Abstract
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designated parts of the ocean that restrict human activities to a certain degree. MPAs are established around the world using a wide range of legislative instruments and thus come in a variety of forms and shapes. Despite being regarded as the “cornerstone” of global marine conservation efforts, they currently cover less than 10% of the ocean surface. Individual MPAs aim to achieve goals ranging from the protection of specific habitats or species to sustaining certain commercial activities, such as fishing. By default, the establishment of MPAs intertwines social, ecological and economic considerations. Yet, the emphasis put on each of these domains can vary substantially when setting on-the-ground objectives, frequently creating conflict among stakeholders. In this manuscript, we first discuss current international conservation targets as well as potential future goals and delve into the question of how to assess the effectiveness of MPAs. Subsequently, we discuss the ambivalent role of this widely applied management tool at the crossroads between biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. Placing MPAs in a social-ecological framework, we call for clear and measurable goals to evaluate MPAs from an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, we present the Baltic Sea, with its high degree of anthropogenic impact, long fishing history and comparatively extensive MPA coverage, as an interesting case study to investigate the role of MPAs in promoting a sustainable management of the ocean.
Highlights
Humans have extracted living marine resources from the ocean for centuries (Jackson et al, 2001; Lotze et al, 2006; Worm et al, 2006)
Marine protected areas have—to a certain degree—emerged as panaceas in the ocean conservation arena (Young et al, 2018). They exist in a variety of shapes and sizes as they are designated around the world using a broad range of legislative instruments
Their numbers have increased substantially in the last decades and this trend is very likely to continue in the future
Summary
Humans have extracted living marine resources from the ocean for centuries (Jackson et al, 2001; Lotze et al, 2006; Worm et al, 2006). The diverging objectives of the conservation and fisheries sector in terms of relative MPA coverage can overlap, which may help to minimize trade-offs (Gaines et al, 2010) with the ultimate goal of manifesting the role of MPAs as an integral part of an effective ecosystem-based management of living marine resources (Grip and Blomqvist, 2020) Within this “sea of objectives”, the sustainable development goals (discussed above) call for an approach simultaneously promoting environmental protection as well as economic growth (e.g., by restoring fish stocks or promoting sustainable tourism; Carter, 2007). In a nutshell, looking at linked networks of ocean and society is a promising avenue toward understanding MPAs as complex social-ecological systems and can aid in finding balance among social and economic aspects, as well as between conservation and fisheries interests
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