Assessing the Effectiveness of Coastal Marine Protected Area Management: Four Learned Lessons for Science Uptake and Upscaling

Pelletier, Dominique

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.545930

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In the UK 96% of seagrass meadows occur in MPAs and these designations could be increasingly important in conserving, managing, and enhancing the blue carbon stock (Swaile et al 2022). Since Brexit, the approach to the conservation and management of MPAs has been under review and the effectiveness of a feature-based approach has been questioned (Pelletier 2020). An ecosystem-based integrated approach for the wider seascape has been proposed to facilitate sustainability in marine management through cost-effective monitoring and evaluation across a whole site (Rees et al 2020;.…”

Section: Seagrass Conservation and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consideration of the carbon sequestration potential of seagrass to inform recovery and restoration projects within the Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation (SAC), United Kingdom

Gouldsmith¹,

Cooper

2022

J Coast Conserv

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A review of available research into the blue carbon potential of seagrass was undertaken. This was then used to inform an analysis of the potential current, historic, and future value of carbon sequestered and stored in the Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The assessed status of Zostera in the SAC highlights the extent of historic loss and continued degradation of this designated sub-feature, and current water quality is incompatible with recovery or restoration. Seagrass blue carbon currently stored within the SAC equates to ∼18,350 t C at a sequestration rate of 117.15 t C yr−1, with a lost/potential of 534,700 t C storage capacity. The calculated financial value of current stocks (£4.6 m) is dwarfed by the lost/potential monetary value of carbon storage, £135 m, and the forfeited sequestration of £860,000-worth of carbon annually from degraded habitat. The use of carbon offset credits could help fund the huge potential for restoration that exists within the SAC.

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Section: Seagrass Conservation and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consideration of the carbon sequestration potential of seagrass to inform recovery and restoration projects within the Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation (SAC), United Kingdom

Gouldsmith¹,

Cooper

2022

J Coast Conserv

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“…Quantitative data resulting from post-processing are analyzed in various ways. Our routine assessments use the R-based PAMPA User Interface (UI) (Pelletier et al, 2014;Pelletier, 2020a) for producing and analyzing fish and habitat-related EBVs. Functionalities of the PAMPA UI include data import, computation of a wide range of ecological metrics based on species traits, versatile plotting of these metrics and their analysis through Generalized Linear Models (GLM).…”

Section: Software For Eov/ebv Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both applications, the conservation goals considered follow from previous projects with MPA managers (Pelletier, 2020a): (i) sustainable exploitation of resources and (ii) conservation of biodiversity with four objectives targeting: communities and species representative of the ecosystem, ecosystem functions, species of particular significance, and representative habitats. Indicators are selected according to their relevance to the conservation objectives, and analyzed depending on habitat, local anthropogenic pressures and protection status following a template (Supplementary Material 7).…”

Section: Hard Coral Cover and Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A final and important aspect of dissemination lies in outreach. Image-based products proved useful for communicating results to most audiences for several reasons: (i) they conveniently illustrate numerical and graphical outcomes; (ii) imagery-based evidence facilitates knowledge exchange with local management committees and the public, who discover or revisit "their" marine biodiversity and resources (Pelletier, 2020a), and (iii) from an educational standpoint, images provide a sense of pride and custodianship about "their' territory, with positive consequences for caring about the environment. In our protocol, fishes and animals behave in a natural way and show undisturbed behaviors which have raised the interest of many viewers.…”

Section: Eov/ebv Data Products and Disseminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Standardized Workflow Based on the STAVIRO Unbaited Underwater Video System for Monitoring Fish and Habitat Essential Biodiversity Variables in Coastal Areas

Pelletier

Roos

Bouchoucha³

et al. 2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) related to benthic habitats and high trophic levels such as fish communities must be measured at fine scale but monitored and assessed at spatial scales that are relevant for policy and management actions. Local scales are important for assessing anthropogenic impacts, and conservation-related and fisheries management actions, while reporting on the conservation status of biodiversity to formulate national and international policies requires much broader scales. Measurements must account for the fact that coastal habitats and fish communities are heterogeneously distributed locally and at larger scales. Assessments based on in situ monitoring generally suffer from poor spatial replication and limited geographical coverage, which is challenging for area-wide assessments. Requirements for appropriate monitoring comprise cost-efficient and standardized observation protocols and data formats, spatially scalable and versatile data workflows, data that comply with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles, while minimizing the environmental impact of measurements. This paper describes a standardized workflow based on remote underwater video that aims to assess fishes (at species and community levels) and habitat-related EBVs in coastal areas. This panoramic unbaited video technique was developed in 2007 to survey both fishes and benthic habitats in a cost-efficient manner, and with minimal effect on biodiversity. It can be deployed in areas where low underwater visibility is not a permanent or major limitation. The technique was consolidated and standardized and has been successfully used in varied settings over the last 12 years. We operationalized the EBV workflow by documenting the field protocol, survey design, image post-processing, EBV production and data curation. Applications of the workflow are illustrated here based on some 4,500 observations (fishes and benthic habitats) in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and Mediterranean Sea. The STAVIRO’s proven track-record of utility and cost-effectiveness indicates that it should be considered by other researchers for future applications.

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“…Given the multitude of dimensions potentially influenced by an MPA, it is reasonable to assume that a set of indicators that is built and agreed upon by different MPA stakeholders will ensure broader perspectives and a more integrated approach (e.g., Himes, 2007a;Pelletier, 2020) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting Performance Indicators for Coastal Marine Protected Areas: An Expert-Based Methodology

et al. 2022

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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) require effective indicators to assess their performance, in compliance with the goals of relevant national and international commitments. Achieving and prioritizing shortlists of multidisciplinary indicators demands a significant effort from specialists to depict the multiple conservation and socioeconomic interests, and the large complexity of natural systems. The present paper describes a structured expert-based methodology (process and outputs) to co-define a list of multidisciplinary MPA performance indicators. This work was promoted by the management authority of coastal MPAs in mainland Portugal to gather a consensual and feasible list of indicators that would guide the design of a future national monitoring program. Hence, Portuguese coastal MPAs served as a case study to develop such a process between 2019 and 2020. In the end, participants (1) agreed on a shortlist of prioritized indicators (i.e., environmental, governance, and socioeconomic indicators) and (2) defined minimum monitoring frequencies for the indicators in this list, compatible with the potential replicability of the associated survey methods. The present approach recommends that management plans incorporate monitoring procedures and survey methods, with a validated list of indicators and associated monitoring periodicity, agreed among researchers, MPA managers and governance experts. The proposed methodology, and the lessons learned from it, can support future processes aiming to define and prioritize MPA performance indicators.

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Assessing the Effectiveness of Coastal Marine Protected Area Management: Four Learned Lessons for Science Uptake and Upscaling

Cited by 11 publications

References 44 publications

Consideration of the carbon sequestration potential of seagrass to inform recovery and restoration projects within the Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation (SAC), United Kingdom

Consideration of the carbon sequestration potential of seagrass to inform recovery and restoration projects within the Essex Estuaries Special Area of Conservation (SAC), United Kingdom

A Standardized Workflow Based on the STAVIRO Unbaited Underwater Video System for Monitoring Fish and Habitat Essential Biodiversity Variables in Coastal Areas

Setting Performance Indicators for Coastal Marine Protected Areas: An Expert-Based Methodology

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