Final Report Summary - DEMARN (Designation and Management of Marine Reserve Networks) The Mediterranean Sea is a well-known hotspot for targeted conservation planning. However, despite the many efforts underway to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2020 (i.e. the EU Biodiversity Strategy as laid out in the EU Biodiversity Strategy, part of the Convention on Biological Diversity), there are virtually no signs of improving trends in the sea. Most marine and coastal ecosystems in the region are used unsustainably and they are deteriorating faster than terrestrial ecosystems. The challenges of biodiversity conservation and sustainability of marine ecosystem services are further complicated by climate change, expected to decrease the effectiveness of state-of-the-art management measures. One of the widely-recognized tools that marine conservationists and planners can use for management of human activity to enhance and support marine conservation is that of marine protected areas (MPAs), ideally arranged throughout the in a network. MPAs are areas of the ocean where regulatory mechanisms limit or restrict human activities in order to protect natural, historic or cultural resources. To achieve varying protection aims, to accommodate certain human uses and to improve their success, managers commonly use spatially-specific regulatory techniques within MPAs such as complete and/or seasonal closures, equipment constraints, permits, and economic incentives or disincentives. The spatially-explicit directives articulated in management plans are often referred to as “zoning”. The use of zones facilitates understanding and compliance by those who have a stake in area management and are on-going users of its resources. The goal of DEMARN (see https://demarn.net.technion.ac.il/ ) is two-fold. Firstly, it aims to map and analyze the context within which MPAs are established and designed in the Mediterranean Sea. Its second goal is to identify the factors that influence conservation planning outcomes within a typical Mediterranean MPA presented as a case study. Of particular interest is identification of the factors that cause planners to deviate from best systematic conservation planning practices. Such practices area often arrived at through the use of decision support tools (DSTs) and their underlying methods; therefore such tools are the main subject researched in the second half of the program. The first two years of the DEMARN focused on characterizing the spatial extent of the geographic distribution and characteristics of Mediterranean Sea MPAs, characterizing their management regimes and disseminating information about the program. Two articles were published and several conference presentations took place during this period. My first paper presents survey information about MPAs of the Mediterranean Sea using a taxonomy based on the spatial distribution of the MPAs and characteristics of protected areas (e.g. size, distance from shore, protection levels, management regimes, relationship to highly impacted areas, etc.). My second paper explores conditions which bring about greater protection levels within MPAs by country and region. The analysis is conducted by examining the relationship between a “protection level” (PL) score and variables pertaining to each country’s conservation efforts, economic conditions and spatial distribution of human impacts. The program’s second two-year period (following relocation of the DEMARN’s PI to the Technion) consisted of a more specific focus on a proposed MPA in Israel and its management regime. Research goals included examining the use of methods of decision-making for arriving at a management plan that includes proposed zoning. Two methods were chosen for in-depth analysis: spatial multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and the use of Marxan with Zones. The results of these two methods can then be compared to the real-world management plan arrived at without the use of DSTs. The case study is the proposed extension of the Rosh HaNikra Protected Area in the northernmost marine waters of Israel, along the border with Lebanon. This is currently an existing small coastal reserve of several kilometers square. The reserve is slated for expansion to approximately 104 km2 (although originally proposed to be double this size). This particular MPA was chosen because it is the MPA extension closest to final approval, with a detailed plan already having been submitted by the Israel Nature Parks Authority (INPA) to the Northern District Planning Committee (one of six such committees in the country). The anticipated public review (“deposit period”) follows the approximately four years that the INPA has promoted the MPA's designation by advancing its statutory approval. Of note already, it that the proposed area was reduced to half based on the claim that not enough information is available about the deeper (and farther) areas of the country’s territorial waters. Once the plan will be deposited by the Northern District Planning Committee further examination of how the decision making process occurs in the real-world will be possible. For the time being, DEMARN has moved forward with a comparison of recommended spatial layout using two methods of analysis: MCA and Marxan with Zones. Both of these are methods of spatial conservation prioritization (SCP), a form of assessment (i.e. analysis of available information) aimed at informing decision-making for a particular class of environmental planning problem. In general terms, SCP uses principles of scoring or complementarity and data that is as comprehensive and heterogeneous as possible and ultimately reflects the requirements for continued existence of ecosystem function. The first method implemented by the DEMARN study, MCA, is based on stakeholder and expert scoring. The second, Marxan, is based on a method of simulated annealing. The results achieved through the use of the two methods mentioned, (MCA and Marxan) are comparable on a raster level. Final concordance scores of the MCA which show suitability of each of the planning unit cells to one of three levels of protection (low, medium and high) can be compared to the results obtained from Marxan with Zones. The latter results are indicated by the number of times a cell is chosen for one of the three protection levels. For both the MCA and MARXAN analysis, physical (natural) and socio-economic attributes of value have been mapped and their relative importance considered. Also, the weighting of these values have incorporated values in the form of: 1) resources/area users; and 2) expert opinion. Such a comparison of SCP results has not been conducted, yet practitioners are often faced with choosing between such methods. Furthermore, although touted as a means of incorporating socio-economic values, MARXAN rarely has included such values in developing proposed zoning plans and MCA has rarely been used for environmental decision-making in the marine environment beyond fisheries management and tourism planning. Over the past reintegration period, I have advanced topics that have supported the work done in DEMARN, particularly through the development of: 1) a method for ecosystem services assessment in the marine area of Israel; and 2) the Israel Marine Plan (IMP). The former topic aided in the assessment of physical and socio-economic attributes of value in the Rosh HaNikra area eventually used for the MCA and Marxan runs. The latter is an on-going effort lead by the PI which has enabled the development of the IMP for Israel’s potential Exclusive Economic Zone - an area of 27,000 km2, larger than the terrestrial area of the country. DEMARN’s research outcomes will influence this plan as well as its implementation; particularly, DEMARN goals of integrated coastal zone management and ecosystem-based management are relevant for the IMP because the IMP (slated for completion by 2016) will implement ecosystem-based management practices and marine protection as it considers current and future uses of the near-shore and offshore environment. Further, my participation in DEMARN has contributed to integration in numerous ways both as a faculty member and in the Israeli academic and scientific community. Most recently I have been appointed as a management committee member of a new COST action entitled: Advancing marine conservation in the European and contiguous seas (MARCONS). This project was awarded in October 2015. To summarize, DEMARN has numerous regional and global contributions, especially as seas are subject to greater exploitation and efforts at conservation increase through marine spatial planning (e.g. Europe’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008) and new national legislation (e.g. UK’s Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009). In addition to the final results of DEMARN expected to be published within the coming year, in December 2015 the DEMARN research group will present its findings and recommendations to the Israel Nature Parks Authority. It is hoped that DEMARN findings will contribute to improved management plans for Rosh HaNikra and other MPAs throughout the region.
