This document provides advice from SeaBlue Canada, a coalition of environmental non-government organizations with extensive experience in marine protected area (MPA) establishment and management. The advice in this document is based on the Protected Spaces and Protected Spaces recommendation sections of the Final Report of the National Advisory Panel on MPA Standards and the government of Canada’s 2019 commitment to apply protection standards to all federal MPAs.
Further progress is needed on the panel’s remaining recommendations on Crown-Indigenous relations, collaborative planning and design, and marine spatial planning. We urge the federal government and relevant departments to take action on addressing the remaining recommendations of the panel with primary importance given to advancing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).