Designate a Marine Protected Area without setting management measures, usage restrictions, or enforcement

Overall effectiveness category No evidence found (no assessment)
Number of studies: 0
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Effectiveness

not assessed
Certainty

not assessed
Harms

not assessed

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Fishing can impact subtidal benthic invertebrates through species removal or habitat damage from fishing gear entering in contact with the seabed (Collie et al. 2000). Specific areas can be designated as protected, but often these are set without any clear management measures or usage restrictions in place, or enough enforcement (Guidetti et al. 2008). Inside such protected areas, it is unclear which activities and pressures are taking place, and if subtidal benthic invertebrates are able to naturally recover. While such areas, often referred to as “paper parks” (Rife et al. 2013), do exist, they are not recommended by the scientific community, and it is advised to always set clear management plans, objectives, and enforcement for marine protected areas (Di Minin & Toivonen 2015; Jones & De Santo 2016; Rife et al. 2013).

_{Collie J.S., Hall S.J., Kaiser M.J. & Poiner I.R. (2000) A quantitative analysis of fishing impacts on shelf‐sea benthos. Journal of Animal Ecology, 69, 785–798.}

_{Di Minin E. & Toivonen T. (2015) Global protected area expansion: creating more than paper parks. BioScience, 65, 637–638.}

_{Guidetti P., Milazzo M., Bussotti S., Molinari A., Murenu M., Pais A., Spano N., Balzano R., Agardy T., Boero F. & Carrada G. (2008) Italian marine reserve effectiveness: does enforcement matter? Biological Conservation, 141, 699–709.}

_{Jones P.J. & De Santo E.M. (2016) Viewpoint–Is the race for remote, very large marine protected areas (VLMPAs) taking us down the wrong track? Marine Policy, 73, 231–234.}

_{Rife A.N., Erisman B., Sanchez A. & Aburto‐Oropeza O. (2013) When good intentions are not enough… Insights on networks of “paper park” marine protected areas. Conservation Letters, 6, 200–212.}

Key messages

We found no studies that evaluated the effects of designating a Marine Protected Area without setting management measures, usage restrictions, or enforcement on subtidal benthic invertebrate populations.

‘We found no studies’ means that we have not yet found any studies that have directly evaluated this intervention during our systematic journal and report searches. Therefore, we have no evidence to indicate whether or not the intervention has any desirable or harmful effects.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Please cite as:

Lemasson, A.J., Pettit, L.R., Smith, R.K. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Subtidal Benthic Invertebrate Conservation. Pages 635-732 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Subtidal Benthic Invertebrate Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Engage with stakeholders when designing Marine Protected Areas Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link
Designate a Marine Protected Area and prohibit the harvesting of conch Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link
Designate a Marine Protected Area and prohibit the harvesting of scallops Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link