Actions for Marine Protected Areas
In the Mediterranean Sea, the intensive use of maritime space calls for integrated management to avoid cumulative impacts and user conflicts. Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) – the harmonization of human activities in marine areas - is advocated as a powerful approach to reach these goals. However, most Mediterranean countries have not yet gone through this process. The objectives of this project are 1- to develop shared methodologies and geospatial tools for multiple stressors assessment, coordinated environmental monitoring, multi criteria analyses and stakeholders' engagements; 2- to translate these guidelines into concrete pilot actions and coordinated strategies in selected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to solve hot spots of conflicts affecting marine biodiversity and the services it provides. Transnational cooperation and regulations, development of coordinated best practices to deal with present and future drivers of changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services, coordinated monitoring, data access to share information and concrete stakeholder and users’ involvement are the expected results. The final aim is to scale up strategies and recommendations at transnational level adopting an ecosystem-based approach to MSP considering the goals of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) across MPAs. MPA managers, public institutions, and key stakeholders working within the MPAs will benefit from the results of the project.