Pitcairn Wins Blue Park Award For Exceptional Marine Wildlife Conservation
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER PEGMAN - DUCIE ISLAND
PHOTO BY LUKE HOSTY - PROTECT BLUE - PITCAIRN ISLAND
The Pitcairn Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) has just won the Platinum-level Blue Park Award for exceptional marine wildlife conservation.
The Blue Park Awards, which are supported by the Blue Endowment Fund, recognize outstanding efforts by governments, non-profit organizations, MPA managers, and local communities to effectively protect marine ecosystems. The award was announced at the 5th International Marine Protected Area Congress (IMPAC5) by the Blue Parks Science Council, an international council of marine conservation experts.
The Pitcairn Islands MPA is the first awarded Blue Park in a UK Overseas Territory.
It encompasses Pitcairn’s entire Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the territorial seas our four islands, which cover nearly 850,000 square kilometers. Pitcairn and the two other Blue Parks to join the the Blue Parks Network in 2023, make up of some of the world's most outstanding marine protected areas and ocean champions. To date, Blue Parks cover nearly 3 million square kilometers of ocean, spanning 22 countries.
Pitcairn’s MPA is highly participatory and the community takes part in management activities, such as monitoring key habitats and species.
99.5% of our MPA is a no-take zone, with small zones around each island allowing for limited subsistence fishing by residents of Pitcairn Island. Furthermore, the blue waters of Pitcairn’s MPA are supremely clear, which allows corals to grow at unusual depths in cooler waters, and protects some of the few remaining near-pristine coral reef atolls and coral reef ecosystems in the world. Further offshore, the seafloor bathymetry is dominated by two seamount chains with a high density of over 90 volcanic seamounts rising from the sea floor.
Pitcairn Islands MPA has become a leading model for innovative and pragmatic ocean conservation since its establishment in 2016, when Pitcairn banned all resource extraction in 99% of its waters to create the world's largest MPA.
This commitment to marine life conservation has now been recognized with the Platinum Blue Park Award, which is a testament to the protection and effective management of the vast ocean area surrounding the Pitcairn Islands. Since then Pitcairn’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) has become a leading model for innovative and pragmatic ocean conservation. The marine protected area provides a safe haven for numerous species of marine life, and Pitcairn is committed to preserving this unique ecosystem and its important role in global marine conservation efforts.
From a tourism perspective, the Pitcairn community's efforts to protect and preserve their marine environment offer a unique and unparalleled opportunity for visitors to experience a thriving and diverse ocean ecosystem.
Over time, our award-winning MPA will increasingly offer visitors the chance to witness and explore an incredible array of marine life in a pristine environment. The recognition of Pitcairn’s efforts by the Marine Conservation Institute will likely attract more visitors to these legendary and secluded islands, providing opportunities for our tiny community to also benefit economically from sharing our story and showcasing our commitment to marine conservation
-Pitcairn Islands Tourism Travel Coordinator, Heather Menzies
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About Blue Parks
Blue Park Awards were established by Marine Conservation Institute to encourage high quality marine protected areas (MPAs) that safeguard marine wildlife, secure critical habitats, promote resilience, and ensure the inspiring beauty of our oceans for future generations. The effort aims to assemble an effective network that sustains marine life and ecosystems globally. Currently, there are 27 marine protected areas that have earned Blue Park Awards.
In addition to awarding new Blue Parks, Marine Conservation Institute has launched collaborations — Blue Sparks — with groups planning new marine protected areas and upgrading existing marine protected areas in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mozambique to ensure their efforts result in future Blue Parks.
About Marine Conservation Institute
Marine Conservation Institute, founded in 1996, works in the U.S. and globally to seek strong protection for at least 30% of the ocean by 2030—for us and future generations. Our focus on protecting the ocean’s most important places follows several lines of work: identifying and advocating for strong marine protected areas; improving laws and other tools to better conserve marine biodiversity; catalyzing effective conservation by recognizing and elevating the best marine protected areas as Blue Parks; and accurately reporting on global conservation efforts with our Marine Protection Atlas (MPAtlas.org).
About Blue Endowment Fund
Blue is a non-profit endowment fund aiming at building a better future through project grants, equity investments and initiative incubation. Blue provides financial grants for effective, efficient and sustainable projects to strengthen resilient marine ecosystems, and sponsors the Blue Park Awards.