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The number of marine protected areas (MPAs) has grown exponentially worldwide over the past decade in order to meet international targets. Most of these protected areas allow extraction of resources and are therefore designated as “partially protected areas” (PPAs). However, the effectiveness of PPAs remains unclear due to the high variability of use types permitted. Here, we carried out what we believe to be the first global meta-analysis of PPAs using a regulation-based classification system for MPAs to assess their ecological effectiveness. This novel classification allows for unambiguous differentiation between areas according to allowed use, which is the key feature determining PPA performance. Highly and moderately regulated areas exhibited higher biomass and abundance of commercial fish species, whereas fish abundance and biomass in weakly regulated areas differed little from unprotected areas. Notably, the effectiveness of moderately regulated areas can be enhanced by the presence of an adjacent fully protected area. We concluded that limited and well-regulated uses in PPAs and the presence of an adjacent fully protected area confer ecological benefits, from which socioeconomic advantages are derived.
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© The Ecological Society of America Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934
RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 1
Front Ecol Environ 2018; 16(7): 1–7, doi:10.1002/fee.1934
Coastal zones around the world are increasingly subjected
to human and environmental pressures and are in need of
strategic management (Halpern et al. 2015). The establishment
of marine protected areas (MPAs) is a commonly used tool for
improving conservation, food security, and fisheries manage-
ment (Gaines et al. 2010). The ecological effects of fully
protected areas (ie no- take areas) are well studied, and the
abundance and size of species are usually enhanced within (eg
Claudet et al. 2008; Edgar et al. 2014) and in some cases out-
side of (eg Caselle et al. 2015) these areas. MPAs also support
the recovery of populations and communities of fish and other
marine taxa and can preserve habitat structure (Sandin et al.
2008).
The establishment of fully protected areas has often resulted
in conflicts between conservation and socioeconomic objec-
tives, especially in areas with numerous users and types of uses
(Fox et al. 2011). As such, the implementation of partially pro-
tected areas (PPAs), in which some extractive activities may be
allowed, has in some cases become a preferable option, given
that PPAs can provide a better balance between social and eco-
logical objectives, and may be easier to implement.
Simultaneously, in response to international agreements and
commitments, more and more MPAs are being established,
most of which are PPAs of one type or another (Lubchenco
and Grorud- Colvert 2015). It is therefore urgent to identify
which forms of partial protection can provide socioeconomic
benefits while still protecting biodiversity.
PPAs are context- dependent, and their regulations vary
with management objectives; in turn, regulations will likely
affect their ecological effectiveness. Only a handful of studies
have examined the effects of different levels of partial protec-
tion (eg Di Franco et al. 2009; Sciberras et al. 2013; Ban et al.
2014), none of which have been based on a systematic classifi-
cation for these different levels, leading to variable results that
are difficult to generalize. Sciberras et al. (2013), for instance,
broadly characterized three types of PPAs based on replies to a
survey questionnaire that included somewhat subjective ques-
tions (eg whether an activity damages the bottom, targets par-
ticular species, or affects other species); moreover, the study
did not account for such factors as aquaculture, bottom
exploitation, and other non- extractive activities (eg anchoring)
that may impact the marine habitat.
Ban et al. (2014) re- analyzed the dataset used by Sciberras
et al. (2013) but used the International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) categories of protected areas instead (see
Table 1 in Ban et al. 2014); however, the current IUCN classifica-
tion system is based on management objectives that can be mis-
matched to regulations, resulting in considerable uncertainty
when evaluating MPA effectiveness (Horta e Costa et al. 2016).
In fact, when correlating IUCN categories with the expected
impacts of activities, there is a high degree of variability among,
and overlap between, categories. There is also no clear trend
between the expected cumulative impacts of activities and the
IUCN classification scheme, from more restricted (Ia) to less
restricted (V or VI) categories (Horta e Costa et al. 2016).
A recently published regulation- based classification system
for MPAs, that of Horta e Costa et al. (2016), presents a new
Marine partially protected areas: drivers of
ecological effectiveness
Mirta Zupan1†, Eliza Fragkopoulou1,2†, Joachim Claudet3,4, Karim Erzini2, Bárbara Horta e Costa1,2,3,4, and
Emanuel J Gonçalves1*
The number of marine protected areas (MPAs) has grown exponentially worldwide over the past decade in order to meet interna-
tional targets. Most of these protected areas allow extraction of resources and are therefore designated as “partially protected
areas” (PPAs). However, the effectiveness of PPAs remains unclear due to the high variability of use types permitted. Here, we
carried out what we believe to be the first global meta- analysis of PPAs using a regulation- based classification system for MPAs to
assess their ecological effectiveness. This novel classification allows for unambiguous differentiation between areas according to
allowed use, which is the key feature determining PPA performance. Highly and moderately regulated areas exhibited higher bio-
mass and abundance of commercial fish species, whereas fish abundance and biomass in weakly regulated areas differed little from
unprotected areas. Notably, the effectiveness of moderately regulated areas can be enhanced by the presence of an adjacent fully
protected area. We concluded that limited and well- regulated uses in PPAs and the presence of an adjacent fully protected area
confer ecological benefits, from which socioeconomic advantages are derived.
