Governance of Marine Protected Areas: Argentine case study. A successful pathway?

VIOLETA RADOVICH.

Conferencia; Ocean Visions 2019; 2019

Governance of Marine Protected Areas: Argentine case study. A successful pathway?The aim of this paper is to analyze the Argentine case study as regards governance of marine protected areas, taking into account the new provisions introduced by the 1994 Constitution Amendment, which include the duty and the right to protect the environment, and specifically to protect biodiversity and natural and cultural heritage. Results show that three interjurisdictional marine parks (IMP) were created by law, one in 2007 and two in 2012, and one marine protected area was created in 2013. Afterwards, in 2014 the National System of Marine Protected Areas was established by law and five categories of marine protected areas were introduced. Also in 2014, the initiative called "Pampa Azul", a federal strategic program to reinforce knowledge and presence in the Argentine ocean was established. Argentina fails to have a federal meso-institution devoted to ocean issues, although it has one of the longest continental shelves in the world (Michelson, 2016). Currently, governance of ocean issues in Argentina Republic is not integrated, but remains sectorial. Conclusions show that in the last years a system of marine protected areas was established by several laws. However, not all these laws have been regulated; therefore, some of them are not efficient.