Argentina Gets Big Award from WWF for Ocean Protection Efforts

At the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) last week, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarded Argentina’s National Park Administration President, Dr. Patricia Gandini, one of its highest awards — a Leaders for a Living Planet (LLP) award.

Gandini and Argentina was given the award for her leadership efforts to protect the southwest Atlantic Ocean and create 4 new marine protected areas (MPAs). On Wednesday, WWF wrote:

The four new marine protected areas (MPAs) – formally announced at a event sponsored by WWF at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) now underway in Japan – will cover over 580,800 ha of the south-west Atlantic Ocean, extending along Argentina’s coast.

“As a marine ecologist, the creation of new marine protected areas is one of my main challenges,” said Dr. Gandini. “Our achievements of the last two years, with the creation of these new marine parks, show the strong commitment of the Argentine Government and myself to include MPAs in our national protected areas system.”

Less than one per cent of Argentina’s waters are currently protected. The MPAs announced today increase the area of Argentine waters under MPAs to over 1,360,800 ha and represent a key step towards the country’s ambition to establish an effectively managed, fully-representative network of MPAs spanning 10,000,000 ha – more than 10% of the country’s waters.

A further MPA will come into effect in 2011, and along with the four MPAs announced today, the area of Argentine waters under MPAs will be doubled.

For more on the 4 new MPAs Gandini got established or more statements from the WWF, visit WWF award recognises Argentina’s ocean protection efforts.

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Photo Credits: gkamin via flickr (CC license); Teen Wolf via flickr (CC license)

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