David Rodríguez-Rodríguez

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at University of Malaga

This study aims to provide a scientific basis for the assessment of the effectiveness of different tools from coastal conservation policies across the Mediterranean Basin, namely the ICZM Protocol for coastal conservation and protected areas for the conservation of biodiversity, based on new data and previous studies.

With few individual exceptions, specific human communities or minority philosophical currents, the prevailing moral paradigm regarding the relationship of human beings with the rest of the species has been and is clearly anthropocentric, of a purely utilitarian nature. It considers humans as the owners of the World and everything that inhabits it,...

What are we actually doing to avert the biological catastrophe we are deep into? Generically speaking, there are two types of biodiversity conservation strategies: in situ conservation; i.e., conservation in the places where biodiversity lives; and ex situ conservation, which means conservation of biodiversity outside the places where it exists nat...

Homo sapiens must abandon naturally unfounded and selfish speciesist attitudes and consider other species not as inferior, nor, in the more fortunate cases, as objects of law, but as full subjects of rights. This entails a revolution, yes; but a long-needed and sensible one. A revolution to reinstate Homo sapiens within the Great Family of Life whe...

The Industrial Revolution, with its halo of progress and well-being, marks the beginning of the global decline of biodiversity, the absolute reign of one species over all others, the beginning of a new geological era called the Anthropocene.

An unexpected character will tell us show his life changed dramatically as a result of human activity.

Where does my family end? At my parents and siblings? At my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins? At my in-laws? At my second cousins? At my friends? At my neighbours? At humans? At apes, mammals, animals…? In fact, we can continue to extend the concept of kinship to the most distant and modest bacterium, which descends, like Homo sapiens, from...

An original little friend will tell us how his live in Global Harmony with other species is.

The human species is one of an estimated nine million species that inhabit Planet Earth. Homo sapiens has been on the face of the Earth for just over 200,000 years, but in that short span of geological time since the beginning of life, estimated at 3.7 billion years, it has emerged as the main factor transforming the Planet… and the life that inhab...

An empiricist would say that instead of God creating man in his own image and likeness, it was man who created God (especially the modern Gods) in his own image and likeness. Thus, by becoming the lord and master of nature, by placing itself at the top of Creation and decoupling its wellbeing from that of the rest of biodiversity, Homo sapiens gave...

The planet we inhabit, the Earth, has unique physical and chemical characteristics that allow it to boast a unique feature in the entire Solar System, and perhaps even in the entire Universe: the ability to support life. The existence of liquid fresh water, moderate sunshine and an average temperature of 14 degrees Celsius make the Earth an ideal e...

How much is a red mullet worth? If you go to the fishmonger’s, you will see that its price is around 12 Euros per kilo, so a hundred grams of red mullet (a small red mullet) cost €1.2. Is that all the value of the red mullet? In fact, the example of the red mullet is relatively straightforward, given that it is a commercial species. What about a he...

Increased conservation action to protect more habitat and species is fueling a vigorous debate about the relative effectiveness of different sorts of protected areas. Here we review the literature that compares the effectiveness of protected areas managed by states and areas managed by Indigenous peoples and/or local communities. We argue that thes...

This book addresses the effectiveness of existing protected areas in conserving the diversity of genes, species and ecosystems on land and at sea. The book synthetizes the main biodiversity conservation outcomes of protected areas in the 2010-2019 decade, drawing on a systematic literature review of scientific publications and case studies from aro...

The Mediterranean Basin is a heavily pressured World biodiversity hotspot. Mediterranean coastal areas are especially threatened due to tourism, inland migration and population growth, jeopardizing the remaining natural habitats. Protected areas (PAs) aim to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long term. Here, we assessed whether co...

Forests have extraordinary importance for the conservation of endemic species in Madagascar. However, they are disappearing fast due to a number of pressures, notably unsustainable agricultural practices leading to aggravated status of biodiversity. Here, we used a number of ecological and spatial criteria to identify and prioritise unprotected for...