1MARE Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ISPA – Instituto
Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal *(emanuel@ispa.pt); 2Centre of Marine
Sciences, CCMAR, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro,
Portugal; 3National Center for Scientific Research, PSL Université Paris,
CRIOBE, USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD, Maison des Océans, Paris,
France; 4Laboratoire d’Excellence CORAIL, Moorea, French Polynesia
these authors contributed equally to this work
Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934 © The Ecological Society of America
M Zupan et al.
2 RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
way to categorize both MPAs and each type of zone within
them according to allowed commercial and recreational uses
(WebFigure 1). In this system, PPAs are classified based on the
cumulative impacts of allowed activities.
Understanding the ecological responses of various types of
partial protection is essential, since most MPAs are multiple-
use and the ecological effects that each PPA provides are likely
linked to different regulatory regimes (Fox et al. 2011). In this
paper, we present a novel approach to investigate and infer how
varying levels of partial protection lead to varying ecological
effects through a global meta- analysis. We also examine how
design characteristics that are known to influence the effec-
tiveness of no- take areas, such as protected area age and size
(Claudet et al. 2008), or that are specific to multiple- use MPAs,
such as the presence of an adjacent fully protected area, may
also mediate the effectiveness of partial protection.
Methods and materials
Data selection: response variables and covariates
We built our database from studies compiled by Sciberras
et al. (2013) and Horta e Costa et al. (2016), updated with
recent peer- reviewed literature obtained via a database search
following the methods of Sciberras et al. (2013). We limited
our analyses to studies that reported values for abundance
and/or biomass of nsh species targeted by sheries, as
they are directly aected by the protection regimes. In order
to qualify, studies must also have included a comparison
of these ecological variables between PPAs and surrounding
open areas, which we will refer to hereaer as “unprotected
areas”. We only retained studies that reported ecological
responses for a particular PPA when they were compared
to unprotected areas, but not in cases where biological
responses were aggregated for an entire multiple- use MPA
with varied regulations. Studies that reported ecological
responses for PPAs with dierent protection levels within
the same MPA were included separately in the database,
because they represented dierent types of partial protection.
In cases where more than one study investigated the eects
of protection, only the most recent was retained, unless
dierent metrics were used among the studies. Although it
would have been important to assess eects on the overall
biodiversity of these areas, data for non- target species were
not suciently available across studies to allow for a detailed
analysis.
The studies had to report the mean of the response variable
(abundance and/or biomass), sample size (eg number of tran-
sects), and an appropriate error measure (eg variance). If the
study assessed abundance and biomass of targeted fish species
over some other variables (eg depth, habitat types), data were
averaged for each variable. When data were collected over time,
only the most recent results were extracted, as they represented
the longest duration of protection; however, when data were
reported several times within a year, results were averaged for
that year to minimize seasonal effects associated with sampling
period. Similarly, when data were reported for multiple tar-
geted species (k), we calculated the overall mean (
̄
X
) and
standard deviation (SD) for the study as:
and
where
̄x
is the mean biomass or abundance for species j,
and SD and ni are the standard deviation and sample sizes
(eg number of transects) associated with ̄
xj
.
As mentioned, we classified each PPA based on the system
described by Horta e Costa et al. (2016), in which each area
type allows different activities. Five classes of PPAs were iden-
tified: (1) highly regulated, (2) moderately regulated, (3)
weakly regulated, (4) very weakly regulated, and (5) unregu-
lated (WebFigure 1). Highly regulated areas were defined as
those allowing only a limited number (five maximum) of low-
impact types of fishing gear (eg lines, octopus trap), moder-
ately regulated areas were defined as those that allow more (up
to ten) low- to medium- impact fishing gear types (eg gillnets),
and weakly regulated areas were defined as those in which
higher- impact gear types (eg beach seines, bottom trawling,
trammel nets) were permitted.
We recorded the age (years since establishment) and size of
each PPA, as well as the presence or absence of an adjacent
fully protected area (when side by side with a PPA and part of
a multiple- use MPA). We also scored the capacity to imple-
ment regulations using an index for fisheries management
effectiveness (Mora et al. 2009) at the national level as a proxy
for enforcement of fishing regulations in MPAs. Values ranged
from 0 to 1, with 0 representing low enforcement capacity and
1 representing high enforcement capacity.
