Addressing climate change in Canada’s ocean protection efforts

Rising temperatures and increasing acidification of the ocean caused by climate change impact ecosystems around the world, leading to a loss of biodiversity.

Conservation efforts such as the establishment of marine protected areas aim to counteract this biodiversity loss.

However, as many species move to more suitable regions, they might leave protected areas.

Read this open access article on the FACETS website.

Despite this, effects of climate change are not often considered when talking about and planning for any type of marine conservation and management in Canada, or elsewhere.

As the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly obvious, we provide five recommendations to better integrate climate change into conservation efforts.

We recommend that (1) climate change needs to be integrated as a universal objective of the Canadian Marine Conservation Network, supported by (2) inclusive working groups with representation from everyone who has an interest in the ocean and (3) more development and use of necessary tools to study the effects of climate change. Furthermore, we recommend that (4) monitoring and management of marine protected areas need to focus more on the actual effects of climate change and (5) the benefits of marine protected areas to fight climate change need to be better communicated within government and for the public.

With the longest coastline in the world and extensive ocean area under its care, Canada has a global responsibility to be a leader in the innovation and implementation of new ways to fight climate change to prevent the ongoing loss of biodiversity.

Read the article — A climate-resilient marine conservation network for Canada by A. Bryndum-Buchholz, K. Boerder, R.R.E. Stanley, I. Hurley, D.G. Boyce, K.M. Dunmall, K.L. Hunter, H.K. Lotze, N.L. Shackell, B. Worm, and D.P. Tittensor