scholarly journals Reviewing the Ecosystem Services, Societal Goods, and Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concepción Marcos ◽  
David Díaz ◽  
Katharina Fietz ◽  
Aitor Forcada ◽  
Amanda Ford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Societal Benefit ◽  
Societal Benefits ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Services

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are globally important environmental management tools that provide protection from the effects of human exploitation and activities, supporting the conservation of marine biological diversity, habitats, ecosystems and the processes they host, as well as resources in a broad sense. Consequently, they are also expected to manage and enhance marine ecosystem services and material, non-material, consumptive and non-consumptive goods, and benefits for humans. There is however certain confusion on what constitutes an ecosystem service, and it is not always easy to distinguish between them and societal benefits. The main nuance is that an ecosystem service is the aptitude an ecosystem has or develops naturally or as consequence of a management action, and that manifests through its own properties (productivity, diversity, stability, quality of its key parameters, etc.), while a societal benefit is the economic or other profitability (emotional, educational, scientific, etc.) that humans obtain from said service or quality. In this work, 268 publications, together with our own experiences in the different investigations carried out in the MPAs that are part of the BiodivERsA3-2015-21 RESERVEBENEFIT European project, have been selected, reviewed and discussed to analyze the knowledge status of the expected ecosystem services of MPAs and the societal benefits derived from them, sometimes providing information on their evidence, when they exist. We define and classify the effects of protection, ecosystem services and societal benefits and elaborate a conceptual model of the cause-effect relationships between them.

Response of Ecosystem Service Values to Environmental Change in the Bohai Sea

2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 1321-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Ning Suo ◽  
Xu Bin Pan ◽  
Jian Hua Zhao ◽  
Yong Hai Yu
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Bohai Sea ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Laizhou Bay ◽  
The Bohai Sea ◽  
Ecosystem Services Value ◽  
Climate Regulation ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Services ◽  
O2 Supply

Since 1988, great changes of primary production, pollutants loading, coastline and sea area have happened in the Bohai Sea in China. These environmental changes increased the value of marine ecosystem services value from 529.42 billion RMB in 1988 to 558.83 billion RMB in 2010. The ecosystem services values of recreation, food and materials production, O2 supply, climate regulation and primary productivity were raised. However, other marine ecosystem services value, including biological control, pollutant purification, knowledge broaden and biodiversity protection were lowered. In addition, value of ecosystem services increased in Liaodong Bay and Bohai Bay, but decreased in middle Bohai and Bohai strait, and it no change in Laizhou Bay,.This spatial difference of ecosystem service function value was mainly caused by the change of recreation function, O2 supply function and climate regulation function.

scholarly journals Valuing Marine Ecosystems - Taking into account the value of ecosystem benefits in the Blue Economy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Austen ◽  
Peder Andersen ◽  
Claire Armstrong ◽  
Ralf Döring ◽  
Stephen Hynes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Ecosystem Valuation ◽  
Natural Capital Accounting ◽  
Support Policy ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Services

The main aim of this publication is to highlight the current thinking in ecosystem service valuation for the marine environment. Valuation of the benefits stemming from marine ecosystem services, including often unnoticed benefits to society, can help to assess the long-term sustainability of blue growth, support policy development and marine management decisions, and raise awareness of the importance of the marine environment to society and in the economy. Recommendations are made on how to incorporate outputs from valuation studies into the traditional analyses used in resource and environmental economics and into the European marine policy landscape and related management and decision making choices. The publication is primarily aimed at stakeholders interested in valuation of marine ecosystem services and natural capital accounting, spanning diverse roles from commissioning, managing, funding and coordinating, to developing, implementing, or advising on, marine ecosystem service and natural capital programmes. Such programmes will have strategic and policy drivers but their main purpose may vary from predominantly research driven science to provision of valuation data and reporting to legally-binding regulations or directives. The main focus is on European capabilities but set in a global context with the various actors spanning a variety of geographical scales from national to regional and European. Key stakeholder organizations include environmental or other agencies; marine research institutions, their researchers and operators; international and regional initiatives and programmes; national, regional and European policy makers and their advisors. It will also be of interest to the wider marine and maritime research and policy community. The publication recommends:1.Marine ecosystem valuation should be used to support policy making, regulation and management and decision making;2.The quality and availability of monetary and non-monetary valuation data should be improved and increased through research, development and implementation actions;3.The spatial and temporal dimensions of ecosystem valuation need to be mapped and their implications for policy and management decisions assessed;4.In order to strengthen the use and derivation of ecosystem service values to support policy, regulation and management, underpinning research and development actions should be undertaken:a.To improve understanding of the role of marine biodiversity and ecosystem processes in providing services and benefits;b.To improve modelling approaches to support ecosystem valuation and decision making;5.Systems to enable and use marine natural capital accounting and enhance the experimental ecosystem accounts should be further developed and implemented including:a. A natural capital portfolio approach utilising existing marine data sets and assessment results and addressing scale and aggregation as well as ecosystem degradation;b.Valuation methods for both ecosystem services and assets that can be standardised and are compatible with National Accounting;c.Payment for marine ecosystem services and other financing mechanisms to restore marine natural capital and improve its sustainable use.

