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Identifying Conservation Priority Areas to inform Maritime Spatial Planning: How to do it?

Maria Da Luz Fernandes1*, Adriano Quintela1 and Fátima L. Alves1
  • 1 Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies CESAM, University of Aveiro, Department of Environment and Planning, Portugal

The increasing human uses in our oceans and coasts are causing multiple pressures in marine and coastal ecosystems. Impacts resulting from these pressures are provoking degradation in species and habitats (EEA, 2015). In order to answer to these threats, marine management approaches are shifting towards ecosystem based management (EBM) to accomplish a more sustainable management of natural resources (Ehler and Douvere, 2007). Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Directive, published in 2014, defines MSP “as a process by which the relevant Member State’s (MS) authorities analyze and organize human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic and social objectives” (EU, 2014). MS must implement maritime plans to ensure that human activities are developed within an EBM approach achieving the Good Environmental Status (GES) required within Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). However, MSP experiences worldwide have shown that EBM approach with comprehensive ecological and social data are difficult to be included. Data on ecological features are necessary to identify areas of importance for biodiversity conservation. Its combination with human use data and its threats allows for explicit identification of overlapping interest between multiple users and/or biodiversity conservation (Ban et al., 2013; Klein et al., 2013). Information such as Cumulative Impacts (or effects) Assessment (CIA) may provide valuable inputs on which areas are in best state of conservation. Planners can use this information to prioritize the approach to select location with best conditions to protect natural values (Klein et al., 2013). In Portugal, MSP implementation occurs through a series of national regulations produced in the last years. In 2014 was published the National Ocean Strategy (NOS) 2013-2020 and the law establishing the Basis for the Spatial Planning and Management of the National Maritime Space (LBOGEM, Law 17/2014). The law developed by Decree-Law 38/2015 defines two sets of MSP instruments, the Situation Plan (SP) and the Allocation Plans (AP). The SP identifies the distribution of the existing and potential uses and activities and is now under development and subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) accordingly to Ruling 11494/2015. The AP aims to allocate space to new uses and activities that are not included in the SP and they are subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (Ferreira et al., 2015). The main goal of this study is to support the Portuguese MSP process with ecological meaningful information, namely priority areas for conservation that are facing less anthropogenic impacts. We developed a new model for selection of high priority areas for conservation in the Portuguese mainland subdivision using Marxan software and Cumulative Impacts decision support tools (DST). Marxan is generally used to identify protected network areas that combine to satisfy a number of ecological, social and economic goals (Ball and Possingham, 2000). We compiled information on the spatial distribution of 23 selected species and habitats designated for conservation in accordance with Natura 2000. Cumulative Human Impacts Model (CIM) on marine environment developed by Fernandes et al. (2017) was used as surrogate cost for ecosystem condition. Results show that the spatial analysis is useful to inform where important ecological values are less impacted and provides inputs to develop management alternatives. We identified three main areas prone to conservation in Portugal, namely the areas of Nazaré/ Peniche, Cabo Espichel/Sines and Cabo Sardão/Faro. These marine areas are in line with the recent proposal of Marine Protected Areas for the Portuguese mainland subdivision. This case study illustrates how systematic planning can be applied to support the connection between Marine Strategy Framework and Maritime Spatial Planning European Directives. This is highly relevant in the time being for Portugal, as the 2nd cycles of both directives are ongoing.

Acknowledgements

The first author of this work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT, with a Do*Mar programme PhD grant (PD/BD/113485/2015). The second author was financed through Project SIMNORAT (EASME/&EMFF/2015/1.2.1.3/03/SI2.742089). We are thankful to Direcção Geral de Politíca do Mar (DGPM) for supplying of data within the scope of POEM. Thanks are also due for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638), to FCT/MCTES through national funds

References

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Keywords: Portugal, Marxan, Cumulative effects assessment, Decision support tool, Marine Protected Areas (MPA)

Conference: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018.

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Topic: Biodiversity, Conservation and Coastal Management

Citation: Fernandes M, Quintela A and Alves FL (2019). Identifying Conservation Priority Areas to inform Maritime Spatial Planning: How to do it?. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00111

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Received: 06 Apr 2018; Published Online: 07 Jan 2019.

* Correspondence: Miss. Maria Da Luz Fernandes, Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies CESAM, University of Aveiro, Department of Environment and Planning, Aveiro, Portugal, maria.luz@ua.pt