The 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress, held 6-15 September
in Jeju, Korea, was the launch site for several new reports and
initiatives related to marine protected areas. Among the
highlights: New guidelines on applying protected area management
categories to MPAs With a goal to make it more difficult for
fisheries agencies to categorize area mechanisms that exploit
fish as being MPAs, IUCN has produced a new set of guidelines
for applying its protected area management categories. The
guidelines clarify that if marine areas involve extractive use
and have no defined long-term goals of conservation and ocean
recovery, they should not be considered MPAs. "It is time to
stop pretending more of the ocean is protected than it actually
is," said Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice-Chair of IUCN's World
Commission on Protected Areas, in a press statement. The
guidelines also suggest pipelines and offshore wind farms should
not be considered MPAs unless they are set up specifically with
clear long-term conservation objectiv