Project of artisanal fisheries management in the proposed marine protected area of Jbel Moussa (Morocco)

Abstract

Artisanal fisheries are the subject of a growing interest in the conservation community. It is considered as a less harmful extractive activity in many multiple-use marine protected areas (MPAs)s. However, only a few of these MPAs have been able to successfully combine their nature conservation objectives with those of managing artisanal fisheries in a sustainable manner. In many cases, the artisanal fishing activity and the communities related to it have been barely involved in the management of MPAs, which has led to sometimes tense situations between fishermen and MPA managers. This work takes the example of the future marine protected area "Jbel Moussa", located in northern Morocco just off the Strait of Gibraltar, where artisanal fishing is one of the main local activities. A survey was conducted between July and November 2022 and targeted the future stakeholders of the marine protected area. Knowing already the point of view of the artisanal fishermen of Jbel Moussa from previous works, this survey has served to clarify the perspective of the future managers of the protected area, in order to take stock of all that is planned in terms of the general management of the site and artisanal fisheries, but also to determine if there is a real communication between each stakeholder category. After analysis, the results of the survey showed some shortcomings in communication between the different categories of actors interviewed, but also some divergence of opinions between the managers of the future protected area and the artisanal fishermen operating there. However, it was revealed that several projects addressing, in particular, some of the aspects studied in this work, are being carried out at the site and will undoubtedly allow the problems observed to be taken into account for a better future management of the MPA.