A systematic literature review (SLR) of scientific articles on the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve biodiversity in the 2010–2019 decade using Scopus was done. Only studies that used Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI-type) research designs and at least one marine biodiversity indicator were included. The 23 studies include...

Protected areas (PAs) aim to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long term. Despite remarkable growth in the area covered by PAs in recent years, biodiversity trends still show worrisome outcomes. Here, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of scientific articles focusing on the ecological effectiveness of PAs that were...

Biodiversity is the diversity of life on Earth. Until now, biodiversity makes the single most distinguishing factor of planet Earth: its capacity to harbour life. That extraordinary diversity of life in the form of genes, species and ecosystems, so far unique in the entire universe, is called ‘biodiversity’. Since the Industrial Revolution, the Ear...

Different studies have shown that, despite the rise in PA numbers and coverage worldwide, the global deterioration of biodiversity has not been stopped. Are PAs adequately fulfilling their mission of conserving biodiversity? That is the key question that PA effectiveness assessment / evaluation (PAME) seeks to answer. PA evaluation methods can be c...

Protected areas (PAs) are thought by some to contribute to local wellbeing and socioeconomic development, whereas for others PAs remain a regulatory burden that hampers rural development. Here, we sought to ascertain the perceived causes of rural depopulation and the potential impact of four Natura 2000 sites on the wellbeing and depopulation figur...

Protected areas (PAs) are the main global policy instrument to avert the current biodiversity crisis by conserving important species and habitats on site. Yet important pressures around PAs and in PAs, notably land use-land cover (LULC) changes, jeopardise the conservation role of these tools. In Spain, as well as in most developed countries, land...

We used a systematic literature review (SLR) as a rigorous, standardized methodology to compile existing scientific evidence on the conservation effects of PAs in a comprehensive, consistent and reproducible manner. We developed a written review protocol aimed at enhancing methodological consistency at selecting relevant articles for review and col...

PAs are the main, most widely used conservation tool to address the loss of biodiversity globally. Most environmental protection agreements include PAs as a possible or mandatory measure to enhance the status of biodiversity. In 2010, the CBD’s Conference of the Parties approved the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and agreed on global con...

Global concern on the serious impacts of humans on the natural environment has crystallised in a number of international conventions and agreements. Such agreements contain several commitments and recommendations aimed at different stakeholders, chiefly national governments, at different spatial scales. Those commitments and recommendations can be...

In this Chapter, results from the systematic literature review including 1,221,798 (M)PAs in 76 studies are shown. Five thematic research questions and one methodological research question are answered: 1. Are PAs effective at conserving biodiversity?; 2. What indicators, realms, biodiversity types, regions and countries have been assessed most?; 3...

(M)PAs help to conserve biodiversity. They are, however, just part of the solution to the current environmental crisis that characterizes the Anthropocene. If the current trends of biodiversity continue, we are shortly facing a dramatic decline of life on Earth that is already under way. If we aim to truly reverse ecological degradation, we need to...

Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are new conservation tools intended to complement protected areas (PAs) at achieving effective biodiversity conservation and meeting international area-based targets. However, OECMs have been rarely considered in practical terms until recently. Here, we performed a rapid evaluation on the deg...

Protected areas (PAs) seek to conserve valuable genes, species and ecosystems by applying a legal regime that restricts some socioeconomic activities and also offers opportunities for new ones. As a result, PAs have been claimed by some authors to boost socioeconomic conditions in rural areas mainly through tourism activities. However, others have...

Los ecosistemas litorales están fuertemente amenazados por el aumento del nivel del mar, las inundaciones y la litoralización de la población. Aunque se ha intensificado el esfuerzo por declarar áreas protegidas costeras, estas quedan fragmentadas en teselas circundadas por territorios artificalizados. La conectividad entre estas áreas protegidas e...

This Data Sheet shows the raw data and normalized data for the fifteen selected indicators. Its description is detailed in the file "Supplementary material_SM1.pdf". They are grouped into three indices that represent each of the dimensions of sustainability (environmental ENSI, economic ECSI, and social SOSI). The Excel file contains the calculatio...

