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S120 S. GRECO ET AL.

* General reserve (B). Low-impact tourism is allowed (self-guided trails allow educational activities;
boating, swimming, snorkelling, fishing and scuba-diving are allowed with restrictions on numbers, size
and types of boat and fishing technique).

* Partial reserve (C). Usually, a buffer between the exterior of the park and more restricted protected
zones, usually containing the park’s administrative and educational facilities and usually allowing
restricted recreational navigation and some sporting and commercial fishing activities.

Recent studies have shown the value of well-designed networks of reserves presenting little real cost,
resulting from restrictions in the use of each local area, and enormous benefits, spread across wide areas
(Roberts and Hawkins, 2000). The open nature of marine ecosystems and the large-scale patterns of
dispersal that characterize many marine species require taking into account that such highly variable
processes are influenced by non-linear dynamics and stochasticity (Fogarty et al., 1991).

Each Italian MPA functions as a discrete entity at three key levels, administrative–institutional, socio-
economic and scientific, reducing the opportunities for sharing efforts, resources and experiences. Istituto
Centrale per la Ricerca Applicata al Mare (ICRAM), the lead marine research agency of the Italian
government, was charged by the Italian Ministry of the Environment to formulate a standardized approach
for the implementation of zoning proposals for MPAs in Italy (Villa et al., 2002), and to encourage
coordination of scientific research in MPAs in an attempt to create a scientific system capable of improving
understanding of the dynamics of large marine ecosystems that could help improve the overall management
of these areas.

To this purpose, ICRAM conceived and financed a scientific research programme, ‘Sistema Afrodite’,
which is a first attempt at merging Italian MPAs into a national network for the specific purposes of
standardizing scientific research and sharing information.

THE ‘SISTEMA AFRODITE’ RESEARCH PROGRAMME

The ‘Sistema Afrodite’ has four main objectives: to create a uniform knowledge base, to aid the creation of
a national system of MPAs, to foster co-operation among scientists at national level and to set the
foundations for a Mediterranean network of MPAs.

This triennial programme (2001–2004) encompasses a number of coordinated activities, generally focused
on the ‘A’ zones (integral reserves) within 15 of the 16 gazetted Italian MPAs, because one of these (Secche
di Tor Paterno) does not have any ‘A’ zone (Figure 1) (www.minambiente.it/Sito/settori azione/sdm/amp/
amp istituite/amp istituite.asp). These activities include:

* Detailed mapping } production of bathymetric, geomorphologic and biocoenotic maps are being
prepared for the ‘A’ zones at 1:2000 scale, implemented on a geographical information system.

* Monitoring of water column, phytoplankton and sediments } sampled on a fortnightly schedule.
* Habitat and species inventory } undertaken through the first nationwide application of standard data-

entry forms, developed within the framework of the Specially Protected Areas (SPA) Protocol of the
Barcelona Convention. To facilitate the preparation of the inventories, ICRAM has commissioned
SIBM (the Italian Society of Marine Biologists) to prepare a manual for the identification of
Mediterranean marine habitats and species to be included in the national inventories of natural sites of
conservation interest, similar to the Marine Nature Conservation Review Biotopes classification
produced for the UK (Connor et al., 2003).
* Fish visual censuses } undertaken by scuba divers at 6 month intervals over a 2 yr period, using three
different sampling techniques: stationary point, within a radius of 5 m (78.5 m2) to collect quantitative
data on fish abundance and size composition; path of 15 min time laps (Harmelin-Vivien et al., 1985),
(semi-quantitative/qualitative data), also to collect information on cryptic and rare species, enhancing

Copyright # 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Aquatic Conserv: Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 14: S119–S122 (2004)