Area-Based Management Tools, Including Marine Protected Areas

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 247-251
Author(s):  
Penelope Nevill
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Marine Areas ◽  
Conservation And Management ◽  
Population Resilience

Area based management tools (ABMTs) such as marine protected areas (MPAs) are recognized by scientists and the international community as essential to promote the conservation and management of oceans and fisheries. They have been shown to enhance population resilience to climate-driven disturbance. In 2005 the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 adopted a target MPA coverage of 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2012. In 2010 it extended the target deadline to 2020. By then the global MPA coverage was just over 1 percent. Recent statistics are more encouraging, if only slightly: a UNEP report released in November 2014 found that 3.4 percent of the global ocean is now protected. In any event 10 percent is not enough. A recent review of the scientific literature suggests that the figure needs to be 30 percent.

scholarly journals Trends and Evolution in the Concept of Marine Ecosystem Services: An Overview

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2060
Author(s):  
Elvira Buonocore ◽  
Umberto Grande ◽  
Pier Paolo Franzese ◽  
Giovanni F. Russo
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Policy Dialogue ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Services

The biotic and abiotic assets of the marine environment form the “marine natural capital” embedded in the global ocean. Marine natural capital provides the flow of “marine ecosystem services” that are directly used or enjoyed by people providing benefits to human well-being. They include provisioning services (e.g., food), regulation and maintenance services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage, and coastal protection), and cultural services (e.g., tourism and recreational benefits). In recent decades, human activities have increased the pressures on marine ecosystems, often leading to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss and, in turn, affecting their ability to provide benefits to humans. Therefore, effective management strategies are crucial to the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and to ensuring their long-term generation of goods and services. Biophysical, economic, and sociocultural assessments of marine ecosystem services are much needed to convey the importance of natural resources to managers and policy makers supporting the development and implementation of policies oriented for the sustainable management of marine resources. In addition, the accounting of marine ecosystem service values can be usefully complemented by their mapping to enable the identification of priority areas and management strategies and to facilitate science–policy dialogue. Given this premise, this study aims to review trends and evolution in the concept of marine ecosystem services. In particular, the global scientific literature on marine ecosystem services is explored by focusing on the following main aspects: the definition and classification of marine ecosystem services; their loss due to anthropogenic pressures, alternative assessment, and mapping approaches; and the inclusion of marine ecosystem services into policy and decision-making processes.

scholarly journals Autonomous Marine Robot Based on AI Recognition for Permanent Surveillance in Marine Protected Areas

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2664
Author(s):  
J. Carlos Molina-Molina ◽  
Marouane Salhaoui ◽  
Antonio Guerrero-González ◽  
Mounir Arioua
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Base Station ◽  
Autonomous Surface Vehicle ◽  
Current Scenario ◽  
Illegal Activities ◽  
Marine Areas

The world’s oceans are one of the most valuable sources of biodiversity and resources on the planet, although there are areas where the marine ecosystem is threatened by human activities. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are distinctive spaces protected by law due to their unique characteristics, such as being the habitat of endangered marine species. Even with this protection, there are still illegal activities such as poaching or anchoring that threaten the survival of different marine species. In this context, we propose an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) model system for the surveillance of marine areas by detecting and recognizing vessels through artificial intelligence (AI)-based image recognition services, in search of those carrying out illegal activities. Cloud and edge AI computing technologies were used for computer vision. These technologies have proven to be accurate and reliable in detecting shapes and objects for which they have been trained. Azure edge and cloud vision services offer the best option in terms of accuracy for this task. Due to the lack of 4G and 5G coverage in offshore marine environments, it is necessary to use radio links with a coastal base station to ensure communications, which may result in a high response time due to the high latency involved. The analysis of on-board images may not be sufficiently accurate; therefore, we proposed a smart algorithm for autonomy optimization by selecting the proper AI technology according to the current scenario (SAAO) capable of selecting the best AI source for the current scenario in real time, according to the required recognition accuracy or low latency. The SAAO optimizes the execution, efficiency, risk reduction, and results of each stage of the surveillance mission, taking appropriate decisions by selecting either cloud or edge vision models without human intervention.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document