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BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 141 (2008) 699–709
available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon

Italian marine reserve effectiveness: Does

enforcement matter?

Paolo Guidettia,*, Marco Milazzob, Simona Bussottia, Andrea Molinaric, Matteo Murenud,
Antonio Paise, Nunziacarla Spano` f, Raffaella Balzanog, Tundi Agardyh, Ferdinando Boeroa,
Giancarlo Carradai, Riccardo Cattaneo-Viettij, Angelo Caud, Renato Chemellob,
Silvestro Grecoc, Antonio Manganarof, Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciarak,
Giovanni Fulvio Russog, Leonardo Tunesic

aDepartment of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Via Provinciale Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
bDepartment of Ecology, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy
cCentral Institute for Research on the Marine Environment, Via Casalotti 300, 00166 Rome, Italy
dDepartment of Animal Biology and Ecology, University of Cagliari, Viale Poetto 1, 09126 Cagliari, Italy
eDepartment of Animal Sciences, University of Sassari, Via De Nicola 9, 07100 Sassari, Italy
fDepartment of Animal Biology and Marine Ecology, University of Messina, Salita Sperone 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
gDepartment of Sciences for the Environment, University of Naples ‘Parthenope’, Via A. De Gasperi 5, 80133 Naples, Italy
hSound Seas, 6620 Broad Street, Bethesda, MD 20816, USA
iDepartment of Zoology, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Corso Umberto I, 80138, Naples, Italy
jDepartment of the Study of the Territory and its Resources, University of Genoa, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy
kTethys Research Institute, Viale G.B. Gadio 2, 20121 Milan, Italy

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history: Marine protected areas (MPAs) have become popular tools worldwide for ecosystem conser-
Received 4 June 2007 vation and fishery management. Fish assemblages can benefit from protection provided by
Received in revised form MPAs, especially those that include fully no-take reserves. Fish response to protection can
17 December 2007 thus be used to evaluate the effectiveness of marine reserves. Most target fish are high-
Accepted 20 December 2007 level predators and their overfishing may affect entire communities through trophic cas-
Available online 13 February 2008 cades. In the Mediterranean rocky sublittoral, marine reserves may allow fish predators
of sea urchins to recover and thus whole communities to be restored from coralline barrens
Keywords: to macroalgae. Such direct and indirect reserve effects, however, are likely to be related to
Marine reserves the enforcement implemented. In Italy, many MPAs that include no-take reserves have
Fish assemblages been declared, but little effort has been spent to enforce them. This is a worldwide phe-
Conservation nomenon (although more common in some regions than others) that may cause MPAs
Enforcement and reserves to fail to meet their targets. We found that 3 of 15 Italian marine reserves
Mediterranean Sea investigated had adequate enforcement, and that patterns of recovery of target fish were
related to enforcement. No responses were detected when all reserves were analyzed as
a whole, suggesting enforcement as an important factor to be considered in future studies

* Corresponding author: Tel.: +39 0832 298935; fax: +39 0832 298626.
E-mail addresses: paolo.guidetti@unile.it (P. Guidetti), marmilazzo@iol.it (M. Milazzo), simona.bussotti@unile.it (S. Bussotti),

a.molinari@icram.org (A. Molinari), mmurenu@unica.it (M. Murenu), pais@uniss.it (A. Pais), Nunziacarla.Spano@unime.it (N. Spano` ),
rafbaster@gmail.com (R. Balzano), tundiagardy@earthlink.net (T. Agardy), boero@unile.it (F. Boero), carrada@unina.it (G. Carrada),
catta@unige.it (R. Cattaneo-Vietti), cau@unica.it (A. Cau), chemello@unipa.it (R. Chemello), silvestrogreco@virgilio.it (S. Greco),
antonio.manganaro@unime.it (A. Manganaro), giuseppe@disciara.net (G. Notarbartolo di Sciara), russog@uniparthenope.it (G.F. Russo),
l.tunesi@icram.org (L. Tunesi).
0006-3207/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.12.013