GUIDELINES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF MEDITERRANEAN MARINE AND COASTAL PROTECTED AREAS Arturo López Ornat, Editor. MedMPA Project GUIDELINES 29/5/06 22:03 Página 1 UNEP - UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME MAP - MEDITERRANEAN ACTION PLAN RAC/SPA - REGIONAL ACTIVITY CENTRE FOR SPECIALLY PROTECTED AREAS MedMPA - REGIONAL PROJECT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARINE AND COASTAL PROTECTED AREAS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION Guidelines for the Establishment and Management of Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Protected Areas GUIDELINES 29/5/06 22:03 Página 2 Note:The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP concerning the legal status of any State, Territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of their frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of RAC/SPA and UNEP. © 2006 United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) Boulevard du Leader Yasser Arafat B.P.337 –1080 Tunis CEDEX E-mail: [email protected] www.rac-spa.org The programme of the MedMPA Project was organized and coordinated by the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA), in charge of its execution. It was directed by permanent experts of RAC/SPA(*) and by experts recruited for the project duration under supervision of the Director of the Centre. (*) Chedly Rais, Souha El Asmi and Daniel Cebrián, RAC/SPA The two following partners supported the execution of the MedMPA Project: PANGEA Consultores S.L. Ronda de Toledo 16 – 307. Madrid 28005 – Spain www.pangea21.com Empresa de Gestión Medioambiental S.A. (EGMASA) Guidelines for the Establishment C/ Juan Gutemberg s/n – Sevilla 41092 – Spain www.egmasa.es and Management of For bibliographic purposes this document may be cited as: Mediterranean Marine and López Ornat,A. (Editor). 2006. Guidelines for the Establishment and Management of Mediterranean Marine Coastal Protected Areas and Coastal Protected Areas. MedMPA project. Ed: UNEP-MAP RAC\SPA.Tunis. © Cover and back-cover photographs by Daniel Cebrián Arturo López Ornat, Editor. The MedMPA project is financially supported by the European Commission GUIDELINES 29/5/06 22:03 Página 4 Foreword Protected areas are essential for the conservation of biological diversity, to ensure important envi- ronmental services, and for meeting a range of community objectives. After the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), and more specially the Barcelona Convention and its Protocol on Specially Protected Areas and Biodiversity (both reviewed in 1995), the Mediterranean countries are committed to establishing and managing pro- tected areas. In consequence, there has been a significant growth in coastal/marine PAs in our region: both the number of sites and the area under protection have increased substantially over the recent decades. But ensuring that appropriate management is in place to realise the potential benefits remains a major problem in many places. An assessment done by RAC/SPA in 19971 underlined that staf- fing in SPAs is usually short for the management needs (estimated at a 46% of the optimum). As the areas grow in importance and complexity the original staff may not receive any formal training in protected area management.The qualifications of SPA staff, when known, are considered to be moderate, while the training opportunities for MPA managers are very limited (only existing in 27% of the countries). In this context the RAC/SPA, with a financial sup- port from the MedMPA Project of the EU-SMAP Programme, organized a Regional Training Seminar on “Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Protected Areas Management and Planning”, together with the edition of the present Guidelines. The Guidelines will proof a basic management and training material for the future work, not restricted to the MPA managers pre- sent at the training course, but for over 100 MPA managers around the Mediterranean coasts. These Guidelines are intended for use by all those concerned with the policy and practice of marine and coastal protected areas, not only the practitioners but also decision-makers at the various levels of government, others such as NGOs and academics, and international funding agencies.Through the publication and distribution of these Guidelines, RAC/SPA hopes to improve 1 RAC/SPA. 1997. “Assessment on the Management of marine and coas- the understanding of the needs of protected tal Specially Protected Areas in the Mediterranean”. Regional Activity areas management and the standards of manage- Centre for Specially Protected Areas. Mediterranean Action Plan.Tunis. ment on the ground. GUIDELINES 29/5/06 22:03 Página 6 Table of contents Chapter 1.THE ROLE OF PROTECTED AREAS IN CONSERVING THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT Diego Moreno Lampreave (EGMASA) 1. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11 2. MARINE ECOLOGY.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.1. Marine ecological parameters and characteristics .......................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2. Marine ecosystems ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 13 2.3. Natural history aspects significant to conservation of marine habitats and species: reproductive strategies ........................................................................................................................................................................ 14 2.4. Mediterranean marine biodiversity: species, endemism, habitat.............................................................................................................. 14 2.5. Cases of species with a land phase, reproductive, roosting or feeding .............................................................................................. 18 2.6.Threats to marine ecosystems .................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.7. Status and threats to mediterranean marine biodiversity.......................................................................................................................... 19 3. MARINE PROTECTION.................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1. History of the marine protection ............................................................................................................................................................................ 20 3.2. Objectives for marine protected areas: categories, international networks .................................................................................... 21 3.3. Marine protected areas in the mediterranean: functions and values of broad and small areas .......................................... 21 3.4. Basic studies previous to the declaration of marine protected areas ................................................................................................ 22 3.5. Legal coverage and applicable regulations .......................................................................................................................................................... 23 3.6. Marine protected areas in the mediterranean: areas along the northern coast, and along the southern coast...................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 3.7. Basic Management needs: signals, vigilance, control and monitoring: comparison of different methodologies and their relative costs............................................................................................................ 24 3.8. Other management programmes: environmental education. Focus of the activities ................................................................ 25 REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 26 APPENDIX 1. BARCELONA CONVENTION (UNEP,1996)........................................................................................................................ 28 APPENDIX 2. MARINE PROTECTED AREAS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ........................................................................................ 35 Chapter 2. PLANNING FOR A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF PROTECTED AREAS Arturo López Ornat and Elena Correas (PANGEA Consultores S.L.) 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................................................................................