Underprotected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Abstract

•6.01% of the Mediterranean is covered by protection•In 95% of this area, regulations are not stronger inside than outside MPAs•Only 0.23% of the Mediterranean is fully or highly protected•Protection is unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions The ocean is central to human well-being. It regulates climate and provides food, energy, minerals, and genetic resources as well as cultural and recreational services. Even though the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals cannot be met without a healthy ocean, an expanding human footprint is placing it at risk. To help protect the ocean, 193 Member States of the United Nations agreed to protect 10% of their waters following the Convention on Biological Diversity. The target year for completion was 2020. This year. This work investigates how successfully the introduction of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been in the Mediterranean Sea. We show that 1,062 MPAs currently cover 6% of the basin, short of the 10% target. However, of greater concern is that 95% of the area covered by these 1,062 MPAs lack sufficient regulations to reduce human impacts on biodiversity and protect ocean health. Only 0.23% of the basin is effectively protected, and these MPAs are unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions. More efforts are needed if we are to protect our oceans and safeguard environmental and human well-being. Ocean health is critical for human well-being but is threatened by multiple stressors. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to protect 10% of their waters by 2020. The scientific evidence supporting the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve biodiversity stems primarily from knowledge on fully protected areas, but most of what is being established is partially protected. Here, we assess the protection levels of the 1,062 Mediterranean MPAs. While 6.01% of the Mediterranean is covered by protection, 95% of this area shows no difference between the regulations imposed inside the MPAs compared with those outside. Full and high levels of protection, the most effective for biodiversity conservation, represent only 0.23% of the basin and are unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions. Our current efforts are insufficient at managing human uses of nature at sea, and protection levels should be increased to deliver tangible benefits for biodiversity conservation. Ocean health is critical for human well-being but is threatened by multiple stressors. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to protect 10% of their waters by 2020. The scientific evidence supporting the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve biodiversity stems primarily from knowledge on fully protected areas, but most of what is being established is partially protected. Here, we assess the protection levels of the 1,062 Mediterranean MPAs. While 6.01% of the Mediterranean is covered by protection, 95% of this area shows no difference between the regulations imposed inside the MPAs compared with those outside. Full and high levels of protection, the most effective for biodiversity conservation, represent only 0.23% of the basin and are unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions. Our current efforts are insufficient at managing human uses of nature at sea, and protection levels should be increased to deliver tangible benefits for biodiversity conservation. A healthy ocean is critical for human well-being. Many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may not be met without achieving SDG 14 for ocean conservation and sustainable use.1Singh G.G. Cisneros-Montemayor A.M. Swartz W. Cheung W. Guy J.A. Kenny T.-A. McOwen C.J. Asch R. Geffert J.L. Wabnitz C.C.C. et al.A rapid assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals.Mar. Policy. 2018; 93: 223-231Crossref Scopus (156) Google Scholar However, oceans are threatened by multiple stressors, with fishing as the most important driver.2Díaz S. Settele J. Brondízio E. Ngo H. Guèze M. Agard J. Arneth A. Balvanera P. Brauman K. Butchart S. et al.Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Summary for Policymakers. