Project Profile: PolyCone
Integrated and sustainable regulation of cones in Eastern Polynesia
Who?
| Principal Investigators: | Tamatoa Bambridge, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France |
| Partners: | Ponsonnet Cédric, Direction des ressources marines et minières, French Polynesia Jeffrey Dambacher, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Thomas Franklin DUDA, University of Michigan, United States Sébastien Dutertre, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France David LECCHINI, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France Alexander Mawyer, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States Camille Mazé, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France Serge Planes, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France Elspeth Probyn, The University of Sydney, Australia Nicolas Puillandre, Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, France Bernard SALVAT, National Center for Scientific Research (France), France Gerard SIU, Maritime Cluster of French Polynesia, French Polynesia |
| Sponsors: | Oceans and Atmosphere, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia National Research Agency, France National Science Foundation, United States |
What?
| Full Project Title: | Integrated and sustainable regulation of cones in Eastern Polynesia |
| Full Call Title: | Oceans2018 |
| Website: | https://apolimer-cnrs.fr/index.php/fr/ |
Why?
| Project Objective: | Toxins of cone snails (conotoxins) are an important source of pharmaceuticals for treating human health. Development of a sustainable use plan for this resource is hence key. However, a few of the 931 species of cone snails have been studied in detail and only a small fraction of conotoxin diversity has been characterized. This project is the first attempt to develop a model of sustainable use of cone snails. It will specifically focus on species present in French Polynesia where 114 cone snails occur, including 20 species that are endemic (1/8 of the world diversity). The work will entail three axes : 1) improvement of our knowledge of cone snails (taxonomy, population sizes, abundance, reproduction, life cycle, habitat, and diet) to constitute a reference collection; 2) establishment of a cone snail venom bank that will enable future sustainable use of conotoxins through non-destructive processes and socio-ecological regulation of cone species by stakeholders. This regulation may lead to the establishment of protected areas with harvest quotas according to predefined socio-ecological criteria or to aquaculture; 3) development and implementation of a regulatory mechanism that takes into account local, domestic, scientific and industrial knowledge and provides for the sharing of benefits resulting from access to these genetic and biological resources. The consortium has the capacity to pave the way for an adaptive cone management. These axes combine several international research teams that are among the most renowned in their field of expertise: anthropologists, political scientists and lawyers specializing in access and benefit sharing (ABS) and socio-ecosystems, ecologists and taxonomists specializing in coral reefs and cones, and biologists specializing in the sustainable extraction of conotoxins. This project also involves government agencies in charge of fisheries, the environment, ABS; local and international partners in the field of ABS and sustainable uses of the ocean; and private companies that can facilitate establishment of a venom bank. |
| Call Objective: | This CRA call aims to contribute to the overall challenge of ocean sustainability, using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development) as the overall framework. This call encourages global partnerships of academics and non-academics to address one or more of the following topics: 1) Pathways toward a sustainable and equitable use of oceans, 2) accounting for and minimizing impacts of global change. |
Where?
| Regions: | |
| Countries: | Australia, France, French Polynesia, United States of America (USA) |
When?
| Duration: | 48 |
| Call Date: | 29 October 2018 |
| Project Award Date: | 12 February 2020 |
