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effectively confront GEC, MPAs should undertake a more holistic role, including
the development and assessment of environmental management and education
practices that integrate ecology and economy, as well as ethics and confl ict resolu-
tion in the uses of marine space.
Figure 23.1 shows the current distribution of MPAs in Latin America, and the
world context. It is notorious the scarcity of MPAs in most of the South American
Pacifi c coast. In addition, South American MPAs are very recent, most of them cre-
ated after the 1980s (Schiavetti et al. 2013 ). Today there are 404 coastal and marine
protected areas: 336 in Brazil (Schiavetti et al. 2013 ), 8 in Chile, 14 in Uruguay
(Gambarotta 2006 ) and 46 in Argentina. Outside these MPAs, there are some vast
marine-terrestrial protected areas, such as the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve or the
Namuncurá - Burdwood Bank, in southern Chile and Argentina, respectively. The
Burdwood Bank was created in July 2013, and represents the fi rst entirely oceanic
MPA of Argentina. It has a total surface of 17,000 km 2 with 1,800 km 2 permanently
closed to fi shing. With this new MPA, the total surface of marine and coastal pro-
tected areas in Argentina is still less than 5 %. So, in this and other South American
countries, the goal of protection of 10 % of the ocean established by the Convention
of Biological Diversity ( http://www.cbd.int/sp ) , is far from being reached.
In addition to the limitations in area, South American MPAs present other basic
defi ciencies, such as the absence and/or low effi ciency of management plans, moni-
toring programs, the lack of adequate infrastructure, personnel, and enforcement
(Gerhardinger et al. 2011 ). Furthermore, the integration between federal, state,
municipal and, private protected areas is very low. This leads to superposition, con-
fl icts, and a poor understanding of the missions and responsibilities of each instance.
In this context, although environmental education formally is included within the
Conservation Units Systems of most countries, educational actions are frequently
absent, defi cient, or inadequate to the context of each protected area (Berchez et al.
2007 ).
MPAs are regulated by national laws or other means and should be created in
order to provide ecological, social, and economic benefi ts to the reserved areas and
its borders. They were initially proposed as a means to preserve marine biodiversity
and unique habitats, and as an opportunity for recreation, education, and research
(Sala et al. 2013 ). However, the focus frequently has been placed on the implemen-
tation of rules and restrictions. For example, the Brazilian legislation (Brasil 2000 )
considers as core goals of these areas “to discipline the occupation processes, protect
the biological diversity, and to secure the sustainability of natural resources, observing
the natural attribute quality.” In Argentina, the main goal for the creation of MPAs
is to protect the reproductive sites of marine birds and mammals (Campagna et al.
2007 ). During the last decade this restrictive vision has moved toward a more holis-
tic ecosystem-conservation approach (SAyDS 2007 ).
Despite the limitations and lack of clear and specifi c guiding elements to
planning, management, and monitoring of South American MPAs, positive out-
comes regarding biodiversity conservation and fi sheries management have been
achieved (Floeter et al. 2006 ; Francini-Filho and Moura 2008a , b ; Edgar et al. 2014 ;
Sala et al. 2013 ). These achievements gradually have been incorporated into the
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