Systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean: a flexible tool for the identification of no-take marine protected areas

Abstract Maiorano, L., Bartolino, V., Colloca, F., Abella, A., Belluscio, A., Carpentieri, P., Criscoli, A., Jona Lasinio, G., Mannini, A., Pranovi, F., Reale, B., Relini, G., Viva, C., and Ardizzone, G. D. 2009. Systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean: a flexible tool for the identification of no-take marine protected areas. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 137–146. We propose the use of systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean context for the identification of no-take marine protected areas (NTMPAs). We suggest a logical framework that should be used for the identification of areas to be targeted for multispecies, spatially explicit conservation actions. Specifically, we propose seven steps: (i) definition of the study area; (ii) selection of the species or habitats to be considered; (iii) definition of the planning units; (iv) measurement of the fishing effort; (v) definition of the conservation targets; (vi) review of the existing conservation areas; (vii) selection of additional NTMPAs. Moreover, we consider the potential impact of different conservation plans on existing fishing vessels. A working example is presented, focusing on a limited number of species and on a limited study area. This framework can be easily expanded to include datasets of different origin and to accommodate larger spatial scales. Such a process involves major data-collection and capacity-building elements, and conservation of productive commercial fisheries must be a priority.

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

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2021.683271 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Ibon Galparsoro ◽

Ángel Borja

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Basque Country ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Economic Costs

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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Can We Avoid Tacit Trade-Offs between Flexibility and Efficiency in Systematic Conservation Planning? The Mediterranean Sea as a Case Study

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d14010009 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

Sabrine Drira ◽

Frida Ben Rais Lasram ◽

Tarek Hattab ◽

Yunne-Jai Shin ◽

Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Heuristic Algorithms ◽

Reserve Selection ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Trade Offs ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Selection Framework ◽

Exact Optimization ◽

Selection Of

Species distribution models (SDMs) provide robust inferences about species-specific site suitability and are increasingly used in systematic conservation planning (SCP). SDMs are subjected to intrinsic uncertainties, and conservation studies have generally overlooked these. The integration of SDM uncertainties in conservation solutions requires the development of a suitable optimization algorithm. Exact optimization algorithms grant efficiency to conservation solutions, but most of their implementations generate a single binary and indivisible solution. Therefore, without variation in their parameterization, they provide low flexibility in the implementation of conservation solutions by stakeholders. Contrarily, heuristic algorithms provide such flexibility, by generating large amounts of sub-optimal solutions. As a consequence, efficiency and flexibility are implicitly linked in conservation applications: mathematically efficient solutions provide less flexibility, and the flexible solutions provided by heuristics are sub-optimal. To avoid this trade-off between flexibility and efficiency in SCP, we propose a reserve-selection framework, based on exact optimization combined with a post-selection of SDM outputs. This reserve-selection framework provides flexibility and addresses the efficiency and representativeness of conservation solutions. To exemplify the approach, we analyzed an experimental design, crossing pre- and post-selection of SDM outputs versus heuristics and exact mathematical optimizations. We used the Mediterranean Sea as a biogeographical template for our analyses, integrating the outputs of eight SDM techniques for 438 fish species.

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Impact of the marine litter pollution on the Mediterranean biodiversity: A risk assessment study with focus on the marine protected areas

Marine Pollution Bulletin ◽

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112169 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 165 ◽

pp. 112169

Author(s):

J. Soto-Navarro ◽

G. Jordá ◽

M. Compa ◽

C. Alomar ◽

M.C. Fossi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Marine Litter ◽

Assessment Study ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Mediterranean Biodiversity

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Applying systematic conservation planning to improve the allocation of restoration actions at multiple spatial scales

Restoration Ecology ◽

10.1111/rec.13403 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ben L. Gilby ◽

Andrew D. Olds ◽

Christopher J. Brown ◽

Rod M. Connolly ◽

Christopher J. Henderson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conservation Planning ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Multiple Spatial Scales

