The 4th national symposium on marine protected areas has just taken place at the Palais des Congrès in Biarritz from 22 to 24 October 2019. The Saint-Martin Nature Reserve was invited to this meeting which brought together around 500 participants and organized, since 2008, in partnership with the World Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, as well as the French Agency for Biodiversity.
French marine protected areas "constitute solutions for protecting the health of the oceans and, in particular, areas of exclusive French savings", says Nicolas Maslach, curator and director of the Saint-Martin Nature Reserve. For the latter, France has a particular responsibility in the management of these marine spaces, since it is the second maritime power in the world, after the United States, in terms of area of exclusive economy zones and that it is present in all oceans.
Every year, the French Agency for Biodiversity ensures that all managers of marine protected areas meet and discuss their actions, their strategies, etc. The conference which took place in Biarritz took place in a context important national and international, since in June 2020 will meet in Marseilles, the World Conservation Congress of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). "It was important that all of these managers, as well as its own departments, come together to define a 2020-2030 strategy," considers Nicolas Maslach.
This strategy will consist of five challenges. First of all, set complete and coherent, effective and efficient challenges that contribute to sustainable uses, that these protected areas are integrated into policies and territories, and that they mobilize as many actors as possible, and that these actors engage in the conservation of marine protected areas.
“What will be interesting in this new strategy is that we are trying to change the paradigm. We often hear that there is the world of the earth and the world of the sea, when in fact these two worlds are intimately linked ». But often, and "this has been said during the debates, the land is responsible for the pollution of the marine environment, and therefore that it also affects users of the sea". Nicolas Maslach specifies that the idea is to have a policy and a strategy which aim to better manage all the anthropic pressures that there are on earth and which end up in the marine environment.
The Saint-Martin Nature Reserve was invited to this conference, in particular to present its various actions, since one of the themes of this forum was the establishment of sustainable financing, and not simply through subsidies. The objective is above all to perpetuate the operating budgets of marine protected areas, “therefore, the Reserve was invited in this capacity, so that it presents the financial tools that it has put in place for more than ten years. 'years, and in particular royalties on commercial activities' _RM
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