The final database consisted of 26 peer- reviewed research
articles and 49 case studies worldwide (WebTable 1). Of the
PPAs included in the 49 case studies, 24 were characterized as
highly regulated, 17 as moderately regulated, seven as weakly
regulated, and one as very weakly regulated. We restricted our
analysis to the first three classes.
Meta- analysis
We used a weighted random- eects meta- analysis to assess
the ecological eectiveness of PPAs. e eect size Ri for
each area i was modeled as a natural logarithm (ln) response
ratio of the mean (
̄
Xi
) abundance or biomass estimates
measured within and outside the PPA (Osenberg et al. 1997;
Hedges et al. 1999):
(Eq 1)
̄
X
=
k
j=1nj
̄xj
k
j
=
1
nj
(Eq 2),
SD
=
1
k
2
k
j=1
SD2
j
(Eq 3),
R
i=ln
(̄
XPPAi
̄
XUPA
i)
© The Ecological Society of America Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934
Marine partially protected areas RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 3
where
̄
XPPA
and
̄
XUPA
are the mean abundance/biomass within
and outside the PPA of study i, respectively. e variance
vi of the eect sizes (ie the within- study variance) was cal-
culated as follows:
where
̄
XPPA
and
̄
XUPA
are the mean abundance/biomass within
and outside the PPA of study i, respectively; SDPPA and
SDUPA are the standard deviations associated with
̄
XPPA
and
̄
XUPA
of study i, respectively; and nPPA and nUPA are the
sample sizes of study i for the estimation of the mean (eg
number of transects). As in traditional random- eects meta-
analyses, our weights wi included both the within- and
among- study variances, and were calculated as follows:
where vi is dened as above and vA is the among- study
variance.
The overall effect of partial protection was calculated as a
weighted average of the effect sizes:
where wi and Ri are dened above. e overall heterogeneity
(Qt) was calculated as:
and its signicance was tested against the χ2 distribution
with ni – 1 degrees of freedom.
We used weighted general linear (mixed- effects) models to
examine how different features impact the ecological effective-
ness of PPAs. We first investigated if different types of areas
exhibited different levels of ecological responses. For a given class
category, weighted cumulative effect sizes were calculated as:
where nc is the number of PPAs belonging to class c, and Ri
and wi are dened as above. e heterogeneity of the model
explained by the class (Qm) was calculated as follows:
where m is the number of classes
̄
R
, and
̄
Rc
is calculated
as above. e signicance of Qm was tested against the χ2
distribution with nc – 1 degrees of freedom.
In addition, we ran models to assess if different features were
mediating the response to protection, namely (1) the age of the
protected area, (2) the size of the protected area (measured in
square kilometers and log- transformed in the analyses), (3) the
capacity to implement regulations, and (4) the presence/
absence of an adjacent fully protected area. We ran mixed-
effects categorical analyses for categorical variables and applied
meta- analytic regression through linear mixed- effects models
to the continuous variables. In addition, interaction models
between classes and each of the features were also tested
(WebTable 2). All statistical analyses were performed with R (R
Core Team 2016).
Results
Abundance and biomass of targeted sh species were sig-
nicantly higher overall within PPAs than in unprotected
areas (on average 2.4 and 2.9 times higher, respectively;
Figure 1). PPA eectiveness was, however, variable across
studies, both in terms of abundance (Ri = 0.89, Qt = 961,
df [degrees of freedom] = 35, P < 0.001) and biomass (Ri
= 1.08, Qt = 2197, df = 38, P < 0.001), with dierent classes
exhibiting dierent levels of eectiveness (abundance Qm =
11.35, P = 0.0034; biomass Qm = 6.6636, P = 0.048). When
compared to unprotected areas, highly regulated PPAs sup-
ported 2.9 times higher sh abundance (Rk = 1.1) and 3
times higher sh biomass (Rk = 1.12), and moderately reg-
ulated PPAs supported 2.9 times higher sh abundance (Rk
(Eq 4),
v
i=
SD
2
PPAi
nPPA
i
̄
X2
PPA
i
+
SD
2
UPAi
nUPA
i
̄
X2
UPA
i
(Eq 5),
w
i=
1
vi
+
vA
(Eq 6),
̄
R
=
n
i
i=1wiRi
ni
i=1
w
i
(Eq 7),
Q
t=
n
i
i=1
wi(Ri
̄
R)
2
(Eq 8),
̄
R
c=
n
c
i=1wiRi
nc
i=1
w
i
(Eq 9),
Q
m=
m
j
=1
n
c
i
=1wij(
̄
Rc
̄
R)
2
Figure1. Ecological effectiveness of partially protected areas (PPAs) for
(a) abundance and (b) biomass of targeted fish species for all PPAs com-
bined and for PPAs grouped by class (sensu Horta e Costa et al. 2016). The
horizontal dotted line at 1 represents equal fish abundance or biomass
within and outside the PPA; values greater than 1 indicate more fish (or
more biomass) within the PPA; values below 1 indicate fewer fish (or less
biomass) within the PPA. The bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
Sample sizes for each group are shown.
