Securitizing Marine Protected Areas

Geopolitics, Environmental Justice, and Science

By: Elizabeth M. De Santo

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Hardcover | 10 July 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover
214 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.27

Hardcover

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This book presents a novel examination of Marine Protected Areas within a security context, bridging science, policy, and geopolitics, and addressing the often-under-emphasized aspect of environmental justice.

The book argues that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are not only a critical tool for protecting marine biodiversity in a changing climate, but they also play an important role at the intersection of geopolitics and environmental justice, and they provide a case study of environmental governance at the science-policy interface. The book takes an interdisciplinary and critical approach and builds on the author's two decades of experience working in this field. Geopolitically, it explores the ways in which MPAs provide footprints for influence and access to resources far from home for nations with overseas territories. MPAs also raise important issues connected to equity, environmental justice, and social justice, including access to resources and participation in environmental decision-making processes, key aspects for achieving long-term conservation goals. The book also demonstrates how MPAs are a critical lens for understanding how policy makers cope with scientific uncertainty, and the necessity of well-designed and precautionary science advisory processes. While the ecological contribution of MPAs is paramount, social issues and geopolitical considerations are often less obvious in the discourse underpinning MPAs, and the resulting tensions can undermine long-term conservation objectives. By applying the three lenses of geopolitics, environmental justice and science, this book provides key insights to help the international community moving past the 2030 biodiversity targets and beyond, towards a future of meaningful, equitable, and effective conservation approaches.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of biodiversity conservation, marine studies, political geography, environmental governance, and science-policy studies. It will also be of interest to marine conservation governance professionals and policymakers.

Industry Reviews

"MPAs are about securing the world's coasts, seas, and oceans - but they are also tools of statecraft. Nobody explains the complex interrelationships between power, politics, and environmental conservation better than Elizabeth De Santo. This book is a landmark contribution to the literature."

Peter Harris, Professor, Colorado State University

"Sweeping, original, authoritative, and accessible, this work will surely be a singular point of reference on the future of MPAs, a journey between the interface of science and policy in a world that is struggling to embrace the protection of our global environmental wellbeing."

Philippe Sands, Professor, University College London

"De Santo combines astute geopolitical analysis with a penetrating assessment of the effectiveness of major marine protection initiatives. Cautioning that quality is as, if not more, important than quantity, she has perceptive proposals for how the world might realistically meet marine conservation targets going forward."

David Freestone, Professor, Sargasso Sea Commission

"Impeccable timing! The world is facing the monumental challenge of protecting 30% of our ocean by 2030. This book explores the tricky political, scientific, and social currents that must be navigated to meet the target, and charts future governance directions including improved science advisory and public engagement processes."

David VanderZwaag, Professor, Dalhousie University

"A hugely ambitious look at MPAs through a geopolitical lens, gracefully delivered to both inform and disrupt. MPAs are about access: to space, to information, to decision-making, and even to individualized relationships that each of us have with the sea; these issues tackled with level-headedness throughout."

Tundi Agardy, Sound Seas

"This excellent book is the go-to source for a comprehensive overview of marine conservation - that crucial human use of the world ocean. Based on key examples and the author's extensive experience, the narrative focuses in turn on geopolitics, environmental justice and science within a regional context."

Hance Smith, Professor, Cardiff University

"De Santo's insights, gained through the application of a tripartite analytical lens of geopolitics, environmental justice, and scientific understanding, provide a notable guide to policy makers and practitioners around the world who are grappling with achieving ambitious and essential short- and long-term marine conservation goals."

Bertrum MacDonald, Professor, Dalhousie University

"De Santo has written a highly informative text that shines a light on the complexity of geopolitics, security, and science associated with marine conservation...a valuable read for anyone interested in understanding the global context of marine protected areas."

Tracey Dalton, Professor, University of Rhode Island

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