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 2019Google Scholar While there is an urgent need to modify human behavior to allow sustainable development pathways,3Butchart S.H.M.M. Walpole M. Collen B. van Strien A. Scharlemann J.P.W.W. Almond R.E.A.A. Baillie J.E.M.M. Bomhard B. Brown C.C. Bruno J. et al.Global biodiversity: indicators of recent declines.Science. 2010; 328: 1164-1168Crossref PubMed Scopus (2862) Google Scholar,4Nash K.L. Cvitanovic C. Fulton E.A. Halpern B.S. Watson R.A. Blanchard J.L. Planetary boundaries for a blue planet.Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2017; 1: 1625-1634Crossref PubMed Scopus (64) Google Scholar mitigation strategies still need to be put into practice. Within this context, marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective spatial, ecosystem-based management tool,5Lubchenco J. Grorud-Colvert K. Making waves: the science and politics of ocean protection.Science. 2015; 350: 382-383Crossref PubMed Scopus (189) Google Scholar and Member States Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to cover 10% of their coastal and marine areas with MPAs by 2020 (CBD Aïchi target 11).6CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity)COP 10 Decision X/2. Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010Google Scholar This areal target is shared by target 5 of SDG 14 and should only be considered a milestone, because current research suggests that at least 30% of the ocean should be protected to meet global conservation goals.7O’Leary B.C. Winther-Janson M. Bainbridge J.M. Aitken J. Hawkins J.P. Roberts C.M. Effective coverage targets for ocean protection.Conserv. Lett. 2016; 9: 398-404Crossref Scopus (132) Google Scholar Here, we ask whether CBD Aïchi target 11 led to effective conservation strategies or if the endeavors of Member States deviated from the original aim of the target, which is to deliver conservation outcomes. Most of the science in support of MPAs has been based on fully protected areas,8Claudet J. Osenberg C.W. Benedetti-Cecchi L. Domenici P. García-Charton J.A. Pérez-Ruzafa Á. Badalamenti F. Bayle-Sempere J. Brito A. Bulleri F. et al.Marine reserves: size and age do matter.Ecol. 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Policy. 2018; 91: 11-13Crossref Scopus (103) Google Scholar Although partially protected areas can be effective in some instances, they have significantly less conservation benefit than fully protected areas.12Lester S.E. Halpern B.S. Biological responses in marine no-take reserves versus partially protected areas.Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 2008; 367: 49-56Crossref Scopus (190) Google Scholar,13Zupan M. Fragkopoulou E. Claudet J. Erzini K. Horta e Costa B. Gonçalves E.J. Marine partially protected areas: drivers of ecological effectiveness.Front. Ecol. Environ. 2018; 16: 381-387Crossref Scopus (48) Google Scholar Partially protected areas are often preferred over fully protected areas because a broader range of users can still access those areas. However, allowed uses, even if regulated, often concentrate inside such areas14Zupan M. Bulleri F. Evans J. Fraschetti S. Guidetti P. Garcia-Rubies A. Sostres M. Asnaghi V. Caro A. Deudero S. et al.How good is your marine protected area at curbing threats?.Biol. Conserv. 2018; 221: 237-245Crossref Scopus (37) Google Scholar,15Mazaris A.D. Kallimanis A. Gissi E. Pipitone C. Danovaro R. Claudet J. Rilov G. Badalamenti F. Stelzenmüller V. Thiault L. et al.Threats to marine biodiversity in European protected areas.Sci. Total Environ. 2019; 677: 418-426Crossref PubMed Scopus (19) Google Scholar with potentially higher detrimental impacts on biodiversity.16Dureuil M. Boerder K. Burnett K.A. Froese R. Worm B. Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot.Science. 2018; 362: 1403-1407Crossref PubMed Scopus (44) Google Scholar A recently developed regulation-based classification system for MPAs allows MPAs to be grouped according to the potential impacts on species and habitats of allowed uses.17Horta e Costa B. Claudet J. Franco G. Erzini K. Caro A. Gonçalves E.J. A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).Mar. Policy. 