(a) (b)
Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934 © The Ecological Society of America
M Zupan et al.
4 RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
= 1.07) and 4.2 times higher sh biomass (Rk = 1.42).
However, sh abundance (Rk = –0.13) and biomass (Rk =
0.18) in weakly regulated PPAs did not dier from that in
surrounding unprotected areas (Figure 1).
Ecological effectiveness increased with both the age and size
of PPAs, and with the capacity to implement regulations
(Figure2; WebFigure 2; WebTable 2a). Abundance and biomass
of targeted fish species increased on average by 5.1% and 4.6%
annually, respectively, in protected areas relative to unprotected
areas following implementation. For every tenfold increase in
the size of a PPA, fish abundance and biomass increased by 37%
and 46%, respectively. Furthermore, increasing the implementa-
tion capacity by 10% resulted in 4.3- and 6.4- fold higher abun-
dance and biomass of targeted fish species, respectively. The
effect of age, size, and capacity to implement regulations varied
across the three PPA classes, yet these interactions were signifi-
cant only for targeted fish species abundance and not biomass
(WebTable 2b). Targeted species within moderately and highly
regulated areas were positively affected by age, size, and the
capacity to implement regulations, whereas no significant effect
was detected for targeted species within weakly regulated areas
(Figure2; WebFigure 2).
Interestingly, the presence of a fully pro-
tected area adjacent to a PPA played a role in
enhancing the ecological effectiveness of par-
tial protection (abundance Qm = 2.05, P = 0.15;
biomass Qm = 5.47, P = 0.082). Fish abundance
and biomass were on average 1.6 and 2.1 times
higher, respectively, within PPAs that were
adjacent to a fully protected area (Figure 3).
This effect varied across the three classes
(abundance Qm = 22.07, P = 0.0005; biomass
Qm = 12.59, P = 0.096), with some moderately
regulated areas showing positive ecological
benefits only when adjacent to a fully protected
area (Figure3; WebTable 2b) and weakly regu-
lated areas not showing any benefit.
Discussion
We provide what is, to our knowledge, the
rst global assessment of the performance of
marine PPAs based on a regulation- based MPA
classication system (Horta e Costa et al. 2016).
We show that the ecological eectiveness of
partial protection depends on specic compo-
nents: (1) their type (classied according to
allowed uses; WebFigure 1), (2) the presence
of an adjacent fully protected area that might
inuence their eectiveness, (3) the capacity
to enforce regulations, and their (4) age and
(5) size. ese results help to clarify the pre-
viously reported mixed responses to protection
in PPAs (eg Lester and Halpern 2008; Di
Franco et al. 2009; Sciberras et al. 2013).
Our most notable finding is that regulations are the key fea-
ture determining the ecological effectiveness of PPAs.
Moderately and highly regulated areas are effective at harbor-
ing greater abundances and biomass of targeted fish species as
compared to unprotected areas, whereas no ecological benefits
were detected in weakly regulated areas. Highly and moder-
ately regulated PPAs permit some extractive uses (maximum
of five and 10 fishing gears, respectively) that have low (eg lines
and traps) or moderate (eg gillnets) impacts on ecosystems.
Weakly regulated areas permit more types of fishing gear and/
or types that have greater negative environmental impacts (eg
trawling; Horta e Costa et al. 2016). Fernández- Chacón et al.
(2015) demonstrated empirically that the exclusion of several
fishing gears within PPAs resulted in fish species targeted by
those gears benefiting from protection as compared to popula-
tions in unprotected areas.
In addition, we show that combining a fully protected area
with moderately regulated ones confers positive benefits
(Figure3), with the full range of response always above 1 (non-
significant differences between partial protection and open
areas are shown when response overlaps 1). As this class (ie
moderately regulated) is a common choice of MPA design,
Figure2. Ecological effectiveness of the classes of PPAs as mediated by PPA age (a and b)
and size (c and d) for abundance (top panel) and biomass (bottom panel) of targeted fish spe-
cies. The horizontal dotted line at 1 represents equal fish abundance or biomass inside and
outside the PPA; values greater than 1 indicate more fish (or more biomass) within the PPA;
values below 1 indicate fewer fish (or less biomass) within the PPA. The fitted lines are regres-
sions of each PPA class and the corresponding feature (solid line: significant regression, P <
0.05; dashed line: non- significant regression, P > 0.05).
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
© The Ecological Society of America Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934
Marine partially protected areas RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 5
placing these areas adjacent to fully protected
areas is an important option to consider, since
doing so can enhance their ecological benefits.
