Deficiencies in monitoring practices of marine protected areas in southern European seas

Deficiencies in monitoring practices of marine protected areas in southern European seas. Giakoumi, S., Hogg, K., Di Lorenzo, M., Compain, N., Scianna, C., Milisenda, G., Claudet, J., Damalas, D., Carbonara, P., Colloca, F., Evangelopoulos, A., Isajlović, I., Karampetsis, D., Ligas, A., Marčeta, B., Nenciu, M., Nita, V., Panayotova, M., Sabatella, R., Sartor, P., Sgardeli, V., Thasitis, I., Todorova, V., Vrgoč, N., Scannella, D., Vitale, S., & Di Franco, A. Journal of Environmental Management, Academic Press, 2024. All Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access

Paper doi abstract bibtex

Worldwide, states are gazetting new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to meet the international commitment of protecting 30% of the seas by 2030. Yet, protection benefits only come into effect when an MPA is implemented with activated regulations and actively managed through continuous monitoring and adaptive management. To assess if actively managed MPAs are the rule or the exception, we used the Mediterranean and Black Seas as a case study, and retrieved information on monitoring activities for 878 designated MPAs in ten European Union (EU) countries. We searched for scientific and grey literature that provides information on the following aspects of MPA assessment and monitoring: ecological (e.g., biomass of commercially exploited fish), social (e.g., perceptions of fishers in an MPA), economic (e.g., revenue of fishers) and governance (e.g., type of governance scheme). We also queried MPA authorities on their past and current monitoring activities using a web-based survey through which we collected 123 responses. Combining the literature review and survey results, we found that approximately 16% of the MPA designations (N = 878) have baseline and/or monitoring studies. Most monitoring programs evaluated MPAs based solely on biological/ecological variables and fewer included social, economic and/or governance variables, failing to capture and assess the social-ecological dimension of marine conservation. To increase the capacity of MPAs to design and implement effective social-ecological monitoring programs, we recommend strategies revolving around three pillars: funding, collaboration, and technology. Following the actionable recommendations presented herein, MPA authorities and EU Member States could improve the low level of MPA monitoring to more effectively reach the 30% protection target delivering benefits for biodiversity conservation. © 2024 The Authors

@ARTICLE{Giakoumi2024,
	author = {Giakoumi, Sylvaine and Hogg, Katie and Di Lorenzo, Manfredi and Compain, Nicolas and Scianna, Claudia and Milisenda, Giacomo and Claudet, Joachim and Damalas, Dimitrios and Carbonara, Pierluigi and Colloca, Francesco and Evangelopoulos, Athanasios and Isajlović, Igor and Karampetsis, Dimitrios and Ligas, Alessandro and Marčeta, Bojan and Nenciu, Magda and Nita, Victor and Panayotova, Marina and Sabatella, Rosaria and Sartor, Paolo and Sgardeli, Vasiliki and Thasitis, Ioannis and Todorova, Valentina and Vrgoč, Nedo and Scannella, Danilo and Vitale, Sergio and Di Franco, Antonio},
	title = {Deficiencies in monitoring practices of marine protected areas in southern European seas},
	year = {2024},
	journal = {Journal of Environmental Management},
	volume = {355},
	doi = {10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120476},
	url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85186711848&doi=10.1016%2fj.jenvman.2024.120476&partnerID=40&md5=240ce24f9cb66059a42fd15df23c05b6},
	affiliations = {Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Sicily Marine Centre, Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo (complesso Roosevelt), Palermo, 90149, Italy; National Center for Scientific Research, PSL Université Paris, CRIOBE, CNRS-EPHE-UPVD, Maison de l'Océan, 195 rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, 75005, France; Calabria Marine Centre, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Amendolara, 87071, Italy; Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, P.O. Box 2214, Heraklion, 71003, Greece; Fondazione COISPA, Stazione Sperimentale per lo Studio del Mare, via dei Trulli 18-20, Bari, 70126, Italy; Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Rome, 00198, Italy; Fisheries Research Institute, Nea Peramos Kavalas, HAO “Demeter”, 64007, Greece; Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Set. I. Mestrovica 63, Split, 21000, Croatia; Consorzio per il Centro Interuniversitario di Biologia Marina ed Ecologia Applicata “G. Bacci” (CIBM), viale Nazario Sauro 4, Livorno, 57128, Italy; Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia, Spodnje Gameljne 61 a 1211 Ljubljana, Ljubljana, 1211, Slovenia; National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa“, 300 Mamaia Blvd., Constanta, 900581, Romania; Institute of Oceanology - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, P.O.Box 152, Varna, 9000, Bulgaria; Nisea soc.coop., via Irno 11, 84135, Salerno, Italy; Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Nicosia, 2033, Cyprus; National Research Council (CNR) - Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (IRBIM), Mazara del Vallo (TP), 91026, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, NBFC, Italy},
	abstract = {Worldwide, states are gazetting new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to meet the international commitment of protecting 30% of the seas by 2030. Yet, protection benefits only come into effect when an MPA is implemented with activated regulations and actively managed through continuous monitoring and adaptive management. To assess if actively managed MPAs are the rule or the exception, we used the Mediterranean and Black Seas as a case study, and retrieved information on monitoring activities for 878 designated MPAs in ten European Union (EU) countries. We searched for scientific and grey literature that provides information on the following aspects of MPA assessment and monitoring: ecological (e.g., biomass of commercially exploited fish), social (e.g., perceptions of fishers in an MPA), economic (e.g., revenue of fishers) and governance (e.g., type of governance scheme). We also queried MPA authorities on their past and current monitoring activities using a web-based survey through which we collected 123 responses. Combining the literature review and survey results, we found that approximately 16% of the MPA designations (N = 878) have baseline and/or monitoring studies. Most monitoring programs evaluated MPAs based solely on biological/ecological variables and fewer included social, economic and/or governance variables, failing to capture and assess the social-ecological dimension of marine conservation. To increase the capacity of MPAs to design and implement effective social-ecological monitoring programs, we recommend strategies revolving around three pillars: funding, collaboration, and technology. Following the actionable recommendations presented herein, MPA authorities and EU Member States could improve the low level of MPA monitoring to more effectively reach the 30% protection target delivering benefits for biodiversity conservation. © 2024 The Authors},
	author_keywords = {Adaptive management; Baseline data; Marine protected area; Monitoring; Natura 2000; Sampling design},
	keywords = {Black Sea; Mediterranean Sea; Biodiversity; Ecology; Economic and social effects; Environmental protection; Adaptive Management; Baseline data; Black sea; Continuous monitoring; Marine protected area; Mediterranean sea; Monitoring activities; Monitoring programmes; Natura 2000; Sampling design; adaptive management; baseline survey; biodiversity; biomass; environmental monitoring; literature review; protected area; article; biodiversity; biomass; Black Sea; conservation biology; European Union; fish; human; nonhuman; sea; Southern European; Conservation},
	correspondence_address = {S. Giakoumi; Sicily Marine Centre, Palermo, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo (complesso Roosevelt), 90149, Italy; email: sylvaine.giakoumi@szn.it},
	publisher = {Academic Press},
	issn = {03014797},
	coden = {JEVMA},
	pmid = {38442657},
	language = {English},
	abbrev_source_title = {J. Environ. Manage.},
	type = {Article},
	publication_stage = {Final},
	source = {Scopus},
	note = {All Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access}
}

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