Critical Habitats and Biodiversity: Inventory, Thresholds and Governance

This paper examines the distribution of species and critical marine habitats across the world’s oceans; analyses trends in drivers, pressures, impacts and response; and establishes thresholds for protecting biodiversity hotspots, as well as indicators to monitor change. From this scientific base, it assesses the current legal framework and available tools for biodiversity protection, current gaps in ocean governance and management, and the implications for achieving a sustainable ocean economy tailored to individual coastal states grouped by social indicators.

On 7th May 2020, Ocean Panel member Mexico convened an event, ‘Building the Sustainable Ocean Economy of the Future: From Business as Usual to Collaborative, Ecosystem-based Approaches to Management’, which featured this Blue Paper. Find the Spanish-only webinar here.

Chile’s Ocean Panel Sherpa Waldemar Coutts, also published the op-ed ‘A Treaty on the High Seas, Key to Sustainability in the Post-COVID-19 Era’ in EFE Verde (scroll down for the English version).

The lead authors of this paper are Alex D. Rogers and Octavio Aburto-Oropeza. Contributing authors include Ward Appeltans, Jorge Assis, Lisa T. Ballance, Philippe Cury, Carlos Duarte, Fabio Favoretto, Joy Kumagai, Catherine Lovelock, Patricia Miloslavich, Aidin Niamir, David Obura, Bethan C. O’Leary, Gabriel Reygondeau, Callum Roberts, Yvonne Sadovy, Tracey Sutton, Derek Tittensor and Enriqueta Velarde.