Highly and weakly regulated PPAs may be less
sensitive to the presence of an adjacent fully
protected area for different reasons. For highly
regulated areas, this is likely due to the limited
amount of extractive activities permitted
within them, which already confers high con-
servation benefits, whereas weakly regulated
areas may be less influenced by an adjacent
fully protected area due to the large number of
activities with substantial impacts that occur in
these areas. In moderately regulated areas, reg-
ulations alone may be insufficient to greatly
enhance populations of targeted fish species;
moreover, spillover effects from an adjacent
no- take area may increase their ecological
effectiveness (eg Hackradt et al. 2014). Spillover
effects from highly regulated PPAs may benefit
adjacent areas with weaker regulations, but
more research is needed to test this. Future
studies should assess how designing MPAs
with different combinations of protection lev-
els affects ecological responses.
We also show that the effectiveness of pro-
tection is positively correlated with both age
and size, demonstrating that these variables
matter not only for no- take areas but also for
PPAs (Claudet et al. 2008; Edgar et al. 2014).
Moreover, we found that the higher the capac-
ity to implement regulations, the greater the
ecological effectiveness, confirming that
investment in control and enforcement mecha-
nisms should be a high priority when establishing and manag-
ing MPAs (Guidetti et al. 2008; Mora et al. 2009; Edgar et al.
2014). The positive ecological effects associated with larger,
older, and better- enforced PPAs decline, however, with the
number of extractive activities allowed.
Our findings suggest that well- regulated, well- enforced, large,
and longer- established PPAs can provide substantial ecological
benefits, which are enhanced in some cases by the presence of an
adjacent fully protected area (Figure4). Enforcement, age, and
size are key components of success (Edgar et al. 2014). Several
studies have compared the effects of full and partial protection
to unprotected areas, demonstrating that, overall, full protection
provides more ecological benefits than partial protection (eg
Lester and Halpern 2008; Sciberras et al. 2013; Giakoumi et al.
2017). Here, however, we demonstrate that MPAs do not have to
be strictly no- take (Edgar et al. 2014) to provide ecological ben-
efits. Highly regulated PPAs can be effective and sometimes a
preferable option in complex socioecological systems where full
protection is difficult to implement, or as a complement to full
protection in multiple- use MPAs. Moderately regulated areas
can be combined with adjacent fully protected areas to further
enhance ecological benefits. However, the overall ecological ben-
efits of highly regulated PPAs, when compared to full protection,
are much lower; there is 300% more fish biomass and density
within those PPAs than in unprotected areas, but Sala and
Giakoumi (2018) reported 670% higher fish biomass within
fully protected areas than in unprotected areas; Sciberras et al.
(2013) reported 92% higher biomass in no- take areas than in
PPAs; and Gill et al. (2017) found a twofold difference in bio-
mass between no- take areas and PPAs.
The case studies included in our analysis are global in scope,
with most fish biomass and density data being measured on
relatively shallow (less than 30 m) reefs. Mora et al. (2011) and
Cinner et al. (2013) have shown that social factors can influ-
ence the biomass of reef fishes in coastal areas; coastal devel-
opment and land use, human population density (Mora et al.
2011), distance to market, and economic development (Cinner
et al. 2013) can all greatly influence the structure of reef fish
biomass. Future studies should incorporate these correlates
when enough information is available for the different classes
of PPAs. Most of the studies included in our analysis were for
partial protection classes where extraction is limited (highly
Figure3. Ecological effectiveness of classes of PPAs for the (a) abundance and (b) biomass of
targeted fish species as affected by the presence of an adjacent fully protected area (open
symbols). The horizontal dotted line at 1 represents equal fish abundance inside and outside of
the PPA; values greater than 1 indicate more fish (or more biomass) within the PPA; values
below 1 indicate fewer fish (or less biomass) within the PPA. The bars represent 95% confi-
dence intervals. Sample sizes for each group are shown.
(a)
(b)
Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.1934 © The Ecological Society of America
M Zupan et al.
6 RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
and moderately regulated areas) and therefore stronger
responses are to be expected, whereas only a handful of studies
reported results for areas with lower levels of protection
(weakly and very weakly regulated areas). Publication bias (ie
scientists tend to sample where an effect is likely to be detected
and journals tend to favor the publication of positive results)
can partially explain why we were only able to locate detailed
information for 47 case studies despite there being more than
11,000 MPAs listed globally (MPA Atlas; www.mpatlas.org).
Therefore, we have very likely captured the most effective
PPAs, potentially leading to an overestimation of the average
effects.
The implementation of MPAs requires the integration of
conservation, social, economic, and political goals, and MPA
design should be driven by the particular management objec-
tives. A regulation- based classification system such as the one
used in this study (Horta e Costa et al. 2016) provides an ade-
quate tool to test not only aspirational goals, based on objec-
tives, but also concrete impacts as predicted by regulations of
uses. Our results can assist policy makers and managers in
determining the appropriate levels of protection to reach spe-
cific goals by accounting for the type of regulations adopted in
each MPA.