2016; 72: 192-198Crossref Scopus (75) Google Scholar When applied to a range of published literature on MPA effectiveness, it showed that, on average, only fully and highly protected areas, which only allowed infrequent use of some types of non-industrial, highly selective, low impact, recreational, commercial, or subsistence fishing gears, could deliver ecological benefits.13Zupan M. Fragkopoulou E. Claudet J. Erzini K. Horta e Costa B. Gonçalves E.J. Marine partially protected areas: drivers of ecological effectiveness.Front. Ecol. Environ. 2018; 16: 381-387Crossref Scopus (48) Google Scholar Protection levels are therefore a good indicator of MPA performance. In this study, we focused on the Mediterranean Sea, which is both a global hotspot for biodiversity and for human pressure,18Coll M. Piroddi C. Steenbeek J. Kaschner K. Lasram F.B.R. Aguzzi J. Ballesteros E. Bianchi C.N. Corbera J. Dailianis T. et al.The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: estimates, patterns, and threats.PLoS One. 2010; 5: e11842Crossref PubMed Scopus (1147) Google Scholar, 19Myers N. Mittermeier R.A. Mittermeier C.G. da Fonseca G.A.B. Kent J. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities.Nature. 2000; 403: 853-858Crossref PubMed Scopus (17794) Google Scholar, 20Micheli F. Halpern B.S. Walbridge S. Ciriaco S. Ferretti F. Fraschetti S. Lewison R. Nykjaer L. Rosenberg A.A. Cumulative human impacts on Mediterranean and Black Sea marine ecosystems : assessing current pressures and opportunities.PLoS One. 2013; 8: e79889Crossref PubMed Scopus (273) Google Scholar and is an area that features an extensive system of MPAs.21Amengual J. Alvarez-Berastegui D. A critical evaluation of the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and the Mediterranean MPA network, two years ahead of its deadline.Biol. Conserv. 2018; 225: 187-196Crossref Scopus (18) Google Scholar Our assessment took a critical look at whether conservation efforts are appropriately strategized to deliver ecological benefits. We exctracted the list of MPAs from MAPAMED,22MedPAN/SPARAC-MAPAMEDMarine protected areas in the Mediterranean.https://www.mapamed.org/Date: 2018Google Scholar the most complete database for MPAs in the Mediterranean. For multiple-zone MPAs, we worked at the zone level and compiled and reviewed the management plans and legal texts for the 1,062 existing MPAs (or 1,346 zones) to classify them using the regulation-based classification system.17Horta e Costa B. Claudet J. Franco G. Erzini K. Caro A. Gonçalves E.J. A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).Mar. Policy. 2016; 72: 192-198Crossref Scopus (75) Google Scholar All 1,062 MPAs included in our study are approved by countries or focal points of the Barcelona Convention (UNEP Regional Sea Convention), and thus count toward international biodiversity conservation targets. When several zones (or MPAs, or designations) overlapped, only the one that conferred the strongest level of protection was kept. We found that 6.01% of the Mediterranean Sea is covered by an MPA. Interestingly, this percentage cover is similar to the global cover; the United Nations Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported 6.97% of global ocean protection as of 2017.11Sala E. Lubchenco J. Grorud-Colvert K. Novelli C. Roberts C. Sumaila U.R. Assessing real progress towards effective ocean protection.Mar. Policy. 2018; 91: 11-13Crossref Scopus (103) Google Scholar In the Mediterranean Sea, more than a fifth of this coverage is neither established nor managed, because no management plan or legal text could be found, and two-thirds lack restrictions on activities that can have an impact on biodiversity (Figure 1). Hence, for 95% of the total protected area in the Mediterranean Sea (72.6% of the MPAs), no differences exist between the regulations imposed inside the MPA compared with those outside. Full and high levels of protection, known to deliver ecological benefits,13Zupan M. Fragkopoulou E. Claudet J. Erzini K. Horta e Costa B. Gonçalves E.J. Marine partially protected areas: drivers of ecological effectiveness.Front. Ecol. Environ. 