Challenges facing a network of representative marine protected areas in the Mediterranean: prioritizing the protection of underrepresented habitats

Abstract

Abstract Abdulla, A., Gomei, M., Hyrenbach, D., Notarbartolo-di-Sciara, G., and Agardy, T. 2009. Challenges facing a network of representative marine protected areas in the Mediterranean: prioritizing the protection of underrepresented habitats. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 22–28. The high endemism of the Mediterranean Sea provides strong motivation to develop a comprehensive plan for the conservation of its biodiversity and the management of its marine resources. Increasingly, this ecosystem-level approach calls for a comprehensive network of marine protected areas (MPAs) representative of the richness and diversity of this shared basin. Today, Mediterranean MPAs do not represent the diverse geography and habitats in the region. Despite a recent declaration on trawling restrictions in deep waters (>1000 m), there are no true deep-sea Mediterranean MPAs. All but one (98.9%) of the 94 marine areas currently under some type of protection or management are coastal. Moreover, 69 (73.4%) are located along the basin's northern shore, highlighting the lack of MPAs in the south and east coasts. Yet, these underrepresented regions and habitats are ecologically distinctive by virtue of their particular oceanographic and biogeographic conditions. We identify several obstacles to Mediterranean MPA implementation and discuss how they can be overcome through strategic MPA network planning, contending that regional disparities in governance, institutional structures, wealth distribution, social capital, and availability of ecological data are responsible for discrepancies in the establishment and effectiveness of MPAs in this region.