Food Security in marine protected areas: reality or utopia?
This meeting was held at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, and co-sponsored by EBCD, and organized by Djibril Ly, from the Observatoire du Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (Mauritania), member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Focussing initially on the Banc D’Arguin situation, it brought around the table a number of members from NGOs active in programmes involving small coastal and fishing communities with MPAs in various parts of the world. It illustrated the incomplete understanding of food security issues by many of the MPA operators present despite, apparently, a real concern about the issue. Serge Garcia made a number of interventions, clarifying the food security issue and helping identifying programmatic elements needed to improve that understanding.