It’s not rocket science - closing areas of land and water to
humans allows nature to recover and restore its fragile balance.
The idea has been successfully tried and tested many times on
land but it has taken years of destruction before the message
has hit home for the oceans. Ten years ago in Johannesburg,
global leaders committed for the first time to establish by 2012
networks of marine protected areas to protect oceans from human
impacts. The 2012 target has been reiterated over and over in
global and regional environmental political meetings. In 2007
Mediterranean governments agreed to set aside by 2012 marine
protected areas including seas areas of international waters to
save marine life, and in 2009 they agreed to a plan to make it
happen. It’s now February 2012. I am in freezing Paris where the
17th meeting of the Mediterranean Environment Convention – the
Barcelona Convention – has just taken place. The icy
temperatures here in the French capital reflect the cold truth.
There is no Mediterranean ne