Figure A1. Maps of municipal sustainability in the SIZs within NPs in the Mediterranean region and their buffer zones. From top to bottom: (Cabañeros to the west and Tablas de Daimiel to the east; Doñana; Sierra de Guadarrama; Monfragüe; Sierra Nevada and Archipiélago de Cabrera) and from left to right (environmental, economic and social sustainabi...

Figure A2. Maps of municipal sustainability in the SIZs in NPs in the Alpine, Atlantic and Macaronesian regions and in their buffer areas. From top to bottom: (Aigüestores y Estany de San Maurici; Ordesa y Monte Perdido; Picos de Europa; Islas Atlánticas de Galicia e Islas Canarias: from west to east Caldera de Taburiente, Garajonay, Teide and Tima...

Figure 3. Maps of municipal sustainability of Spanish NPs and their surroundings, grouped by biogeographic regions: Atlantic (top left), Alpine (top right), Mediterranean (centre and bottom left) and Macaronesian (bottom right). For each park simplified values are shown for environmental

We performed an initial selection of 42 environmental, economic, social, and municipal planning indicators (see Supplementary Material SM1). We then carried out an initial survey among experts from different areas of knowledge and specializations. We then organized a workshop to present the list of pre-selected indicators to a group of experts with...

It is usually considered that Protected Areas (PAs) are an efficient tool for policies to conserve biodiversity. However, there is evidence that some pressures and threats arise from processes taking place both inside them and in their surroundings territories—habitat loss, changes in land use, fragmentation of natural ecosystems. In this paper, we...

Oceans are already facing this reality and the Mediterranean Sea has been on the verge of “burn out” for decades now. Unsustainable uses of the sea and broken governance have put to danger the health and prosperity of the Mediterranean for future generations. Not only do we risk losing the diversity of the region’s biodiversity, but we also threate...

Healthy marine ecosystems provide a variety of ecosystem services crucial for human wellbeing. Effectively managed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly recognized to be an effective measure to protect endangered species and ensuring healthier ecosystems. This study assesses the environmental effectiveness of the Spanish Marine Reserve Net...

Natural habitat fragmentation in and isolation of protected areas (PAs) are two ancillary but common threats that may have serious consequences to biodiversity conservation in the long term. They were assessed in four PA networks of diverse legal and managerial regimes across a highly biodiverse country, Spain, between 1987 and 2006, a period of in...

Science is believed to provide the most objective basis for effective decision-making, though it is rarely implemented in environmental management. Here we reflect on the results of a regional workshop aimed at exploring the knowledge and use of scientific evidence by environmental managers in an ecologically diverse region in southern Spain: Andal...

Concebidas como paradigmas de la sostenibilidad, las áreas protegidas tienen como objetivo prioritario la conservación de la biodiversidad. Pero son diversos y variados los procesos que amenazan a estos espacios naturales: su fragmentación por la expansión de las zonas urbanas y la construcción de infraestructuras viarias, su aislamiento, el cambio...

Effective protected area (PA) conservation relies heavily on positive social perception, attitude and values, especially by the stakeholders most affected by PA regulations. Random samples of residents around (n = 401) and quota samples of visitors to (n = 542) two emblematic, environmentally similar National Parks (NPs) in Spain: Ordesa y Monte Pe...

Impacts of the legal designation of protected areas (PAs) may have contrasting implications for different stakeholders, and at different spatial scales. In this study, we analysed the organisational perception on the socioeconomic effects of PA designation from all sectors of activity in Spain, accounting for PAs’ legal stringency. A semi-structure...

Protected areas (PAs) aim at safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long-term. Despite the remarkable growth in area covered by PAs in recent years, biodiversity trends continue to worsen as a result of serious global pressures such as habitat destruction and degradation. One main cause of habitat destruction and degradation is lan...

