Page 9 - climate-change2013

Cabo de Gata-Nijar Natural Park, Spain. Photo: A. Barrajon

improve information and adapt to change. Moreover, tion with RAC/SPA is addressing the impact of climate
information about the impact of climate change on change on Mediterranean MPAs with the long-term aim
biodiversity will provide the evidence required to jus- of building a strategy for assessing and minimizing the
tify investment in mitigation and adaptation measures. risk posed by climate change to marine and coastal
Finally, climate change monitoring programmes can ecosystems. This work will build towards the medium-
furnish valuable baseline information that can feed into term goals of the SAP BIO Programme at the Medi-
current efforts to evaluate the impact of climate change terranean level (UNEP-MAP-RAC/SPA, 2009), which
by the end of the current century. Since the impact risk include improving coordinated actions across Mediter-
will depend on the areas considered, these efforts will ranean MPAs, informing adaptive approaches to cli-
allow resources to be allocated to those areas that are mate change for effective MPA management, initiating
expected to suffer the most. a climate alert warning system at different geographical
scales and reducing vulnerability within MPAs.
Mitigation of climate change: A key goal of this programme is to identify the most
It refers to those response appropriate parameters for monitoring climate change
strategies that reduce the sources impacts on biodiversity in these MPAs at a Mediterra-
of greenhouse gases or enhance nean scale. That will enhance our understanding of how
their sinks, to subsequently reduce marine communities respond and help managers as-
the probability of reaching a given sess the condition of their sites and the environmental
level of climate change. Mitigation changes that are occurring there.
reduces the likelihood of exceeding
the adaptive capacity of natural To address this goal we organized several meetings to
systems and human societies. bring together climate change researchers, biodiversity
scientists and protected area stakeholders covering a
wide range of expertise. The resulting discussions and
the work conducted since then have been compiled into
Climate change needs to be taken into consideration in
all MPA management plans. Incorporating it into MPA this guide for Mediterranean MPA managers. It aims to
monitoring does not require expensive equipment or give some guidance on how to measure the impact of
highly technical abilities. It can further help managers climate change on the marine biodiversity of protected
understand the vulnerabilities and diverse responses of areas and how to improve planning for the mitigation of
their marine communities at different sites and revise future impact. It also summarizes the most important
MPA zoning and management accordingly. There may threats to and effects on Mediterranean marine biodi-
also be opportunities to include monitoring actions in versity that have been observed to date and outlines
MPA management plans and to link them to existing the many uncertainties that still exist in understanding
climate and oceanographic monitoring programmes in ecological responses to climate change. The guide is
the Mediterranean region and Europe. thus intended as an aid and managers may choose to
use any of the several different monitoring plans and in-
Within the framework of the MedPAN Association and dicators outlined, depending on their particular circum-
the MedPAN North project, IUCN Med in collabora- stances and management objectives.

MEDITERRANEAN MARINE PROTECTED AREAS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A GUIDE TO REGIONAL MONITORING AND ADAPTATION OPPORTUNITIES 7