Acknowledgements
We thank CW Osenberg for fruitful discussion in the early
stages of this manuscript. is research was funded by the
ERA- Net BiodivERsA project “BUFFER – Partially protected
areas as buers to increase the linked social–ecological re-
silience”, with the national funders ANR (France), FCT
(Portugal), FOR- MAS and SEPA (Sweden), and RCN
(Norway). BHC was supported by a grant under the project
BUFFER, a FCT grant (SFRH/BPD/100377/2014), and a
Fernand Braudel IFER fellowship (Fondation Maison des
Sciences de l’Homme). FCT supported this work under the
strategic project UID/MAR/04292/2013. Authors BHC and
EJG share joint senior authorship.
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Figure4. Ecological effectiveness of highly regulated PPAs can be high,
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Supporting Information
Additional, web-only material may be found in the online
version of this article at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/10.1002/fee.1934/suppinfo
... 5 There is now growing evidence from social and natural sciences showing that the level of protection is an important driver of MPA social-ecological effectiveness. [6][7][8][9] This has been recently captured in the MPA Guide framework, 10 which defines four Levels of Protection (i.e., fully, highly, lightly, and minimally protected; see methods) that build on Horta e Costa et al. 11 regulation-based classification system for MPAs. ...
... MPAs that are only in the implemented stage did not host greater density or biomass inside than outside, except in the case of fully protected areas and only on fish density. While previous studies have already highlighted the role of strong regulations in MPA ecological effectiveness, 9,28,29 we suggest here that good enforcement, monitoring, and appropriate in situ management may be even more important, particularly for areas that are not fully protected (e.g., highly protected areas that are only implemented did not harbor higher fish density, whereas fully protected areas did). Previous studies suggested that surveillance of fully protected areas is more cost effective than MPAs where fishing occurs, likely due to increased complexity in controlling fishing efforts or illegal fisheries. ...
... They also suggest that some species may still benefit from strongly regulating moderate-impact fisheries if actively managed and with the remaining threats minimized and compatible with sustainable use-probably where fishing gears targeting most commercial fish species are banned or highly restricted from the MPA. 13,34 Our findings strengthen previous studies showing that ecological outcomes depend on certain MPA conditions, such as regulations, 8,9,13 management capacity, 12,13 compliance and enforcement, 14,28 stakeholders' engagement, and awareness. 19,21 One of the main contributions of our study is that here, we use a composite framework to capture some of these management features together and show that it directly relates to MPA ecological success in protecting harvested fish. ...
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Currently, there is a global commitment to improve ocean health by covering 30% of the ocean with effective marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2030. Here, we tested, for the first time, the effects of both levels of protection and stages of establishment of a new science-based framework—the MPA guide—in the recovery of harvested fish across 123 MPAs globally. Our findings reflect the important interplay between levels and stages and tie them directly to conservation outcomes. Actively managed MPAs, with evidence of monitoring and enforcement, have more positive ecological outcomes than those that are only implemented. Studied MPAs show they need to be actively managed and strongly regulated to effectively recover fish, while implemented MPAs that are minimally or lightly protected can lead to detrimental outcomes. We call for using standardized and comparable criteria in understanding global coverage to track MPA quality as well as quantity.
... Additionally, benefits can extend to fisheries outside of MPAs through spillover from no-take to adjacent partially protected or to unprotected areas (Rowley, 1994;Goñi et al., 2008Goñi et al., , 2011Di Lorenzo et al., 2016). In the strictly regulated partially protected areas, restrictions on gear and fishing effort can have a positive impact on harvested fish species (Zupan et al., 2018;Smallhorn-West et al., 2022), benefiting the permitted fisheries (Blyth-Skyrme et al., 2006). The benefits provided to fisheries, as well as the design and management of MPAs, including co-design and enforcement, are important factors that shape attitudes towards MPAs, such as acceptability and compliance, and hence MPA effectiveness (Mangi and Austen, 2008;Lédée et al., 2012;Gall and Rodwell, 2016;Giakoumi et al., 2018). ...
... Previous research demonstrated positive protection effects of one of the MPA's no-take zone on the biomass of target species, as well as increased abundances of coastal species within both no-take and adjacent partially protected areas, based on fishery-independent surveys (experimental netting, stereo-baited video) and few years of data (Castro, J. J. et al., 2021;Belackova et al., 2023). Partially protected areas can enhance densities and biomass, particularly of target species, although to a lesser extent than in no-take zones, while yielding variable results depending on the fishing restrictions, and other factors such as age, size and connectivity (Sciberras et al., 2015;Giakoumi et al., 2017;Zupan et al., 2018;Ferreira et al., 2022). Partially protected areas provide more positive effects when limiting the numbers of less impactful fishing gears (e.g., traps and pots, lines, gillnets) and excluding highly impactful gears (e.g., trawling, trammel nets) (Sciberras et al., 2015;Zupan et al., 2018), and when implemented for an extended period of time (Ferreira et al., 2022). ...
