2010 Young Conservationist Award goes to innovator in MPAs

A young British conservationist has won an international award for helping to create a new model of community- run Marine Protected Areas, which both saves marine diversity and helps to feed marine dependent communities.

Alasdair Harris, 30, was selected as winner of the 2010 Young Conservationist Award, an award by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the International Ranger Federation which honours outstanding achievements by young people in the world’s protected areas.

In Madagascar, Harris launched the world’s first community-run Marine Protected Area (MPA) for octopus in 2004, which resulted in significant increases in fishing yields and size, increasing earnings of fishers. Within a year, Madagascar’s government adopted the model to create seasonal octopus fishing bans throughout Madagascar, and within two years, other villages independently adopted it. It became ‘Velondriake’—meaning ‘to live with the sea’—the largest community-managed MPA in the Indian Ocean, providing the region’s a blueprint for community-based marine and coastal conservation planning.

Harris will receive his award at the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress in Melbourne, Australia, in April.

The GWS helped support the 2010 YCA by providing administrative and evaluation assistance.  Parks Victoria is sponsoring the 2010 award.