Protecting Our Oceans
by Steve McCormick, President & CEO of The Nature Conservancy
Land conservation defined The Nature Conservancy for much of our history. We built our reputation by buying threatened land, mostly in the United States, to safeguard species and natural communities. Eventually, we recognized the need to expand our focus and broadened our mission in the early 1990s to include protection of both lands and waters. But even then, our attention was devoted mostly to freshwater systems.
Ultimately, we realized that our mission compels us to address conservation of marine systems. After all, oceans, covering roughly 70 percent of the Earth's surface, support an incalculable amount of the world's biological diversity. Moreover, they provide us with ecological services valued at $21 trillion annually, yielding 85 million metric tons of fish and other raw materials. And yet, beyond the narrow strip of nearshore waters, the world's oceans are the last unclaimed domain on Earth. They belong to no one, and to everyone. As a "commons," of sorts, the oceans are perhaps the most unprotected ecosystem on Earth.
This summer, a commission authorized by Congress released the federal government's first comprehensive assessment of U.S. ocean policy in 35 years. The report is a wake-up call, with ramifications for people around the globe. Not only have we neglected our ocean resources, but we are currently ill-equipped to mount the effort necessary to turn the tide.
Such dire warnings can induce a sense of hopelessness. But what the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy recommends is positive--albeit urgent--and very much in line with where The Nature Conservancy has been moving. Although we may have come late to marine conservation, we have quickly mobilized to secure tangible and lasting results.
Making a commitment to protect our seas and oceans requires us to think--and act--in ways that go beyond how we have approached land and freshwater conservation. In 2002 we launched a Global Marine Initiative to provide leadership and coordination for our marine conservation around the world. Today, Nature Conservancy projects at more than 100 sites--from New York's Long Island Sound, the Florida Keys and Alaska's Pribiloff Islands to Micronesia, Belize and the Bahamas--pursue a holistic strategy of land and sea conservation.
We are working closely with public agencies and other conservation organizations to identify and, where appropriate, designate marine protected areas, and already our approach is yielding measurable results. In the heart of the Earth's "coral triangle" at Komodo National Park--co-managed by The Nature Conservancy and the Indonesian park authority--a combined strategy of park zoning, stepped-up enforcement of fishing regulations, community education and the establishment of viable alternative livelihoods has cut destructive fishing practices by 90 percent, with coral and fish stocks rebounding remarkably. Even those who were initially skeptical now praise this public-private experiment as an emerging model for the larger region.
The race is on by Nature Conservancy staff and partners to replicate variations of the Komodo example throughout the vast Indonesian archipelago, to establish a network of marine protected areas designed to survive, managed to last and connected like a string of pearls across the seas of Southeast Asia.
What the ocean commission prescribes--and what The Nature Conservancy is undertaking--is enormously challenging, daunting, expensive and dependent on collaboration between governments, industry, local communities and international conservation organizations. It requires a fundamental change in how we think about our relation to oceans. But the world's oceans offer an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate the fundamental precept that the well-being--indeed, the very survival--of humankind depends on our integration, not our separation; on our cooperation, not our conflict; and on our willingness to transcend boundaries for the greater good of all.
Steven J. McCormick
President and CEO
The Nature Conservancy
Fall 2004