Boat International US Edition – June 2019

hanks to an innovative partnership of five

institutions, 13.31 percent of Colombia’s coastline and

marine ecosystems are now protected. Organized by

Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia, the

country’s national parks agency, the alliance included two global

charities, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the

Wildlife Conservation Society; and two corporate foundations,

the real-estate conglomerate Grupo Argos and the Mario Santo

Domingo Foundation. More than 10 million acres now have

government designation as marine protected areas (MPAs). The

protected zones consist of two newly created MPAs and the

massive expansion of an existing National Natural Park.

The latter, the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, has grown

from 2.4 million to 6.6 million acres and now forms the largest

no-fishing zone in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. This is the area

that surrounds the 86-acre island of Malpelo, which supports

colonies of the critically endangered Galápagos petrel, Nazca and

masked boobies and swallow-tailed gulls. But it is the rugged

topography of the surrounding underwater wilderness, as well

as the confluence of several oceanic currents, that truly make it a

place of exceptional and diverse ecosystems, not to mention a

rich feeding ground for pelagic species such as giant grouper,

billfish and tuna, and for predators. Hence it has a reputation

as a “reservoir” of sharks. Aggregations of more than 200

hammerheads and more than 1,000 silky sharks have been seen

there, as well as whale sharks and the occasional sighting of short-

nosed, ragged-toothed sharks, a rarely seen deepwater species.

In addition to the expansion of Malpelo Sanctuary, two new

MPAs have been created: the Yurupari-Malpelo Integrated

Management National District, which covers almost 6.7 million

acres; and Cabo Manglares Bajo Mira y Frontera, which extends

470,197 acres. As Hernan Yecid Barbosa Camargo of Colombia’s

national parks agency explains: “These areas will seek to make the

conservation of biodiversity compatible with the traditional needs

of local communities. Fishing will be

permitted but closely monitored to ensure

it is responsibly managed and sustainable.”

T

Alliance for the Conservation of

Biodiversity, Culture and Territory

for the expansion of the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary,

and the designation of two new marine protected areas

Malpelo, 300 miles off the west coast

of Colombia, supports colonies of

masked boobies (left); its waters, a

feeding ground for pelagic species,

are now a no-fishing zone

Colombia’s national

parks agency is

seeking to make

biodiversity

conservation

compatible with

the needs of local

communities

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