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Small-Scale Sicilian Fisheries 395

Management. Management authority in the reserve falls under the hierarchy of the na-
tional Ministry of the Environment, the Province of Trapani, and the Favignana town
council. Each of these entities has some level of responsibility for managing and con-
tributing resources to the reserve. Until 2000, the reserve was directly managed by the
port authority of Trapani, which took no active role in the management of the reserve.
Due to the resulting mismanagement of the reserve, the responsibility for management
was transferred to the Favignana town council in 2000. The town council has become a
much more active and dynamic management body. As an example, it nominated a new
director of the reserve in 2001, sponsored a series of research projects in the reserve,
and placed buoys in the reserve demarcating the boundaries of no entry zones.

To date, few biological studies have examined the effectiveness of the EIMR in
terms of its ability to increase the biomass of local marine organisms and none have
been published. The consensus of popular opinion, expressed in interviews with the
author, suggests that the reserve is completely ineffective, even though very little re-
search has been done to prove the reserve’s overall effectiveness. Furthermore, minimal
work has been done to determine the economic impacts and no work has been done on
the sociocultural impacts of the marine reserve on local stakeholders (Bertolino, Lom- Q2
bardo, & Santulli, 2001).

Methodology

Sicily is perhaps the ideal setting for an examination of the evolution and performance
of marine reserves in Italy and the Mediterranean. There is tremendous diversity in the
types of marine resources MPAs protect and in the degree to which each has achieved
that protection. Analysis of the effectiveness of marine reserves in Sicily required the
collection of both primary and secondary data. Primary data were gathered through the
use of a series of survey instruments and personal interviews in two marine reserves in
northwest Sicily. Secondary data were collected through an extensive primary literature

Table 1
Characteristics of the Egadi Islands Marine Reserve

and the Gulf of Castellammare Fishery Reserve

MPA characteristics EIMR GCFR
Size
Year created 50,000 ha 20,000 ha
1991 (de facto management 1990
Management body
started in 2000) Sicilian regional
Type of MPA Favignana town council government

Number of fishing communities Multiple-use area (4 zones Fishery exclusion zone
Number of artisanal fishers ranging from no entry to controlling trawling
Most frequently used gear minimal limitations)
Support for MPA by fishers 5
Level of active enforcement 3 115
Benefits perceived by fishers? 32 Trammel net
Trammel net Yes
Minimal None
None Yes
No