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The tiny community of Tristan da Cunha has made a very big announcement: the UK Overseas Territory, located between South Africa and South America in the South Atlantic, has today committed to fully protecting 687,000 sq. km of their territorial waters from fishing and all extractive activities. This is an ocean area nearly three times the size of the UK.
This will protect some of the world’s most important seabird breeding sites, including the endemic Tristan Albatross. It will also safeguard populations of seals, penguin colonies, bluefin tuna and blue sharks.
Blue Marine Foundation has been delighted to work with the Becht Family Charitable Trust to provide key long term support for the community of Tristan da Cunha.
This innovative approach, led by RSPB and National Geographic Pristine Seas, will support this extremely remote community that does not have the opportunity to create the revenue streams that would usually be derived from hosting a marine protected area, such as tourism.
BLUE co-founder and trustee, Chris Gorell-Barnes, said ‘this is exactly the sort of innovative partnership between community, government, NGOs and philanthropy that the world needs to see more of if we are to achieve the global goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030’
For more information see:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wildlife-haven-set-up-around-remote-tristan-da-cunha-3hgqwjz8g
Photos by Pristine Seas / National Geographic
