Although there is currently relatively little policy-level understanding about the need to protect the ecological wealth and diversity of the Indian Ocean, one of the important strategies involved in doing so effectively is to set aside sections of the sea and coast – legally declaring them marine protected areas (MPAs). An MPA typically spans an area that covers the coastal belt and its ecology, whether wetland, mangroves or beaches, and extending into the deeper ocean. Most MPAs are places of great biodiversity, though their development also has direct impact on the livelihoods and cultures of small-scale, traditional fishing and coastal communities. Therefore, such communities are an integral partner for any MPA effort to be successful.
Over time, various strategies have been employed to safeguard the Southasian seas. When compared to more specific strategies, such as those aimed at restoration of mangroves and corals, MPAs, which are all-encompassing in their conservation scope, have proven to be far more successful. MPAs are set up with various objectives, which broadly include protecting threatened species, or safeguarding fragile habitats critical for the survival of many species, including those that are economically important. Such an approach can do much to ensure the long-term viability of marine resources and the preservation of genetic diversity of species and ecosystems. MPAs can allow overfished populations to recover both in terms of stock and size, thereby ensuring sustainable fish harvests, and also help to preserve sites that are of natural, aesthetic, cultural and historical significance. In addition, they can play a significant role in facilitating research, education, training and tourism, even while conserving the ecology of particular areas.
Irrespective of the rationale, the fact that MPAs are cordoned off means that they have a direct impact on coastal communities. Going by estimates from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, as of 2002 fisheries and aquaculture collectively provided direct employment and revenue to around 38 million people worldwide (by 2006, that figure had crossed 43.5 million). A whopping 87 percent of this came from Asia generally, while India alone accounts for about 13 million people directly dependent on the seas. Globally, the marine industry has been growing at around 0.5 percent per year. Given such numbers, right-headed management of MPAs is critical. In some instances, the 'management' can mean the blocking-off of an MPA only during certain months of the year, so that the stress on communities is lessened.
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The conservation culture has become relatively well established in Southasia, but the protection of marine ecosystems still far lags that of territorial areas. In India, for instance, there are 38 reserves designated solely for the protection of tigers, a fraction of the nearly 600 protected areas in the country including wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and biosphere reserves. In contrast, there are relatively few MPAs. Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, in Tamil Nadu, was the first of the 31 MPAs in India, designated in 1967 for the protection of wetlands and birds migrating to the region. Thereafter, most of the rest of the MPAs in existence today were designated in the 1980s and early 1990s; these were notified as either national parks or wildlife sanctuaries under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, where, in most cases, no extractive activities whatsoever are allowed. But the success of the MPAs is questionable because such areas have neither been given the required resources for maintenance nor has monitoring taken place on anywhere near the scale the territorial conservation areas receive. Further, policy emphasis has shifted from improving the socio-economic condition of the fisherfolk (in the 1950s) to increasing production for the purpose of export, with increased subsidies for deep-sea trawlers and improved port facilities.