3 Managing what you don't own: the special challenge of marine protected areas

The implications of ownership When you own the land, things are different. In the “bundle of sticks” analogy widely used to describe ownership rights, “fee simple” ownership means you get the whole bundle, the right to decide what happens on that piece of ground. While this control is not absolute, as society places certain restrictions on private landowners in the form of zoning, environmental protection standards, and other community standards that protect public health and safety, landowners are able to decide who can use the land, or not, and whether to sell off or lease some of those rights conveyed by ownership to others. Lands that become our parks and preserves are generally acquired by governments through purchase or donation. This fee-simple ownership of public parks and other conservation lands provides the clear and unambiguous authority needed to manage lands effectively. If we had to manage parks that were mosaics of privately owned lands, we would have to collect the owners of each parcel every time some management decision had to be made and get the owners to agree to allow that action to occur on their corner of the park. Sounds like a pretty inefficient and cumbersome process, but in some ways, this is what is done when marine protected areas (MPAs) are designated and managed. Unlike the land, marine waters are already owned by the public, so we need not purchase them in order to protect resources there. While government programs are created to act on behalf of the public in managing these areas, the public retains some important role in guiding management decision-making for these areas. As such, they should, as the owners, be provided opportunities to help guide how these marine areas are managed and protected. Like public lands acquired to create parks and preserves, marine areas are public waters and the interests of the public, the owners, must be integrated into any successful management philosophy for marine protected areas.