The California Ocean Protection Council is spearheading an effort to add California’s MPA network to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Green List, a program that promotes effective, equitable, and successful protected areas worldwide. By evaluating protected areas against a set of globally consistent indicators, the Green List program aims to improve the contribution that these areas make to the conservation of nature and associated social, economic, cultural, and spiritual values.
In 2018, California’s MPA network was officially accepted into the Green List program as a candidate site, and IUCN selected members of an expert assessment group (Expert Assessment Group for the Green List, or EAGL) through a public call. The assessment group consists of a diverse array of stakeholders including: local, national, and global experts in marine protected area science; outreach and education professionals; public stakeholders, including both consumptive and non-consumptive users; and tribal members. Since summer 2018, the California EAGL has been meeting regularly to evaluate how California’s MPA network meets IUCN’s Green List indicators.
As part of this process, the EAGL has adapted the Green List indicators to be more relevant to the California jurisdiction. To ensure that these changes accurately reflect the views of all Californians with a stake in our ocean and coast, OPC (in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California EAGL) now invites public comment on the adapted indicators. Please find the call for comments here and the adapted indicators here. Use this google form to submit your comments. Comments must be received no later than 5pm on September 10, 2019.
You can find out more about the Green List effort here.
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