cultural, or recreational
resources that might not be included under the definition provided in EO 13158
for MPAs. MMAs may also include areas that are managed for reasons other than
conservation (e.g., security zones, shellfish
closures, sewage discharge areas, and pipeline and
cable corridors).
The first step in redefining what constitutes MPAs is
to establish a list of MMAs, from which a select few MPAs will eventually be
chosen. To date, only federal MMAs have been added to the MMA Inventory; state,
territorial, tribal, and local MMAs will be considered for addition to the
inventory list at a later date. Once the MMA Inventory is complete, the MPA
Classification System will be applied to sites in the MMA Inventory and official
MPA designations will be made. Only those sites in the MPA list are subject to
the ‘avoid harm’ stipulation stated in EO 13158. |
