Guidance on the identification of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs)

This document provides selection criteria for the identification of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) and a process for their implementation. It includes examples of likely qualifying cases and the best practices for the interpretation of best available evidence. The IMMA concept, developed by the IUCN Joint SSC/WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (‘MMPA Task Force’ or ‘Task Force’), is modelled on the successful example of the BirdLife International process for determining ‘Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas’ (IBAs). The aim of the IMMA classification is to ‘identify discrete habitat areas, important for one or more marine mammal species, that have the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation’. ‘Important’ in the context of the IMMA classification refers to perceivable value, which extends to the marine mammals within a given IMMA, to improve the conservation status of those species or populations.
The identification of IMMAs through a consistent expert process, independent of any political and socio-economic concerns, can provide valuable input of marine mammals into existing national and international conservation tools with respect to marine protected areas, including Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) identified through the IUCN Standard (Weaver and Johnson, 2014; IUCN, 2016). The IMMA process can also assist in providing strategic direction and priorities to the development of spatially explicit marine mammal conservation measures.
However, the conservation purposes and ultimate uses of IMMAs can vary in both spatial extent and political scale, and area-based management tools can ultimately also take into account political and socio-economic issues. After extensive scientific and public consultation between 2013-2015, eight criteria or sub-criteria, divided into four main categories were developed. These criteria and sub-criteria are meant to capture critical aspects of marine mammal biology, ecology and population structure and they encompass vulnerability, distribution, abundance, special attributes and key life cycle activities.