Continental-scale Conservation Planning The Baja California to Bering Sea Region

The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) provides a facilitative body for Canada, Mexico, and the United States to address common environmental concerns and promote biodiversity conservation. The CEC is implementing a North American Marine Protected Areas Network (NAMPAN) with a wide array of partners in governmental and nongovernmental sectors in order to protect marine species throughout their ranges and across these three Exclusive Economic Zones. Identifying priority conservation areas for the Baja California to Bering Sea Region (B2B), is one initiative of this network. Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI) worked jointly with the CEC in a multi-year process of consultation, data gathering, data analysis and GIS development culminating in an experts’ workshop to define priority conservation areas. In this chapter we describe this effort, the workshop to identify priority conservation areas and briefly describe the final output of this process. A total of 28 sites were identified as priority conservation areas (PCAs), totaling 8% of the total Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) area of the three nations. PCAs vary by threat and protection status, but they represent a shared vision of critical places for North America’s marine biological diversity. This portfolio Lance E. Morgan Marine Conservation Biology Institute, 4878 Warm Springs Road, Glen Ellen, CA, 95442 Corresponding author: [email protected], phone 707-996-3437 Peter J. Etnoyer Aquanautix Consulting, 3777 Griffith View Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90039 [email protected], phone 323-666-3399 Elliott A. Norse Marine Conservation Biology Institute, 15805 NE 47th Court, Redmond, WA, 98052 [email protected], phone 425-883-8914 Continental-scale Conservation Planning 177 of sites is a first step towards building a continental community to foster the development of cooperation and stewardship of the B2B region.