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Evolving From Marine Nature Reserves Towards Biotechnoparks

December 05, 2003

In near future, marine nature reserves will execute an important historic mission: they will become the crystallisation centres, around which territories should appear to perfect optimal methods for protection and utilization of maritime resources. Such conclusion was made by the leading preserving specialists, invited by WWF and the Moscow UNESCO office to visit the Maritime experimental station (Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far-East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences).

"In the future, biotechnoparks should be set up around marine nature reserves, these would be new complex purpose territories, where protection of marine environment and utilization of maritime resources will be performed based on ecosystem approach," says Vasily Spiridonov, Ph. D. (Biology), WWF Russia marine program officer. "Simply speaking, that will be a win-win situation. Absolutely reserved nuclei, scientific-research zones, defined areas of water with maritime culture, zones of traditional national trades, ecological tourism camps, hunting/fishery - all that will fit properly in respective zones, and whether the chosen way of development is correct or not - that will be judged by the ecosystems' well-being in the reserved nuclei."

There are twenty-one nature reserves in Russia which cover maritime areas, the life of these reserves is uneasy: only in the Kuril Islands reserve, the penalties for illegal fishing exceeded more than a million Rubles within this year.

The reason is that drawing a border on the map is insufficient for environment protection. It is required to settle a complicated cobweb of interests of multiple players involved: local population, tourist and fishing enterprises and other businesses, frontier troops, fishery protection agencies. None of the marine nature reserves function solely as a prohibited area, and this would be impossible.

It is impossible to resettle Aleutians from Commander Islands, and therefore, local population walks in reserved territories. In some islands they are allowed to collect eggs, and within the boundaries of reserved water territory (its total area making three million hectares) part of the shelf is even permitted for industrial fishing.

The Kandalaksha nature reserve, located in the White Sea, has to put up with oil-tankers in its area of water - no roundabout way exists. Such examples are numerous. Reserves are forced to provide part of their territory for such utilisation which has nothing to do with their purposes. Preserves get money from that, the compensation being spent on improving protection of the most valuable sections. Moreover, it is advantageous for preserves to have "the territories which are not fully reserved" under their management, for example, to receive tourists in these areas and to fulfill one of their critical tasks - educational one.

The scientists believe that to protect environment and not to interfere with economical activity, each nature reserve needs an exterior fenced-off area, where it could allow or prohibit some kind of utilization. Let us, for example, consider the Commander Islands nature reserve. Thanks to protection in the nature reserve the sea-otters overcame the long-term depression, reproduced and moved beyond the boundaries of prohibited area waters in search of food - sea-urchins.

These grounds do not need to be completely reserved - it is sufficient to cease the sea-urchin catching. Sometimes it is expedient to prohibit fishing or kelp collection for everybody except for native inhabitants, and thus to make them interested in protection of maritime resources. In recent years, one more threat to reserves has emerged - that is uncontrolled tourism. A tourist centre or tents can appear right near the nature reserve boundary. That damages the Far-East Marine Nature reserve (Russian Academy of Sciences), Kandalaksha Nature reserve, Astrakhan Nature reserve located on the Caspian Sea. There is one rescue - to get the nature reserves shielded by a fenced-off area.

"The effect of fenced-off areas in the marine nature reserves would be even higher than that on land," believes Vasily Spiridonov. "Marine environment is much more mobile, and if the area is properly chosen for protection (for example, areas containing spawning locations of fish, scallop or sea cucumber, flyway bird accumulations), that will be beneficial for the entire region."

In the waters surrounding the coast of the Khasan Region of Maritime Territory, for example, the efficiency of the Far-East Marine Nature reserve (Russian Academy of Sciences) protection fully drives the productivity of scallop and sea cucumber, as these animals are very few outside the reserve. The Dagestan Nature reserve, that preserved spawning locations of precious Caspian fish in Kizlyar Bay, ensures the fish increase by 5-6 thousand tons annually.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency