According to the study Evidence of Economic Benefits of Marine Protected Areas, recently published in the journal Scientia Marina, marine protected areas (MPAs) bring a host of economic benefits to the fishing and tourism industries.
According to data drawn from the analysis of more than 50 protected areas in more than 30 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania, MPAs contribute to restoring fish populations by 500% on average and produce profits of billions of dollars a year.
To give just a few examples, the La Restinga MPA, in the Canary Islands, generates almost 740,000 dollars (683,000 euros) from diving tourism, while the Medes Islands, in Catalonia, generates 7.4 million dollars (6. 8 million euros) annually thanks to non-extractive tourism.
According to Dr. Mark John Costello, author of the study and professor at Nord University in Norway, “historically, the fishing industry has tried to block no-take MPAs, arguing that it is a serious blow to profits.” But now the opposite has been proven. According to him, his study “unequivocally shows that MPAs that prohibit fishing are not only more profitable, but are also cheaper to manage and maintain than MPAs with more complex fishing regulations.”
The sample they took to do the research was not exactly small, but the scientists reviewed 200 studies on MPAs and analyzed 51 areas that represent a diversity of ecosystems: from coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, rocky reefs, to salt marshes. and sandy and muddy seabed habitats.
For his part, National Geographic Pristine Seas founder and author of the book The Nature of Nature, Enric Sala, “outdated misconceptions about the economic impacts of MPAs are blocking progress toward the world’s urgent conservation goal.”
Sala was not involved in the study that has now been published, but has stressed that “only about 8% of the ocean is protected to a certain extent”, which means that “new protected areas need to be added every week to achieve the ambition of the objectives set by the 2030 Agenda”.
According to the results obtained, economic benefits were recorded for fisheries adjacent to protected areas in 46 (90%) of the MPAs, including an increase in fish catch (76%), fish body size (25%). , and spill detection (16%).
Along these lines, 24 countries in tropical and subtropical areas demonstrated that they have increased their economic benefits thanks to the protection of profitable coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass ecosystems. Countries include, for example, France, Spain, Italy and New Zealand.
