Ecosystem-Based Management for More Effective and Equitable Marine Protected Areas: A Case Study on the Faial-Pico Channel Marine Protected Area, Azores

Abstract

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly employed as a tool to protect Europe's swiftly declining marine biodiversity. However, despite increasing coverage, MPA effectiveness and equity is considered highly variable. Concurrently, Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM)-that is, management that aims to protect, restore, or enhance the resilience and sustainability of an ecosystem to ensure sustainable flows of ecosystem services and conserve its biodiversity-is growing in prominence. We applied EBM in the Faial-Pico Channel, a 240 km 2 MPA in the Azores, Portugal, to assess whether EBM can protect biodiversity whilst meeting diverse stakeholder and policy goals. Collaborating with local stakeholders and policy-makers, this chapter documents the steps of EBM: identifying integrative policy and stakeholder objectives, understanding the social-ecological system, scenario development, and identification and evaluation of EBM measures and policies. We find that stakeholder co-creation and collaboration is a key strength of EBM and should be strengthened in the Faial-Pico Channel. We find that local stakeholders support effective and equitable EBM of MPAs by clearly identifying challenges and priorities, co-creating solutions, providing low-cost knowledge and expertise, and