Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis

Marine protected areas (MPAs) represent an example of nature-based solutions for the conservation and sustainable management of marine biodiversity. Despite the number of MPAs growing worldwide, many of them fail to achieve their goals, sometimes up to the point of becoming the so-called “paper park...

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Main Authors: Antonio Di Cintio, Jose Antonio Fernandes-Salvador, Riikka Puntila-Dodd, Igor Granado, Federico Niccolini, Fabio Bulleri
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Ecological Informatics
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124004217
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author Antonio Di Cintio
Jose Antonio Fernandes-Salvador
Riikka Puntila-Dodd
Igor Granado
Federico Niccolini
Fabio Bulleri
author_facet Antonio Di Cintio
Jose Antonio Fernandes-Salvador
Riikka Puntila-Dodd
Igor Granado
Federico Niccolini
Fabio Bulleri
author_sort Antonio Di Cintio
collection DOAJ
description Marine protected areas (MPAs) represent an example of nature-based solutions for the conservation and sustainable management of marine biodiversity. Despite the number of MPAs growing worldwide, many of them fail to achieve their goals, sometimes up to the point of becoming the so-called “paper parks”: protected areas without real protection or enforcement that are virtually non-existent in terms of their effectiveness in achieving the ecological and socioeconomic goals for which they have been set up. Following the Kunming–Montreal Biodiversity Agreement (COP 15), the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, global MPA coverage should increase substantially in the coming years. Hence, identifying the factors that contribute to raising the effectiveness of MPAs is pivotal to informing their planning and management. Our study introduces a model based on the Bayesian network that allows testing how different socioeconomic factors (e.g., stakeholder involvement, increased communication and enforcement) can impact the effectiveness of MPAs. The system is a user-friendly decision-support tool to quantify the contribution of each factor in the creation of a successful MPA, thus narrowing the gap between science and decision-making. We modelled the evolution of the effectiveness of MPAs under three contrasting policy-relevant scenarios based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change frameworks. Our results indicate that the highest and lowest the effectiveness of MPAs is achieved under the “global sustainability” and “national enterprise” scenarios, respectively. Our work sheds light on the complexity of the interactions among the different factors underpinning the effectiveness of MPAs and supports the growth process of MPAs at the global level on the pathway towards the sustainable exploitation of marine living resources.
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spelling doaj-art-ab079924d95949509dd75ed6919efb3b2024-12-17T04:59:13ZengElsevierEcological Informatics1574-95412024-12-0184102879Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysisAntonio Di Cintio0Jose Antonio Fernandes-Salvador1Riikka Puntila-Dodd2Igor Granado3Federico Niccolini4Fabio Bulleri5Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, CoNISMa, Via Derna 1, 56126 Pisa, Italy; Corresponding author.AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Herrera Kaia, Portualdea z/g, 20110 Pasaia, SpainEnvironmental and Marine Sciences, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland; Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, FinlandAZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Herrera Kaia, Portualdea z/g, 20110 Pasaia, SpainDipartimento di Scienze Politiche, University of Pisa, Via Serafini 3, 56126 Pisa, ItalyDipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, CoNISMa, Via Derna 1, 56126 Pisa, ItalyMarine protected areas (MPAs) represent an example of nature-based solutions for the conservation and sustainable management of marine biodiversity. Despite the number of MPAs growing worldwide, many of them fail to achieve their goals, sometimes up to the point of becoming the so-called “paper parks”: protected areas without real protection or enforcement that are virtually non-existent in terms of their effectiveness in achieving the ecological and socioeconomic goals for which they have been set up. Following the Kunming–Montreal Biodiversity Agreement (COP 15), the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, global MPA coverage should increase substantially in the coming years. Hence, identifying the factors that contribute to raising the effectiveness of MPAs is pivotal to informing their planning and management. Our study introduces a model based on the Bayesian network that allows testing how different socioeconomic factors (e.g., stakeholder involvement, increased communication and enforcement) can impact the effectiveness of MPAs. The system is a user-friendly decision-support tool to quantify the contribution of each factor in the creation of a successful MPA, thus narrowing the gap between science and decision-making. We modelled the evolution of the effectiveness of MPAs under three contrasting policy-relevant scenarios based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change frameworks. Our results indicate that the highest and lowest the effectiveness of MPAs is achieved under the “global sustainability” and “national enterprise” scenarios, respectively. Our work sheds light on the complexity of the interactions among the different factors underpinning the effectiveness of MPAs and supports the growth process of MPAs at the global level on the pathway towards the sustainable exploitation of marine living resources.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124004217EU biodiversity strategyNature-based solutionsStakeholder engagementScenarios
spellingShingle Antonio Di Cintio
Jose Antonio Fernandes-Salvador
Riikka Puntila-Dodd
Igor Granado
Federico Niccolini
Fabio Bulleri
Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
Ecological Informatics
EU biodiversity strategy
Nature-based solutions
Stakeholder engagement
Scenarios
title Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
title_full Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
title_fullStr Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
title_full_unstemmed Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
title_short Socio-economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas: A Bayesian network analysis
title_sort socio economic factors boosting the effectiveness of marine protected areas a bayesian network analysis
topic EU biodiversity strategy
Nature-based solutions
Stakeholder engagement
Scenarios
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124004217
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