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RESERVEBENEFIT
Evaluating and managing connectivity in a network of Marine Protected Areas to maintain genetic diversity and deliver fish beyond protected limits
Coastal marine resources provide major ecosystem services, with about 45% of the world’s fisheries and 90% of fishing employment linked to small-scale artisanal fisheries (vessels smaller than 12 m). Nevertheless, Mediterranean marine resources are declining at an alarming rate and fishing has resulted in the overexploitation of more than 50% of the Mediterranean fisheries resources.
In this context, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are emerging as key conservation and management tools to sustain marine resources and artisanal fisheries through adult spillover and larval dispersal beyond their boundaries. The Mediterranean Sea however lags behind the Aichi’s Conservation Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (10% of sea surface protected by 2020) with only 1% of sea area currently covered by MPAs. There is an urgent need to both inform further expansion of conservation efforts that allow exploited species to persist and sustain artisanal fisheries. Yet, the extent to which larvae and adults disperse outside of MPA boundaries and contribute to sustain local artisanal fisheries are largely unknown.