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SUSTAINABLE FINANCING OF MPAs IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Furthermore, the financing gap for these MPAs was assessed and it was found that current
income meets around 69% of the estimated total operating expenses required annually
(median 62%) (Table 11).

Annual operating Percentage of
Annual current
Region funding needs for an effective financial needs
2
(in euros per km ) management 2 covered by current
(in euros per km ) incomes
Mediterranean MPAs 17,948(13) 25,784(13) 69%
EU MPAs 17,816(11) 23,768(11) 74%
Non-EU MPAs 18,676(2) 36,871(2) 40%

Table 11: Funding gaps for effective management

3.3 Costs of MPA creation

While the operating costs for managing MPAs have been documented in past studies, there
have been very few studies that aim to quantify the cost of establishing MPAs. Using
information gathered from a representative sample of MPAs worldwide, McCrea-Strub et al.
(2011) presents the first attempt to identify and describe the various costs of MPA creation.
He developed models to estimate MPA total establishment cost taking into account the time
2
spent in the establishment phase (in years) and MPA size (in km ) as potential predictors of
establishment costs.
Here, the total costs for MPA establishment were explored looking at past investments
associated with specific creation activities. Potential predictors of total establishment costs
were thus explored, including, most significantly, the duration of the establishment phase
and the size of the MPA.
As stated by McCrea-Strub et al. (2011), the quantification of financial costs for a group of
individual MPAs in a non-standardised environment should be backed by a framework
identifying creation phase activities as “initial establishment costs”. In the present study, the
FFEM template previously mentioned was used to support the creation costs analysis.
Theoretically, the creation phase begins with the idea that a particular location deserves
protection, and ends at official designation of the MPA (FFEM, 2010). To ensure a limited
loss of financial records over time due to limited institutional memory (McCrea-Strub et al.,
2011), the analysis of creation cost here focused on MPAs assumed to have recently left
their creation phase. Under the FFEM template, these MPAs are known as “pioneer” MPAs.
Pioneer phase managers were asked to provide information on the costs of activities listed
as in the creation phase in
Table 12 the below: identification of zones of ecological interest, identification of
stakeholders, etc. The total costs of activities in the “creation” phase can thus be considered
as a good approximation of the costs for the creation of an MPA. They include the costs
associated with project proposal, development of a legal framework for designation,
development of a management plan, outreach to the local community and stakeholder
groups, community, ecological and socio-economic research, management and enforcement
training, and infrastructure (including buildings, equipment, and site delineation).

May 2015 – Vertigo Lab, for MedPAN, RAC/SPA and WWF Med. Page 52