... Partially protected areas can enhance densities and biomass, particularly of target species, although to a lesser extent than in no-take zones, while yielding variable results depending on the fishing restrictions, and other factors such as age, size and connectivity (Sciberras et al., 2015;Giakoumi et al., 2017;Zupan et al., 2018;Ferreira et al., 2022). Partially protected areas provide more positive effects when limiting the numbers of less impactful fishing gears (e.g., traps and pots, lines, gillnets) and excluding highly impactful gears (e.g., trawling, trammel nets) (Sciberras et al., 2015;Zupan et al., 2018), and when implemented for an extended period of time (Ferreira et al., 2022). In our case, limitations to fishing gear are minimal in the MPA's partially protected zone compared to the open access area, but 10 years of controlled number of fishing licenses has likely helped to reduce fishing pressure (Horta e Costa et al., 2013, Giakoumi et al., 2017Anderson et al., 2019;Wright, 2022). ...
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Small-scale commercial fisheries represent a significant economic activity that can be affected by coastal Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Official fishery landings data can serve as an effective means of evaluating the effects of MPAs on fisheries and harvested species, as they are available over long periods and do not incur any costs. However, the use of long-term landings as a solid baseline for pre-MPA conditions has been rare. In this study, we applied a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design to long-term landings time series to assess the economic and ecological effects of a coastal multi-zone MPA in Portugal. We compared the landings and income per unit of effort (LPUE and IPUE) inside and outside the MPA after its implementation, and within the MPA before and after the implementation. Our results showed that the MPA had a positive influence on the LPUE and IPUE of the local fleet (54 landed taxa in the assemblage), based on significant positive trends inside the MPA after implementation , but not before or outside. We found significant positive responses to protection in four taxa with the highest LPUE: Octopus vulgaris, Conger conger, Soleidae, and Rajidae. The MPA's small no-take zones likely enhance species with small home ranges and their spillover, and, together with the controlled number of fishing licenses, contribute to positive MPA outcomes. However, the LPUE of Muraena helena and Diplodus vulgaris declined significantly inside the MPA between before and after MPA implementation, which could be attributed to enhanced inter-species competition. Despite encouraging LPUE trends within the MPA, the study revealed that prices evolved in a more favourable manner outside than inside the MPA, suggesting that future research in this topic may be necessary to ensure the proper valuation of fishing resources within this and other MPAs. Despite the common limitations of landings data, our study demonstrates that comparing long-term landings from pre-and post-MPA periods using a BACI design can be an efficient monitoring solution for budget and data-limited coastal MPAs.
... When complying with certain conditions, PPAs, where "low impact" human activities occur under a number of established conditions, may also have some positive ecological effects (Fernández-Chacón et al., 2015;Zupan et al., 2018). These will depend on the magnitude of impacts and activities allowed. ...
... There are contradictory results in the scientific literature on PPAs, as most studies assess the PPAs together and compare them to FPAs or adjacent unprotected areas. Yet, a recent study distinguishing the different protection levels of PPAs according to the regulationbased classification system (RBCS, Horta e Costa et al., 2016), a percussor of the MPA Guide levels of protection (Grorud-Colvert et al., 2021), found that only highly protected areas or moderately protected when adjacent to FPAs can deliver significant positive outcomes compared to outside areas (Zupan et al., 2018). A recent comprehensive review also found that fully and highly protected areas increase fish resilience and deliver fisheries benefits in the face of climate change ( Jacquemont et al., 2022). ...
... A recent comprehensive review also found that fully and highly protected areas increase fish resilience and deliver fisheries benefits in the face of climate change ( Jacquemont et al., 2022). PPAs are viewed as a less conflicting option in coastal and densely populated areas, where large FPAs are not viable nor acceptable by local communities (Guidetti et al., 2010;Chollett et al., 2016;Zupan et al., 2018). They can contribute to decreasing threats and impacts, and excluding the most damaging activities while maintaining some acceptance and compliance. ...
... Whether MPAs promote climate resilience (Freedman et al., 2020;Johnson et al., 2022;Smith et al., 2023) or fisheries benefits (Ovando et al., 2021;Radici et al., 2023) is still a matter of debate (Arneth et al., 2023). By contrast, the conservation performance of MPAs-their ability to maintain higher biomass of harvested species, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning relative to fished locations (Hernández-Andreu et al., 2024)-is widely documented (Claudet et al., 2008;Edgar et al., 2014;Gill et al., 2017;Lester & Halpern, 2008;Lester et al., 2009;Zupan et al., 2018) and remains the central objective of most MPA management plans . ...
