Canada's Newest & Largest Marine Protected Area [MPA].

[GordMay]

First Nations, along British Columbia's coast, have announced, along with the Federal government, the designation of Canada's largest marine protected area [MPA].
The more than 133,000 square kilometre area, stretching from the U.S. territorial boundary, to around the mid-point between Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii, has been named: “Tang.Gwan — hacxwiqak — Tsigis”.
The MPA protects 47 seamounts, and all of Canada’s [known] hydrothermal ocean vents.

There are currently 14 Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas [MPAs] across Canada, comprising over 350,000 km², or roughly 6% of Canada's marine and coastal areas.*

More about ➥ https://www.canada.ca/en/fisheries-o...in-canada.html

* About MPAs ➥ https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/mpa...oi-si-eng.html

[GordMay]

Saving the planet, from another mass extinction, could be as simple as protecting just 1.2 per cent of Earth's land, according to new research [1].

Our planet’s sixth mass extinction is underway, driven by human activities, like habitat destruction and climate change. One crucial step, to counter this crisis, is ensuring all critical habitat for biodiversity, is safeguarded within protected areas. This means we need to know exactly where the last unprotected pockets of rare and endangered species are located.

In addition to preventing mass extinction, the suggested protections could help combat climate change, by preserving forests.

Dinerstein et al. provide an essential map of such areas, which they call “Conservation Imperatives”. Their Frontiers in Science article [1] shows that protecting Conservation Imperatives is both affordable and achievable - and argues this must be done within the next five years, to prevent the most likely near-term extinctions.

Conservation Imperatives are areas of land containing rare and threatened species, or species with a narrow range, that are not within national parks, community reserves, or other types of protected areas.
Dinerstein et al., identified 16,825 such sites around the world. They cover a total of 164 million hectares (Mha), or just 1.22% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface.

Conservation Imperatives are highly concentrated:
75% are located in tropical and subtropical moist forests
87% are found in just 30 countries
59% are in five countries: the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Colombia.
Furthermore, 38% of Conservation Imperatives are within 2.5 km of an existing protected area.

The authors estimate it would cost:
US$169 billion to protect all Conservation Imperatives in the tropics
US$263 billion to protect all Conservation Imperatives worldwide.
This equates to US$53 billion a year over five years to protect all sites—less than 0.4% of the United States’ GDP, and less than 9% of the annual subsidies benefiting the global fossil fuel industry. Even just half this amount would protect the bulk of the world’s rare and endangered species.

More about:
“Scientists identify safe havens we must preserve to prevent ‘the sixth great extinction of life on Earth’
➥ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1049060

[1] “Conservation Imperatives: securing the last unprotected terrestrial sites harboring irreplaceable biodiversity” ~ by Eric Dinerstein et al
➥https://www.frontiersin.org/journals...4.1349350/full

Video ➥ https://youtu.be/7yKIO558jOI?list=TL...d2gzMTA3MjAyNA