scholarly journals The Contribution of Ecosystem Services in Developing Effective and Sustainable Management Practices in Marine Protected Areas. The Case Study of “Isola dell’Asinara”

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Floris ◽  
Vittorio Gazale ◽  
Federica Isola ◽  
Francesca Leccis ◽  
Salvatore Pinna ◽  
...  

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are assuming a constantly increasing importance in management practices due to their key role in ensuring a sustainable future to fauna and flora on Earth. In addition, ES degradation and quality loss jeopardize current human activities. For this reason, it is essential to develop methodologies and practices able to efficiently assess environmental and socio-economic impacts in terms of ES deterioration, especially within protected areas. Norms and regulations have to be able to identify habitat and species categories to be preserved, and to determine the cost of their destruction and decline, according to a holistic vision, which includes social and economic impacts, besides the environmental ones. The paper illustrates the case study of the “Isola dell’Asinara” Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Sardinia, where an experimental methodology was developed with the aim to draw new regulations that integrate conservation measures of Natura 2000 sites included in its territory, provisions determined by the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) protocol and the Standardized Actions for Effective Management of MPAs (ISEA) project. Subsequently, in order to assess the status of ESs and impacts on ESs located within the MPA territory, an ecosystem-based approach was implemented and applied to the actions defined for the new regulation proposal. Results show that regulations are in this way valuably enriched by environmental aspects of the MPA that would otherwise be overlooked.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 172
Author(s):  
Adrian Nugraha

As an 'Ocean Nation,' it is essential for Taiwan to make efforts to conserve its aquatic zones through marine protected areas (MPAs). Marine protected areas have considered one of the most precise methods of maintaining sustainable ecosystems and restoring fish stocks. This article discusses the legal regime for marine protected areas currently applied and its institutional arrangements in Taiwan. This study emphasizes legal issues in Taiwan's marine conservation efforts. This paper analyzes eight primary legislation relating to marine protected areas in Taiwan. Furthermore, to acquire actual field data, this study conducted interviews with a semi-structured questionnaire in three prominent Taiwan institutions related to their marine conservation task. All data obtained were analyzed and presented qualitatively. The issues of Taiwan's marine protected area legal regime have been identified. First, the main issue in Taiwan is that the legal basis for marine conservation is the legislation applied to land. Second, the existing maritime law regime in Taiwan does not emphasize marine conservation efforts. Subsequently, this article also discusses institutional arrangements related to Taiwan's marine protected areas. This paper also offers possible solutions. Enforcing five key Acts related to marine conservation, particularly the 2015 Act of Coastal Zone Management and strengthening institutional Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council, are the solutions offered in this study.


Author(s):  
Ilda Vagge ◽  
◽  
Gioia Maddalena Gibelli ◽  
Alessio Gosetti Poli ◽  
◽  
...  

The authors, with the awareness that climate change affects and changes the landscape, wanted to investigate how these changes are occurring within the metropolitan area of Tehran. Trying to keep a holistic method that embraces different disciplines, reasoning from large scale to small scale, the authors tried to study the main problems related to water scarcity and loss of green spaces. Subsequently they dedicated themselves to the identification of the present and missing ecosystem services, so that they could be used in the best possible way as tools for subsequent design choices. From the analysis obtained, the authors have created a masterplan with the desire to ensure a specific natural capital, the welfare of ecosystem services, and at the same time suggest good water management practices. It becomes essential to add an ecological accounting to the economic accounting, giving dignity to the natural system and the ecosystem services that derive from it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Junior Choruma ◽  
Oghenekaro Nelson Odume

Globally, farmers remain the key ecosystem managers responsible for increasing food production while simultaneously reducing the associated negative environmental impacts. However, research investigating how farmers’ agricultural management practices are influenced by the values they assign to ecosystem services is scarce in South Africa. To address this gap, a survey of farmers’ agricultural management practices and the values they assigned towards ecosystem services was conducted in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Results from the survey show that farmers assign a high value on food provisioning ecosystem services compared to other ecosystem services. Irrigation and fertiliser decisions were mostly based on achieving maximum crop yields or good crop quality. The majority of farmers (86%) indicated a willingness to receive payments for ecosystem services (PES) to manage their farms in a more ecosystems-oriented manner. To encourage farmers to shift from managing ecosystems for single ecosystem services such as food provision to managing ecosystems for multiple ecosystem services, market-oriented plans such as PES may be employed. Effective measures for sustainable intensification of food production will depend on the inclusion of farmers in the development of land management strategies and practices as well as increasing farmers’ awareness and knowledge of the ecosystem services concept.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 847-855
Author(s):  
Mariano J. Aznar

Abstract Spain has just declared a new marine protected area in the Mediterranean. This follows a protective trend taken by Spanish authorities during the last decades and has permitted Spain to honour its international compromises under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It contributes to a framework of protected areas established under conventional regimes such as OSPAR, RAMSAR or EU Natura 2000. The new area protects a ‘cetacean corridor’ and will be inscribed in the list of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance under the Barcelona Convention regional framework.


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