Protected areas are entrusted long-term biodiversity conservation, but measures of their effectiveness are limited, methodologically diverse and, sometimes, of improvable accuracy. Using a semi-experimental BACI research design, this study assesses the environmental effectiveness of two highly related multiple-use protected area (PA) categories of...

Spain has experienced massive recent socioeconomic changes that have had an influence on biodiversity and landscapes through land use-land cover (LULC) changes. Protected areas (PAs) seek to conserve biodiversity by establishing a legal and, sometimes, managerial regime that forbids or restricts LULC changes that are damaging to biodiversity. Here,...

The designation of protected areas (PAs) entails environmental, social, and economic effects to local stakeholders through access restriction to natural resources. We used a mixed methods research framework that combines time series analysis and stakeholder surveys to elicit objective and subjective effects of legal and managerial designation of Si...

Human development has made remarkable social and economic progress possible for most ofus [1,2], but has also entailed a range of negative consequences on natural resources, local communities, and the economy at multiple scales. Soil sealing [3–5], erosion, land degradation and erosion [6], air and water pollution [7,8], forest fires [9], biodivers...

National Parks (NPs) were the first protected areas (PAs) designated in Spain one century ago. NPs are PAs of exceptional natural and cultural value that are representative of the Spanish natural heritage. Currently, there are 15 NPs in Spain covering almost 400,000 ha, although new site designations are being considered. Spanish NPs’ main objecti...

Land use-land cover (LULC) changes towards artificial covers are one of the main global threats to biodiversity conservation. In this comprehensive study, we tested a number of methodological and research hypotheses, and a new covariate control technique in order to address common protected area (PA) assessment issues and accurately assess whether...

The main global strategy to stop biodiversity loss is the designation of protected areas (PAs). Spain is a highly biodiverse country. It has one of the world's greatest terrestrial PA coverages. However, the status of its biodiversity is delicate as a result of serious pressures, and some important areas for biodiversity are outside PAs. We used of...

Fishing Reserves (FRs) are primarily designated for the enhancement of local fisheries and, secondarily, for biodiversity conservation. In Spain, FRs are considered marine protected areas (MPAs) and included in the country's MPA network. MPAs’ ecological effectiveness is linked to a number of legal, managerial and bio-physical factors. With the amo...

Land use-land cover (LULC) changes and wildfires in the Spanish Network of terrestrial National Parks (NPs) and their legally designated peripheral areas, including Peripheral Protection Zones (PPZs) and Socioeconomic Influence Zones (SIZs), were assessed as indicators of recent territorial environmental sustainability trends. Level three, Corine L...

As global biodiversity trends worsen, protected area (PA) environmental effectiveness needs to be assessed to identify strengths and areas to improve. Through a participatory process including PA managers and scientists, we refined the System for the Integrated Assessment of Protected Areas (SIAPA), in order to increase its legitimacy, credibility...

In our crowded and popular Mediterranean coastline, people are almost always somehow connected to Marine Protected Areas. Local populations, tourists, businesses, tourism operators... all can be impacted by conservation measures. The success of our MPAs then directly depends on how well socio economic realities are taken into account. In return, th...

Spain has a high potential for renewable energy production, being the world's third country by installed on-shore wind power. However, it has not yet fully developed its renewable energy production capacity, with no commercial offshore wind production to date, and remains highly dependent on fossil fuel imports. The country is also one of Europe's...

Mediterranean marine protected area (MPA) design patterns regarding geographic distribution, size, spacing and shape were analysed as a proxy of the region's MPA's ecological effectiveness and a first step towards an ecologically coherent MPA network. Results for legally designated MPAs and ecologically functional MPAs accounting for overlaps are...

The System for the Integrated Assessment of Protected Areas (SIAPA) was developed as a tool to improve our knowledge on the status and trends of protected biodiversity. In order to increase SIAPA's salience and use, representatives of the main managerial and scientific protected area (PA) institutions of Spain were surveyed using a structured quest...

Aim: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states the need to effectively conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas of particular importance for biodiversity by 2020. Here, a new indicator-based methodological framework to assess biodiversity protection afforded by marine protected areas' (MPA) was developed as a quick surrogate for...