2018; 16: 381-387Crossref Scopus (48) Google Scholar cover only 0.23% of the Mediterranean Sea and represent only 3.42% of what is being protected. As the CBD's 10% target of countries' coastal and marine areas was designed to achieve conservation outcomes, most of the MPAs, if not all, should fall within these levels of protection. The conservation effort is greatly unbalanced across political boundaries since close to 97% of total marine protection, and 80% and 63% of full and high protection, respectively, lay in the European Union's waters (Figure 2A). This striking imbalance between Mediterranean European and non-European countries can be due to differences in governance frameworks, institutional structures, wealth distribution, social capital, or knowledge on the environment.23Abdulla A. Gomei M. Hyrenbach D. Notarbartolo-di-Sciara G. Agardy T. Challenges facing a network of representative marine protected areas in the Mediterranean: prioritizing the protection of underrepresented habitats.ICES J. Mar. Sci. 2009; 66: 22-28Crossref Scopus (61) Google Scholar Such a pattern can also be observed globally, where advanced economies account for two-thirds of the global system of MPAs.24Marinesque S. Kaplan D.M. Rodwell L.D. Global implementation of marine protected areas: is the developing world being left behind?.Mar. Policy. 2012; 36: 727-737Crossref Scopus (47) Google Scholar In the European Union, full and high protection cover 0.15% of countries' coastal and marine areas, whereas it is less than half that in non-European countries. Countries that protect a large part of their coastal and marine areas generally harbor large MPAs with low levels of protection (Figure 2B). The CBD Aïchi target 11 stipulates that protected areas have to be “ecologically representative.”6CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity)COP 10 Decision X/2. Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010Google Scholar In the Mediterranean, marine eco-regions25Spalding M.D. Fox H.E. Allen G.R. Davidson N. Ferdaña Z.A. Finlayson M. Halpern B.S. Jorge M.A. Lombana A. Lourie S.A. et al.Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas.Bioscience. 2007; 57: 573Crossref Scopus (1954) Google Scholar are not equally protected (Figure 2C). The Western Mediterranean is by far the most protected (8.62%), but only 1.89% of what is being protected is done so by full or high levels of protection. The Adriatic and Alboran Seas are the second most protected marine eco-regions. Aegean and Ionian Seas have similar percentage cover of protection, but full and high protection coverage vary up to three orders of magnitude. The Levantine Sea and the Tunisian plateau are the least protected ecoregions in the Mediterranean. Our results suggest that much of the Mediterranean Sea is not protected, and more than 95% of what is supposed to be protected does not convey regulations strict enough to confer any ecological benefit.13Zupan M. Fragkopoulou E. Claudet J. Erzini K. Horta e Costa B. Gonçalves E.J. Marine partially protected areas: drivers of ecological effectiveness.Front. Ecol. Environ. 2018; 16: 381-387Crossref Scopus (48) Google Scholar As in other parts of the world, where weak regulations cannot deliver ecological outcomes,16Dureuil M. Boerder K. Burnett K.A. Froese R. Worm B. Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot.Science. 2018; 362: 1403-1407Crossref PubMed Scopus (44) Google Scholar,26Magris R.A. Pressey R.L. Marine protected areas: just for show?.Science. 2018; 360: 723-724PubMed Google Scholar,27Cramp J.E. Simpfendorfer C.A. Pressey R.L. Beware silent waning of shark protection.Science. 2018; 360: 723PubMed Google Scholar or where protected areas are not properly resourced or managed,28Rife A.N. Erisman B. Sanchez A. Aburto-Oropeza O. When good intentions are not enough…insights on networks of “paper park” marine protected areas.Conserv. Lett. 2013; 6: 200-212Crossref Scopus (119) Google Scholar,29Gill D.A. Mascia M.B. Ahmadia G.N. Glew L. Lester S.E. Barnes M. Craigie I. Darling E.S. Free C.M. Geldmann J. et al.Capacity shortfalls hinder the performance of marine protected areas globally.Nature. 2017; 543: 665-669Crossref PubMed Scopus (381) Google Scholar it is important to ensure that the race to meet key biodiversity targets does not lead us to a false sense of security about appropriate actions being undertaken.30Lemieux C.J. Gray P.A. Devillers R. Wright P.A. Dearden P. Halpenny E.A. Groulx M. Beechey T.J. Beazley K. How the race to achieve Aichi Target 11 could jeopardize the effective conservation of biodiversity in Canada and beyond.Mar. Policy. 