Environmental representativity in marine protected area networks over large and partly unexplored seascapes

Stratoudakis, Yorgos; Hilario, Ana Belén Ríos; Ribeiro, Cláudia; Abecasis, David; Gonçalves, Emanuel João; Andrade, Francisco; Carreira, Gilberto P.; Gonçalves, Jorge M. S.; Freitas, Luís; Pinheiro, Luís Menezes; Batista, Marisa I.; Henriques, Marcelo Barbosa; Oliveira, Paulo B.; Oliveira, Paulo; Afonso, Pedro; Arriegas, P. I.; Henriques, Sofia

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00545

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…An effective approach is the so-called systematic conservation planning (SCP) (Álvarez-Romero et al, 2018a;Kirkman et al, 2019), which avoids being overly prescriptive but has two basic principles (Smith et al, 2009). First, numerical conservation targets have to be established for each important biodiversity element that should be protected (Stratoudakis et al, 2019), setting explicit protection targets, contributing to a more transparent planning process, and giving options for consultation with stakeholders (Cowling et al, 2003). Second, it can be used for selecting new areas to be conserved, or as a complementarity-based method for selecting sites, based on how much they would add to a single existing MPA network (Margules and Pressey, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Cost-Effective Solutions in Designing Marine Protected Areas, Using Systematic Conservation Planning

Galparsoro

Borja

2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Environmental conservation is currently one of the main objectives of marine management. It is agreed that effective management requires evaluating the tradeoffs between protection and economic costs for negatively impacted maritime activities. For these reasons, integrated approaches combining ecological and socio-economic aspects are needed to achieve nature conservation and sustainability targets. Here, we present an approach to identify cost-effective priority marine areas for protection through a Systematic Conservation Planning method, adopting the Basque Country as case study (SE Bay of Biscay). Eight protection scenarios were defined, targeting a combination of protection features: benthic habitats, biological value of cetaceans, birds, macroalgae, and macroinvertebrates, potential provision of ecosystem services, and habitat sensitivity to human activities. In turn, the total fishing pressure produced by artisanal fisheries was adopted as a measure of the socio-economic costs of protection (assuming, for this research, that fishing would be banned in the protected areas). The results indicated that existing marine protected areas (MPAs) were very close to achieving prescribed protection targets, while these targets could be achieved by increasing the size of the existing MPAs. Higher costs were associated with the declaration of areas that were targeting a larger number of protection features. Nevertheless, cost/effectiveness was higher in these cases, with the environmental benefits outweighing a comparatively smaller increase in cost. However, the most cost-effective scenarios were those that included the extension of already existing MPAs. The method implemented can assist managers and decision makers in identifying conservation gaps and ecosystem components that require special attention. In addition, the approach can be used to develop management strategies that may be adopted under different protection scenarios. Thus, the approach proposed here could be used to inform ecosystem-based marine spatial planning.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining Cost-Effective Solutions in Designing Marine Protected Areas, Using Systematic Conservation Planning

Galparsoro

Borja

2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…In the Arctic, a recent assessment of risk associated with climate change on a marine protected area (MPA) network found that climate risks will exceed those of industrial activities, and that Indigenous-led additional MPAs are recommended because of the implications of climate change on the presence and function of the species and ecosystems that MPAs are meant to protect (Bone 2018). In Portugal, expert judgement was applied to evaluate environmental properties, conservation features, and climate change pressures to the ecological components of the MPA network (Stratoudakis et al 2019). Developing a functional MPA network that is informed by ecological information including current and observed climate impacts and considers social aspects is typically challenged by data limitations and capacity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesizing and communicating climate change impacts to inform coastal adaptation planning

Whitney

Conger

Ban

et al. 2020

FACETS

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Planning for adaptation to climate change requires regionally relevant information on rising air and ocean temperatures, sea levels, increasingly frequent and intense storms, and other climate-related impacts. However, in many regions there are limited focused syntheses of the climate impacts, risks, and potential adaptation strategies for coastal marine areas and sectors. We report on a regional assessment of climate change impacts and recommendations for adaptation strategies in the NE Pacific Coast (British Columbia, Canada), conducted in collaboration with a regional planning and plan implementation partnership (Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast), aimed at bridging the gaps between climate science and regional adaptation planning. We incorporated both social and ecological aspects of climate change impacts and adaptations, and the feedback mechanisms which may result in both increased risks and opportunities for the following areas of interest: “Ecosystems”, “Fisheries and Aquaculture”, “Communities”, and “Marine Infrastructure”. As next steps within the region, we propose proactive planning measures including communication of the key impacts and projections and cross-sectoral assessments of climate vulnerability and risk to direct decision-making.

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“…Because detailed data on the basis of in situ measurements or observations were not available on a nationwide basis, we used remote sensing data to define habitats. Information used was a combination of satellite data on sea surface conditions (temperature and chlorophyll concentrations) and bathymetry from a database previously used to evaluate ecological representativeness of MPA networks in other countries ( 26 , 30 , 31 ). The 16 habitats were organized across three different depth zones relevant to marine life: the shallow depth zone (<10 m), medium depth zone (10 to 50 m), and deep depth zone (>50 m).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s little-known efforts to protect its marine ecosystems safeguard some habitats but omit others

et al. 2021

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Environmental representativity in marine protected area networks over large and partly unexplored seascapes

Cited by 14 publications

References 82 publications

Defining Cost-Effective Solutions in Designing Marine Protected Areas, Using Systematic Conservation Planning

Defining Cost-Effective Solutions in Designing Marine Protected Areas, Using Systematic Conservation Planning

Synthesizing and communicating climate change impacts to inform coastal adaptation planning

China’s little-known efforts to protect its marine ecosystems safeguard some habitats but omit others

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