Author(s): Horta E Costa, Barbara ; Gonçalves, Jorge Manuel Santos ; Franco, Gustavo ; Erzini, Karim ; Furtado, Ricardo ; Mateus, Celia ; Cadeireiro, Emilia ; Goncalves, Emanuel Joao
Date: 2019
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/14231
Origin: Sapientia - Universidade do Algarve
Subject(s): Take marine reserves; Areas; Outcomes
Current international commitments on ocean protection targets include protecting 10% of the ocean through marine protected areas (MPAs) until 2020, while also complying with efficiency and equity requirements. This has led to a race to designate large MPAs, but despite the valid marine conservation efforts, conferring adequate protection is still at risk. While fully protected areas are considered the most efficient tools to effectively protect the integrity of ecosystems, most existing or proposed MPAs are far from being fully or strongly protected. Portugal, with the 20th largest EEZ of the world is well positioned to lead ocean conservation efforts and provides a suitable case study for analysis of protection conferred by existing MPAs. To this end, Portuguese MPAs were assessed according to different types of classification systems and it was found that most MPAs confer little or no additional protection compared to outside areas. The results differ according to the classification system used, revealing the importance of finding a common system for evaluating progress in ocean conservation. The relevance of adequately labelling and understanding the levels of protection in place is demonstrated. Not differentiating the type of protection conferred by MPA regulations, while rushing towards international targets, may give a potentially false impression to society.