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Animal behaviour and marine protected areas: incorporating behavioural data into the selection of marine protected areas for an endangered killer whale population

Animal Conservation ◽

10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00321.x ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 196-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

E. Ashe ◽

D. P. Noren ◽

R. Williams

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Killer Whale ◽

Animal Behaviour ◽

Selection Of

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INVESTIGATING CROSS CONGRUENCE BETWEEN BUTTERFLY TAXA AND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SYSTEMATIC CONSERVATION PLANNING: A CASE STUDY FROM LESSER CAUCASUS ECOREGION OF TURKEY

European Journal of Ecology ◽

10.17161/eurojecol.v7i2.15042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Banu Kaya özdemirel

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

Site Selection ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Environmental Parameters ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Ecological Community ◽

North Eastern ◽

Lesser Caucasus

Cross taxa congruence was investigated between butterfly taxa and ecological community for fine spatial scale (10 × 10 km² UTM grids) in north-eastern part of Turkey. The study area was evaluated within the scope of systematic conservation planning, and analyses were performed for sets of priority protected areas composed using complementarity-based site selection software Marxan. Cross taxa congruence was subsequently examined both in species richness and ecologic complementarity. Accordingly, it has been observed that the cross-taxon congruence between butterfly taxa and ecological community was relatively better than the results of previous studies. Another remarkable finding is that ecological community was a more robust surrogate than butterfly taxa. Although the results are valuable for conservation studies, they highlight the fact that a simple surrogate-based site selection would be inadequate to represent overall biodiversity. The weakness of congruence patterns among surrogates would also lead to gaps in biodiversity conservation. These findings therefore draw attention to the necessities of incorporating surrogates of distinct ecology or some other surrogates like environmental parameters into conservation planning. Otherwise, there may be mistakes regarding species representation and the vast majority of species may be misrepresented in protected areas and protected area plans. At this point, it should be emphasized that understating cross taxa congruence and/or relationships is a key component for efficient biodiversity conservation.

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Are trade-offs between flexibility and efficiency in systematic conservation planning avoidable ?

10.1101/775072 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sabrine Drira ◽

Frida Ben Rais Lasram ◽

Tarek Hattab ◽

Yunne Jai Shin ◽

Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conservation Planning ◽

Large Body ◽

Efficient Solutions ◽

Reserve Selection ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Precise Control ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Selection Framework ◽

Selection Of

AbstractSpecies distribution models (SDMs) have been proposed as a way to provide robust inference about species-specific sites suitabilities, and have been increasingly used in systematic conservation planning (SCP) applications. However, despite the fact that the use of SDMs in SCP may raise some potential issues, conservation studies have overlooked to assess the implications of SDMs uncertainties. The integration of these uncertainties in conservation solutions requires the development of a reserve-selection approach based on a suitable optimization algorithm. A large body of research has shown that exact optimization algorithms give very precise control over the gap to optimality of conservation solutions. However, their major shortcoming is that they generate a single binary and indivisible solution. Therefore, they provide no flexibility in the implementation of conservation solutions by stakeholders. On the other hand, heuristic decision-support systems provide large amounts of sub-optimal solutions, and therefore more flexibility. This flexibility arises from the availability of many alternative and sub-optimal conservation solutions. The two principles of efficiency and flexibility are implicitly linked in conservation applications, with the most mathematically efficient solutions being inflexible and the flexible solutions provided by heuristics suffering sub-optimality. In order to avoid the trade-offs between flexibility and efficiency in systematic conservation planning, we propose in this paper a new reserve-selection framework based on mathematical programming optimization combined with a post-selection of SDM outputs. This approach leads to a reserve-selection framework that might provide flexibility while simultaneously addressing efficiency and representativeness of conservation solutions and the adequacy of conservation targets. To exemplify the approach we a nalyzed an experimental design crossing pre- and post-selection of SDM outputs versus heuristics and exact mathematical optimizations. We used the Mediterranean Sea as a biogeographical template for our analyses, integrating the outputs of 8 SDM techniques for 438 fishes species.

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