... The design and management of MPAs requires understanding the features (e.g., age, size, historic fishing intensity, habitat representation) that promote their efficacy, which could vary in relative importance by ecosystem. Many large-scale syntheses have revealed features associated with MPA conservation performance, but most have focused on a single type of ecosystem (Edgar et al., 2014;Ziegler et al., 2024) or on pooled data across ecosystems (Claudet et al., 2008;Gill et al., 2017;Lester & Halpern, 2008;Zupan et al., 2018). Further, prior meta-analyses of MPA performance incorporate data from disparate, single MPAs, often geographically separated, rather than from a large, ecologically connected MPA network. ...
... The biomass effect size for each ecosystem at a given MPA was modeled as the log ratio (Equation 1). When data were collected in an individual MPA over time, we retained only the most recent results to reflect the longest duration of protection for a given ecosystem (Zupan et al., 2018). The within-study variance of each unique ecosystem-MPA combination was calculated as: ...
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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely implemented tools for long‐term ocean conservation and resource management. Assessments of MPA performance have largely focused on specific ecosystems individually and have rarely evaluated performance across multiple ecosystems either in an individual MPA or across an MPA network. We evaluated the conservation performance of 59 MPAs in California's large MPA network, which encompasses 4 primary ecosystems (surf zone, kelp forest, shallow reef, deep reef) and 4 bioregions, and identified MPA attributes that best explain performance. Using a meta‐analytic framework, we evaluated the ability of MPAs to conserve fish biomass, richness, and diversity. At the scale of the network and for 3 of 4 regions, the biomass of species targeted by fishing was positively associated with the level of regulatory protection and was greater inside no‐take MPAs, whereas species not targeted by fishing had similar biomass in MPAs and areas open to fishing. In contrast, species richness and diversity were not as strongly enhanced by MPA protection. The key features of conservation effectiveness included MPA age, preimplementation fisheries pressure, and habitat diversity. Important drivers of MPA effectiveness for single MPAs were consistent across MPAs in the network, spanning regions and ecosystems. With international targets aimed at protecting 30% of the world's oceans by 2030, MPA design and assessment frameworks should consider conservation performance at multiple ecologically relevant scales, from individual MPAs to MPA networks.
... Large-scale studies and global reviews have highlighted the value of marine protected areas to people in both monetary and non-monetary terms, though the latter remain understudied (Ban et al., 2019;Costello, 2024). However, a substantial proportion of MPAs do not have the sufficient levels of size and protective regulations to optimise their effectiveness (Edgar et al., 2014;Pittman et al., 2014;Zupan et al., 2018). Because a diversity of management approaches is needed to secure their potential (Jones et al., 2024) and integration of local values into marine management is essential to their legitimacy , there is an important need for assessing values in an integrated and pluralistic way, in both economic and sociocultural terms. ...
... Older MPAs give slow-growing species more opportunity to recover [4,99,100] and give managers more time to implement and adapt management activities [13,101,102]. Also, our results suggest that no-take zones or no-take MPAs had higher fish biomass, however, the effect was not as strong as expected from previous work [73,[103][104][105]. In Edgar et al (2014), MPAs with no-take regulations had greater differences in multiple outcome metrics (e.g. total biomass, exploitable fish biomass, etc.) compared to sites that allowed fishing. ...
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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely used to conserve and manage coastal resources. Protected areas are governed by a variety of institutional arrangements, yet little is known concerning the relative performance of different governance approaches. This research draws upon a unique dataset that combines details on the reported International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) governance categories of 217 global MPAs and their ecological outcomes to compare the performance of alternative governance arrangements. We find that MPAs with shared governance arrangements, where management authority is shared among multiple government and non-government actors, are 98% more likely to have higher fish biomass than MPAs governed by state agencies (i.e., primarily government) alone (mean effect size and 95% C.I = 0.32 ± 0.31). We also find higher biomass in older MPAs, those in countries with higher gross domestic product (GDP), and those with a higher proportion of no-take area. With targets to protect 30% of our oceans driving new commitments to expand MPA coverage globally, our results suggest that multi-stakeholder participation and collaboration facilitated by shared and decentralized governance arrangements can play an important role in achieving conservation outcomes.
... These area-based protection efforts should be thoughtfully and deliberately sited to support communities and value systems marginalized across some or all of the elements of social equity. For example, shore-based fishing communities may directly benefit from partially protected areas on the margins of fully protected marine reserves, as there is evidence that socioeconomic advantages can be derived from limited and well-regulated uses in this type of protected area scheme (Zupan et al., 2018). Similarly, MPAs can be designed with downstream benefits to coastal access points in mind. ...
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