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that concentrate harmful substances in water or sediments, low flushing rates, and/or
oxygen depletion. Additional stress may be caused by human influences such as pollution
and changes in salinity. Thus, an area already subject to stress from natural and/or human
factors may be in need of special protection from further stress, including that arising from
international shipping activities.

4.4.11 Bio-geographic importance – An area that either contains rare biogeographic
qualities or is representative of a biogeographic “type” or types, or contains unique or
unusual biological, chemical, physical, or geological features.

Social, cultural and economic criteria

4.4.12 Social or economic dependency – An area where the environmental quality and the
use of living marine resources are of particular social or economic importance, including
fishing, recreation, tourism, and the livelihoods of people who depend on access to the
area.

4.4.13 Human dependency – An area that is of particular importance for the support of
traditional subsistence or food production activities or for the protection of the cultural
resources of the local human populations.

4.4.14 Cultural heritage – An area that is of particular importance because of the presence
of significant historical and archaeological sites.

Scientific and educational criteria

4.4.15 Research – An area that has high scientific interest.

4.4.16 Baseline for monitoring studies – An area that provides suitable baseline conditions
with regard to biota or environmental characteristics, because it has not had substantial
perturbations or has been in such a state for a long period of time such that it is considered
to be in a natural or near-natural condition.

4.4.17 Education – An area that offers an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate particular
natural phenomena.

For the purpose of the current work, which focuses on the selection of new areas, only the
ecological criteria of the PSSA system (4.4.1 to 4.4.11) are relevant. Matters related to human
aspects (social, cultural, economic, scientific and educational) are more relevant to the second
phase of the project. A comparison between the CBD and PSSA criteria (Table 3-1 below) reveals
that all elements contained in the PSSA criteria also figure in the CBD criteria, albeit at times with a
slightly different formulation.