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OPEN Five key attributes can increase

marine protected areas

performance for small-scale

received: 04 July 2016 fisheries management
accepted: 04 November 2016
Published: 01 December 2016
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1,2
1,†
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Antonio Di Franco , Pierre Thiriet , Giuseppe Di Carlo , Charalampos Dimitriadis ,
Patrice Francour , Nicolas L. Gutiérrez , Alain Jeudy de Grissac , Drosos Koutsoubas ,
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Marco Milazzo , María del Mar Otero , Catherine Piante , Jeremiah Plass-Johnson ,
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Susana Sainz-Trapaga , Luca Santarossa , Sergi Tudela 10,‡ & Paolo Guidetti 1,2
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Marine protected areas (MPAs) have largely proven to be effective tools for conserving marine
ecosystem, while socio-economic benefits generated by MPAs to fisheries are still under debate. Many
MPAs embed a no-take zone, aiming to preserve natural populations and ecosystems, within a buffer
zone where potentially sustainable activities are allowed. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) within buffer
zones can be highly beneficial by promoting local socio-economies. However, guidelines to successfully
manage SSFs within MPAs, ensuring both conservation and fisheries goals, and reaching a win-win
scenario, are largely unavailable. From the peer-reviewed literature, grey-literature and interviews, we
assembled a unique database of ecological, social and economic attributes of SSF in 25 Mediterranean
MPAs. Using random forest with Boruta algorithm we identified a set of attributes determining
successful SSFs management within MPAs. We show that fish stocks are healthier, fishermen incomes
are higher and the social acceptance of management practices is fostered if five attributes are
present (i.e. high MPA enforcement, presence of a management plan, fishermen engagement in MPA
management, fishermen representative in the MPA board, and promotion of sustainable fishing). These
findings are pivotal to Mediterranean coastal communities so they can achieve conservation goals while
allowing for profitable exploitation of fisheries resources.
Across the globe marine fisheries employ 200 million people and provide a primary source of food for one billion
people . The importance of fish as food and for jobs has resulted in long-term overfishing of global fish stocks.
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Currently, 77% of global fish stocks are overfished and this is predicted to increase to 88% by 2050 . The primary
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consequences of overexploitation are (i) severe environmental impact (from single stocks to ecosystems) and
(ii) substantial public subsidies for the continuation of the fisheries because of their serious socio-economical
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underperformance . Overfishing leads to a classic “lose-lose” system where ecosystems, economies and the social
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well-being of people are negatively affected . However, the implementation of fisheries management strategies has
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resulted in some fish stocks showing encouraging signs of rebuilding . Further benefits are expected if additional
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1 Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, FRE 3729 ECOMERS, Parc Valrose 28, Avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice, France. Consorzio
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Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare, CoNISMa, Piazzale Flaminio 9, 00196 Rome, Italy. WWF-MedPO, Via
Po 25/c, 00198 Roma, Italy. Department of Marine Sciences, School of Environment, University of the Aegean,
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Mytilini, Greece. National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Zakynthos, Greece. Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, Viale Delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Italy. IUCN Center for Mediterranean Cooperation,
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C/Marie Curie 22, 29590 Campanillas, Málaga, Spain. DiSTeM—Department of Earth and Marine Sciences,
University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 28, 90123 Palermo, Italy. WWF-France 1 Carrefour de Longchamp, 75016
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Paris, France. WWF Mediterranean Programme, Barcelona 08002, Spain. Federparchi – Europarc Italy, Rome
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Italy. Present address: Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, UMR BOREA, Station Marine de Dinard - CRESCO,
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38 Rue du Port Blanc, 35800 Dinard, France. Present address: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food
Government of Catalonia, 08029 Barcelona, Spain. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed
to A.D.F. (email: difry@libero.it)
Scientific RepoRts | 6:38135 | DOI: 10.1038/srep38135 1