Although several conventions and policies are in place in the region, until now the Mediterranean has lacked region-wide environmental monitoring mechanisms that are both effective and adequately implemented. As a result, it is essential to use up-to-date and consistent data to assess trends in socio-economic activities and the impacts of these dri...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly regarded as socio-ecological systems. In addition to their reported ecological effects, MPAs may have important social, economic and cultural effects on local communities and marine and coastal stakeholders. Those effects should be considered within an ecosystem approach to MPA planning, designation an...

This study classifies Mediterranean marine protected areas (MPAs) according to the combined result of pressure level and protection. Six major marine environment pressures were considered: pressures from fish farms, fishing, marine litter, pressures from marinas, pollution from maritime transport, and climate change. MPA protection was assessed thr...

Most cities are not self-sufficient in terms of supply and demand of urban ecosystem services (UES) which creates important social, economic and environmental problems at different scales. Cities have enormous potential to reduce pressures on the environment while enhancing wellbeing for their inhabitants by acting both on the UES supply and demand...

The designation of marine protected areas (MPAs) may have intense social and economic effects on human communities. Driven by overarching global and European policies and national legislations, current systematic conservation planning in the UK and France requires an ecosystem approach that takes into account not only nature but also the human acti...

Protected areas are regarded as the main strategy to halt biodiversity loss; however, protected area effectiveness evaluations remain scarce and mostly rely on limited scientific evidence. Protected area managers from two case studies in the Mediterranean basin biodiversity hotspot (networks of Spanish terrestrial protected areas and individual Med...

The long-term conservation of biodiversity and related ecosystems goods and services of the Autonomous Region of Madrid is jeopardized by the intensive resource-consuming development model followed by the region in the past few decades. This paper presents the aggregated results of the first integrated assessment of the protected areas of the Auton...

Las áreas protegidas se consideran la principal estrategia para la conservación de la biodiversidad. Por ello, han visto incrementado su número y extensión exponencialmente desde mediados del siglo XX, hasta llegar a abarcar aproximadamente un 13% de la superficie terrestre mundial. En consecuencia, la conservación de la biodiversidad y de sus serv...

a b s t r a c t Protected areas' overall goal is to achieve the long-term conservation of natural and associated cul-tural goods and services. However, effective long-term conservation of natural and associated cultural resources cannot always be guaranteed by a protection regime or even by effective management, as it is usually assumed. The ultima...

This paper examines issues surrounding littering in protected areas (PAs), one of the most ubiquitous and conspicuous impacts of tourism activity. In addition to obvious visual, landscape-affecting impacts, litter may have hazardous consequences for biodiversity and humans. In order to precisely assess littering in a densely populated region with h...

Just like many other natural areas in urban, industrialised regions worldwide, the protected areas of the Autonomous Region of Madrid suffer from two main threats which can compromise long-term biodiversity conservation: land use changes towards artificial uses and massive tourism pressure. To address both threats and achieve effective sustainable...

With some exceptions, local populations’ opinions are not considered sufficiently important in developing policies related to protected areas (PAs), despite their recognized effect on conservation and management. This paper surveys the views and the activities performed by residents living inside or near the 10 PAs of the densely-populated, industr...

Mountain areas are of great importance to biodiversity conservation. Also, they have long been reputed as the last remnants of virgin, unspoiled nature. In this paper, we assess the degree of human impact on mountain ecosystems through the Human Influence Index (HII), using it as a proxy to estimate the degree of threat to mountain biodiversity. We...

In situ conservation strategies failed by protecting only some areas on diverse criteria, and leaving the rest of the territory without any form of development control or regulation. We should change (have changed, long ago) our way of thinking and practicing conservation. Conservation should be global, literally. I mean that the entire Biosphere s...

Through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the world’s governments recently adopted a target to protect “at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water areas” by 2020. One of the CBD’s thematic programmes of work focuses on mountains, given their importance for biodiversity and other ecosystem services, and their vulnerability to global ch...