Repository logo
 
Loading...
Project Logo
Research Project

Not Available

Authors

Publications

Ocean protection quality is lagging behind quantity: Applying a scientific framework to assess real marine protected area progress against the 30 by 30 target
Publication . Pike, Elizabeth P.; MacCarthy, Jessica M. C.; Hameed, Sarah O.; Harasta, Nikki; Grorud‐Colvert, Kirsten; Sullivan‐Stack, Jenna; Claudet, Joachim; Horta E Costa, Barbara; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Villagomez, Angelo; Morgan, Lance
The international community set a global conservation target to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 ("30 x 30") to reverse biodiversity loss, including through marine protected areas (MPAs). However, varied MPAs result in significantly different conservation outcomes, making MPA coverage alone an inadequate metric. We used The MPA Guide framework to assess the the world's largest 100 MPAs by area, representing nearly 90% of reported global MPA coverage and 7.3% of the global ocean area, and analyzed the distribution of MPA quality across political and ecological regions. A quarter of the assessed MPA coverage is not implemented, and one-third is incompatible with the conservation of nature. Two factors contribute to this outcome: (1) many reported MPAs lack regulations or management, and (2) some MPAs allow high-impact activities. Fully and highly protected MPAs account for one-third of the assessed area but are unevenly distributed across ecoregions in part because some nations have designated large, highly protected MPAs in their overseas or remote territories. Indicators of MPA quality, not only coverage, are needed to ensure a global network of MPAs that covers at least 30% of the ocean and effectively safeguards representative marine ecosystems from destructive human activities.
Turning the tide on protection illusions: The underprotected MPAs of the ‘OSPAR Regional Sea Convention’
Publication . Roessger, Julia; Claudet, Joachim; Horta E Costa, Barbara
Contracting Parties of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (the 'OSPAR Convention') have agreed to establish an effective network of marine protected areas (MPAs). While the network is currently covering approximately 7% of the North-East Atlantic, the extent to which existing MPAs appropriately harbour protection remains unknown. Using the regulation-based classification system, we assessed the levels of protection of 946 zones belonging to 476 strictly marine OSPAR MPAs. We show that only 0.03% of the OSPAR MPA network is covered with full or high protection levels, which are the protection levels exhibiting significant conservation benefits. According to this study, more than 60% of MPAs are unprotected, leading to uncertainties about their potential to deliver positive conservation outcomes. MPA coverage alone should not be used as an indicator for MPA performance, but when presented with the actual protection levels, a light can be shed on MPA quality. To be able to reach the 2030 ocean targets agreed under the European Biodiversity Strategy, to which most OSPAR Contracting Parties are committed, substantial efforts are required not only to strategically enlarge the MPA network coverage to 30% but mostly to reach the EU sub-target of 10% of strict protection. Enhancing effective protection by increasing the coverage of fully and highly protected areas to safeguard marine ecosystems is urgently needed to sustainably support human well-being.
A systematic literature review of climate change research on Europe's threatened commercial fish species
Publication . Predragovic, Milica; Cvitanovic, Christopher; Karcher, Denis B.; Tietbohl, Matthew D.; Sumaila, U. Rashid; Horta E Costa, Barbara
Climate change poses a major challenge for global marine ecosystems and species, leading to a wide range of biological and social-ecological impacts. Fisheries are among the well-known sectors influenced by multiple effects of climate change, with associated impacts highly variable among species and regions. To successfully manage fisheries, scientific evidence about the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the species targeted by fisheries is needed to inform decision-making processes. This is particularly pertinent for fisheries within European seas, as they include some of the fastest warming water bodies globally, and are thus experiencing some of the greatest impacts. Here, we systematically examine the existing scientific climate-related literature of 68 species that are both commercially important in European seas and considered threatened ac-cording to the IUCN Red List to understand the extent of information that is available to inform fisheries management and identify critical knowledge gaps that can help to direct future research effort. We also explore the climate and fishing vulnerability indices of species as potential drivers of current scientific attention. We found no literature for most of these species (n = 45), and for many others (n = 19) we found fewer than five papers studying them. Climate change related research was dominated by a few species (i.e., Atlantic salmon, European pilchard, and Atlantic bluefin tuna) and regions, such as the Northeast Atlantic, revealing a highly uneven distribution of research efforts across European seas. Most studies were biologically focused and included how abundance, distribution, and physiology may be affected by warming. Few studies incorporated some level of social-ecological information. Moreover, it appears that research on species with high climate and fishing vulnerabilities is not currently prioritized. These results highlight a gap in our understanding of how climate change can impact already threatened species and the people who depend on them for food and income. Our findings also suggest that future climate-specific adaptation measures will likely suffer from a lack of robust information. More research is needed to include all the species from our list, their relevant geographic regions, and subsequent biological and social-ecological implications.
Guidance on marine protected area protection level assignments when faced with unknown regulatory information
Publication . Driedger, Alex; Sletten, Jennifer; Colegrove, Claire; Vincent, Timothé; Zetterlind, Virgil; Claudet, Joachim; Horta E Costa, Barbara
Strong human use regulations are an important precondition for marine protected area (MPA) effectiveness. Distinguishing MPAs based on their protection levels has shown advantages, but the availability of regulatory information about allowed activities is a major roadblock towards completing assessments at scale. Here, using a California case study, we explore assigning MPA protection levels following the regulation-based classification system (RBCS) under different scenarios of incomplete regulatory information. In the first group of scenarios (A), only readily available information was used, i.e., information contained in direct MPA implementing regulations and management plans. In the second group (B), information was limited to the activities in ProtectedSeas' Navigator that matched those in the RBCS. From group A, 99% and 100% correct classification of fully and highly protected areas, respectively, were obtained when treating unknown aquaculture, bottom exploitation, and bottom extraction as 'prohibited' and boating, anchoring, and fishing activities as 'allowed'. High classifi-cation accuracy was also obtained for moderately, poorly, and unprotected areas. From group B, 92% and 94% correct classification of fully and highly protected areas were obtained when using the same assumptions for non -fishing activities but using Navigator's Level of Fishing Protection (LFP) score to guide assumptions about un-known fishing activities. Correct classification rates were poorer with different assumptions. Regulation-based MPA evaluation systems can reliably identify fully and highly protected areas in the face of unknown infor-mation, when assumptions about unknown information are guided by contextual indicators such as generally regulated human activities and/or overall level of fishing restriction.
Setting performance indicators for coastal marine protected areas: an expert-based methodology
Publication . Cardoso-Andrade, Mariana; Queiroga, Henrique; Rangel, Mafalda; Sousa, Inês; Belackova, Adela; Bentes, Luis; Oliveira, Frederico; Monteiro, Pedro; Sales Henriques, Nuno; Afonso, Carlos; Silva, Ana F.; Quintella, Bernardo R.; Costa, José L.; Pais, Miguel P.; Henriques, Sofia; Batista, Marisa I.; Franco, Gustavo; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Henriques, Miguel; Leonardo, Teresa; Coelho, Paula; Comas-González, Robert; Fernández, Laura P.; Quiles-Pons, Carla; Costa, André; Espírito-Santo, Cristina; Castro, João J.; Arenas, Francisco; Ramos, Sandra; Ferreira, Vasco; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos; Horta E Costa, Barbara
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.

Organizational Units

Description

Keywords

Contributors

Funders

Funding agency

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Funding programme

DL 57/2016

Funding Award Number

DL 57/2016/CP1361/CT0038

ID