Special Issue "Marine Sustainability: Socio-Economic Outcomes of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs)"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability, Biodiversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bárbara Horta E Costa
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), University of Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
Interests: marine ecology; conservation; MPAs; fisheries management; protection levels; MPA effectiveness; ocean threats; MSP; climate change
Mr. Aruna Maheepala
E-Mail
Guest Editor
National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), 01500 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Interests: socio-economics study; value chain analysis; gender study; cost-benefit analysis
Dr. Carina Vieira da Silva
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Nova School of Business and Economics, Nova University of Lisbon, 2775-405 Cascavelos, Portugal
2. MARE- Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Lisbon, 3004-517 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: biodiversity conservation; economic valuation; sustainable management; stakeholders engagement; MPAs; MSP

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been widely studied in terms of their ecological outcomes. However, cultural, social, and economic impacts of MPA implementation are much less understood but are central for MPA creation and management. Recent studies are evidencing the lack of such assessments as well as the importance of understanding the outcomes of different protection measures. Protection levels are associated with different ecological results, yet they are also expected to deliver diverse social, economic, and cultural outcomes, as these often rely on ecosystems’ health. Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are areas delivering conservation outcomes, even when primary objectives are not conservation-related. These are being increasingly valued as legitimate area-based mechanisms with ecological but also social, economic, and cultural roles. OECMS are expected to markedly expand in the following years, but their range of benefits remains to be understood. This Special Issue aims to contribute evidence on social, economic, and cultural outcomes, likely relying on positive ecological results, of different protection and management regimes of MPAs and OECMs. Submitted papers can include empirical case studies, assessments, reviews, meta-analyses, and models.

Dr. Bárbara Horta E Costa
Dr. Aruna Maheepala
Dr. Carina Vieira da Silva
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • MPAs
  • OECMs
  • human well-being
  • social, economic and cultural outcomes
  • protection levels
  • ecosystem services
  • sustainable management

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Comparing the Performance of Four Very Large Marine Protected Areas with Different Levels of Protection
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9572; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179572 - 25 Aug 2021
Viewed by 245
Abstract
In the last decades, several targets for marine conservation were set to counter the effects of increasing fishing pressure, e.g., protecting 10% of the sea by 2020, and establishing large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs). Using the ‘reconstructed’ catch data for 1950 to 2018 [...] Read more.
In the last decades, several targets for marine conservation were set to counter the effects of increasing fishing pressure, e.g., protecting 10% of the sea by 2020, and establishing large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs). Using the ‘reconstructed’ catch data for 1950 to 2018 made available by the Sea Around Us initiative, we show that the declaration of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 1983 by the U.S.A. and its protection by the U.S. Coast Guard had a much bigger impact on catches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands than the subsequent creation of a LSMPA. This is similar to Pitcairn Islands, a UK territory. Trends differed sharply in the Galapagos and New Caledonia, where neither their EEZ declaration nor the LSMPA (by Ecuador in 1988 and by France in 2014) stopped local fisheries from continuous expansion. Our results also demonstrate that in the studied multizone LSMPAs continued local fishing induces a ‘fishing down’ effect wherein the mean trophic level (TL) declined, especially in the Galapagos, by 0.1 TL per decade. Stakeholders’ responses to a short questionnaire and satellite imagery lent support to these results in that they documented substantial fishing operations and ‘fishing the line’ within and around multizone LSMPAs. In the case of EEZs around less populated or unpopulated islands, banning foreign fishing may reduce catch much more than a subsequent LSMPA declaration. This confirms that EEZs are a tool for coastal countries to protect their marine biodiversity and that allowing fishing in an MPA, while politically convenient, may result in ‘paper parks’ within which fishing can cause the same deleterious effects as in wholly unprotected areas. Full article
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

1.

Temporary Title: Comparing the Performance of Four Very Large Marine Protected Areas with Different Levels of Protection

Authors:  Relano, V.; Palomares, M. L. D.; Pauly, D.

2.

Temporary Title: Artificial Reef Uses for Recreation and Tourism Purposes: Socio-Economic Outcomes of Marine Protected Areas on Fishing Communities

Authors:  Ramos, J.; Lino, P.; Esteves, E.; et al.

3.

Temporary Title: Predictors of Residents’ Knowledge about Marine Protected Areas and Ecolabelling Schemes

Authors: Ressurreição, A.; Bentes, L.; Kaiser, M.; Porteiro, F.; Gonçalves, J.; Serrão Santos, R.

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