Multiple conservation designations: What impact on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the Irish Sea?

Constance M. Schéré; Terence P. Dawson; Kate Schreckenberg

doi:10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058

Multiple conservation designations: What impact on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the Irish Sea?

Constance M. Schéré, Terence P. Dawson, Kate Schreckenberg

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs. The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 111 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored. The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan. The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.

Original language	English
Journal	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY
Early online date	8 Jan 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 8 Jan 2020

Keywords

biological conservation
Irish Sea
marine conservation
marine ecology
Marine protected areas
ocean and coastal management

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058

Cite this

@article{9307ae37a33444eaa42bd8d9a69ce8ec,

title = "Multiple conservation designations: What impact on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the Irish Sea?",

abstract = "Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs. The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 111 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored. The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan. The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.",

keywords = "biological conservation, Irish Sea, marine conservation, marine ecology, Marine protected areas, ocean and coastal management",

author = "Sch{\'e}r{\'e}, {Constance M.} and Dawson, {Terence P.} and Kate Schreckenberg",

year = "2020",

month = jan,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058",

language = "English",

journal = "INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY",

issn = "1350-4509",

publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multiple conservation designations

T2 - What impact on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the Irish Sea?

AU - Schéré, Constance M.

AU - Dawson, Terence P.

AU - Schreckenberg, Kate

PY - 2020/1/8

Y1 - 2020/1/8

N2 - Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs. The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 111 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored. The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan. The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.

AB - Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs. The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 111 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored. The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan. The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.

KW - biological conservation

KW - Irish Sea

KW - marine conservation

KW - marine ecology

KW - Marine protected areas

KW - ocean and coastal management

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078600955&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058

DO - 10.1080/13504509.2019.1706058

M3 - Article

SN - 1350-4509

JO - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY

JF - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WORLD ECOLOGY

ER -

Multiple conservation designations: What impact on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in the Irish Sea?

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this