2019; 99: 312-323Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar,31Agardy T. Claudet J. Day J.C. ‘Dangerous Targets’ revisited: old dangers in new contexts plague marine protected areas.Aquat. Conserv. Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 2016; 26: 7-23Crossref Scopus (50) Google Scholar We believe that classifying MPAs according to their protection levels, as we did here, is necessary to shed light on the fact that current efforts are insufficient with respect to managing human uses of nature at sea.32Costello M.J. Ballantine B. Biodiversity conservation should focus on no-take Marine Reserves: 94% of Marine Protected Areas allow fishing.Trends Ecol. Evol. 2015; 30: 507-509Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (112) Google Scholar We hope this will translate into more action by policy makers to establish and appropriately manage MPAs with protection levels that are able to deliver tangible benefits for biodiversity conservation. Legally binding MPAs were collected from MAPAMED.22MedPAN/SPARAC-MAPAMEDMarine protected areas in the Mediterranean.https://www.mapamed.org/Date: 2018Google Scholar Fishing Restricted Areas (n = 7), Specially Protected Area of Mediterranean Importance (n = 34), and Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (n = 1) were removed. In the case of non-strictly marine MPAs (n = 46), only the marine part was kept. In the case of multiple-zone MPAs (n = 75), MPAs were considered at the zone level. We then collected information on allowed or prohibited activities from legal texts, management plans, and personal communications with MPA managers in local languages. Specific information from Natura 2000 sites was also obtained from the European Environment Agency official website (https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/natura-10), but we cross-referenced it, because in many cases it was outdated. We then classified all MPAs, or zones in the case of multiple-zone MPAs, using the regulation-based classification system.17Horta e Costa B. Claudet J. Franco G. Erzini K. Caro A. Gonçalves E.J. A regulation-based classification system for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).Mar. Policy. 2016; 72: 192-198Crossref Scopus (75) Google Scholar We thus obtained a protection level for each of the 1,062 MPAs (or 1,346 zones). In the case of MPAs with no legal text or management plan where regulations would be described, we assigned the MPAs to a non-regulated category. Existing georeferenced information in MAPAMED was used. When missing, in multiple instances, and for almost all zoning schemes in the case of multiple-zone MPAs, additional information was obtained as detailed above for the regulations. To avoid overestimating the total area covered by protection, we removed overlapping areas, keeping only those that conferred the strongest levels of protection for each overlapping layer. Exclusive Economic Zones were retrieved from Flanders Marine Institute, Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, version 10 (2018); available online at https://doi.org/10.14284/319. Mediterranean eco-regions were retrieved from Spalding et al.25Spalding M.D. Fox H.E. Allen G.R. Davidson N. Ferdaña Z.A. Finlayson M. Halpern B.S. Jorge M.A. Lombana A. Lourie S.A. et al.Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas.Bioscience. 2007; 57: 573Crossref Scopus (1954) Google Scholar All analyses were conducted using QGIS v.2.18.0 and R.33R Core TeamR: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2017Google Scholar Areas in square kilometers of the levels of protection levels per country and eco-regions can be found in Tables S1 and S2. We wish to thank MedPAN and RAC-SPA, and especially Bruno Meola and Reda Neveu, for their management of the MAPAMED database. We also thank Barbara Horta e Costa, Karim Erzini, and Emanuel Gonçalves for the role they played in the development of the Regulation-Based Classification System. We thank Jeanine Almany for editing the English. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their enthusiasm for this manuscript. J.C. designed the study. M.S., M.Z., and C.L. compiled the data. J.C., C.L., and M.S. analyzed the data. J.C. and C.L. produced the figures. J.C. wrote the manuscript. All authors approved the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Download .pdf (.47 MB) Help with pdf files Document S1. Tables S1 and S2