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Habitat Protection, Restoration and Management
The three workshops under the third theme discussed topics such as the benefits of managing MPA networks and good practices in partnerships between international and regional organizations, community-based approaches of habitat prevention, restoration and management initiatives in lowcost technologies, and the implementation of projects in wetland protection and management.
Networking of Marine Protected Areas: Benefits, Good Practices, Standards and Next Steps
The workshop highlighted the benefits of managing MPAs as a network, showcased good practices and lessons learned in networking of MPAs, and developed recommendations for partnership/collaborative efforts in managing MPA.
It served as a venue to build cooperation and harmonize across various initiatives, strategies, action plans and working partnerships in MPA networking that have been developed or are being developed in the region.
Indigenous Approaches to Habitat Protection and Restoration: Experiences in Sato-Umi and Other Community Initiatives
Communities living along the rivers, coasts and small islands have acquired invaluable indigenous knowledge on how to live in harmony with nature. They have first-hand knowledge of the natural resources in terms of abundance, distribution, the economic benefits derived and the conditions at which these natural resources are produced and interactions within the ecosystems. With long traditional knowledge, these communities are able to sustain the continuous supply of natural resources without compromising the habitats and ecosystems. Unfortunately, rapid economic development and indiscriminate and unregulated exploitation of primary produce and unsustainable consumption over the last several decades have seriously damaged the functional integrity of ecosystems and specific habitats demonstrated by dwindling fish stocks, pollution, biodiversity loss and degraded social well being of these communities.
Indigenous knowledge and community actions have already contributed significantly in protecting and restoring several coastal, riverine and island environment and the natural resources in several countries. In Japan, community-based habitat restoration activities have been gaining momentum in recent years. Sato-umi is one of the well-known traditional Japanese practices of the coastal communities co-existing with nature at which people’s livelihood and their culture are deeply involved, productivity sustained, biodiversity protected and conserved while ecosystems are able to function and material cycling is maintained. These community efforts were undertaken through comprehensive and integrated management from land to coastal area. Together with Satoyama that focuses on mountainous area, Sato-umi is expected to develop into a Japanese model of Integrated Coastal Management. Sato-Umi was incorporated into the Strategy for an Environmental Nation in the 21st Century, the National Biodiversity Strategy and the Basic Plan on Ocean Policy of Japan.
Indigenous knowledge can be leveraged with advanced low-cost technology that can be applied by coastal communities to reduce pollution, protect and restore habitats, adapt and respond to natural disasters, increase fish production, etc. to make substantial contribution to the social well being of the coastal areas.
Innovation in Biodiversity and Habitat Conservation: Lessons Learned
Projects from around the Yellow Sea region have been working, often independently, on innovative ways of mitigating the threats that face the biological diversity in our coastal wetlands. Last year we contacted partners to talk about the best method of sharing our experiences of new ways of tackling some of the problems, and the EAS Congress was an excellent opportunity to effect this. Many of our partners have made significant progress in finding novel solutions to protect biological diversity in their region. The workshop provided a forum for partners to review the problems in their area, explain how they responded to these problems and illustrate their success stories.
