Page 3 - Picone_2016

“GeoSUB – Underwater geology” – Ustica, 13-17 September 2016

NATURAL CAPITAL ASSESSMENT AND CONSERVATION PLANNING: THE CASE OF THE
EGADI ISLANDS MARINE PROTECTED AREA

1 2 3 3 4 1
Picone F., D’Agostaro R., Buonocore E., Franzese P.P., Donati S., Chemello R.

1 Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, University of Palermo, Co.N.I.S.Ma., via Archirafi 20-22, 90123
Palermo, Italy.
2 Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, University of Palermo, via Archirafi 20-22, 90123 Palermo, Italy.
3 Department of Science and Technology, Parthenope University of Naples, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4,
80143 Naples, Italy.
4
MPA Egadi Islands.

Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in
any comparable period in human history. The main causes are to be found in the ever-increasing
demands for resources (e.g. food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel). The ongoing depletion and
degradation caused by anthropogenic pressure on natural systems and the consequent alarming
biodiversity erosion imply the loss of the ecosystems biological, geochemical and physical processes
and components, from which ecosystem functions arise.
When ecosystem functions constitute benefits to people, they are called ecosystem goods and
services and the underlying biophysical structure and processes are referred to as natural capital.
In particular, marine and coastal ecosystems are among the most productive environments in
the world and offer a wide variety of services (e.g., seafood provision, natural shoreline protection
against storms and floods, water quality maintenance, cultural and spiritual benefits). Yet, they are
heavily depleted by an unsustainable use of their services and their persistence is seriously
threatened by the increasing effects of a number of (often-unregulated) anthropogenic
disturbances (e.g., land use change, habitat loss, overfishing, invasive species, pollution, climate
change, etc.).
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are largely acknowledged worldwide as efficient tools for both
marine conservation and resources management.
Apart from the original effect of conserving biodiversity, the enforcement of protection measures
in MPAs supports the conservation of the stock of natural capital and the provided ecosystem
services, at local (e.g. increase in fish resources) and global (e.g. modifications in nutrient cycling)
scales.
In this perspective, MPAs management plans should be oriented towards the conservation and
increase of the natural capital, balancing the exploitation of resources and the regulation of
protection. In 2014, following the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 guidelines, the Ministry of the
Environment and Protection of Land and Sea of Italy funded the “Environmental Accounting in
Italian Marine Proteceted Areas” project, a 4-years research program based on the implementation
of an environmental accounting system in all Italian MPAs. The project aims at assessing the
biophysical and economic value of natural capital and ecosystem services, and, successively, at
evaluating environmental costs and impacts due to main human activities performed in the MPAs.
In this study, the natural capital of the Egadi Islands MPA (Sicily, Italy) was assessed. The emergy
accounting method was used to measure the value of natural capital by taking into account its cost
of production in terms of biophysical flows supporting its generation. The value of natural capital
was calculated for the four main biocenosis identified in the MPA (i.e., Coralligenous, Photophilic
algae, Soft bottom, and Posidonia oceanica).
Furthermore, the emergy value of the MPA natural capital was used to identify different
conservation strategies through Marxan, a software that delivers decision support for reserve
system design.

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