RECALLING that urgent clarification is needed to implement Recommendation 6.102 Protected areas and other areas important for biodiversity in relation to environmentally damaging industrial activities and infrastructure development (Hawai‘i, 2016), which states that effective management of marine protected areas (MPAs) requires that they do not have any environmentally damaging industrial activities or infrastructural developments located in, adjacent to, or otherwise negatively affecting them, and calls on government to prohibit environmentally damaging industrial activities and infrastructure development in all IUCN categories of protected area;

RECOGNISING that the IUCN MPA Standards published in 2018 are consistent with Recommendation 6.102, and WELCOMING the guidance that any industrial activities and infrastructural developments (e.g. mining, industrial fishing, oil and gas extraction) are not compatible with MPAs;

NOTING that further guidance is needed to define what any environmentally damaging and industrial activities or infrastructural developments mean for different marine industries, in particular industrial fishing inside MPAs;

MINDFUL that IUCN Protected Area Guidelines identify protected areas as indispensable reference areas for scientific research and monitoring, where under the control and conditions that are most appropriate to ensure their conservation, low-impact scientific research activities and ecological monitoring related to and consistent with the values and restrictions of the protected area can be carried out, particularly when collection cannot be conducted elsewhere;

RECOGNISING that IUCN Protected Area Guidelines allow sustainable resource use by indigenous people to conserve their traditional spiritual and cultural values, provided this is done in accordance with cultural tradition;

RECALLING that IUCN Guidance for Protected Area Category VI allows for a proportion of the area having low-level non-industrial use of natural resources, including sustainable commercial or recreational fishing, as long as it is compatible with nature conservation, has a stated primary conservation aim, meets the overall definition of a protected area, and achieves verifiable ecological sustainability;

ACKNOWLEDGING the six IUCN Protected Area Management Categories and four Governance Types and the importance and relevance of IUCN’s existing Resolutions and Recommendations regarding environmentally damaging industrial activities and infrastructure projects in MPAs;

RECOGNISING that ‘industrial fishing’ activities can be identified by variables including the capacity and size of vessels and the method and volume of fish extraction, and that in the context of protected areas, ‘industrial fishing’ is defined here as (>12 m long x 6 m wide) motorised vessels, with a capacity of >50 kg catch/voyage, requiring substantial sums for their construction, maintenance, and operation and mostly sold commercially, and that all fishing using trawling gears that are dragged or towed across the seafloor or through the water column, and fishing using purse seines and large longlines, is defined as industrial fishing; and

AWARE that when there is fishing activity in marine protected areas, it must be well managed, sized and adapted to the specific environment of the marine protected area to ensure the sustainability of resources, the environment and the coastal community;