MARINE PROTECTED AREAS: DELIVERING OCEAN RESILIENCE TO ALLEVIATE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGEThe climate crisis brings unprecedented threats to our planet and its ocean

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Rising water temperatures, ocean acidification and increased weather instability contribute to the degradation and loss of marine services in many ways — from shifts in fishery and energy resources to more frequent storms and heat waves. These impacts create many challenges for all communities, coastal and inland, including threatened food security, the destruction of man-made structures and systems along our coastlines, loss of assets supporting our socio-economic well-being and the collapse of marine habitats that both people and wildlife call home. This puts coastal and oceanic goods and services, worth an estimated US $2.5 trillion annually, at risk. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are scientifically demonstrated to be efficient and cost-effective tools for alleviating the impacts of climate change and human pressures, reinforcing ecosystem resilience and improving the capacity of habitats to act as a blue carbon sink. As such, they directly contribute to the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Life Below Water. MPAs are central in achieving target 14.2 Protect and restore ecosystems, as well as target 14.5 Conserve coastal and marine areas, neither of which has been on track to meet their 2020 deadline. At the same time, effective MPAs would support the success of SDG 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and contribute to the climate actions laid out by each nation following ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement, called Nationally Determined Contributions.

However, to be resilient to the impacts of climate change, MPAs need to be based on scientific criteria and follow good ocean governance. Lack of effective management in areas designated for protection continues to deliver many Paper Parks — where governments have declared their intentions for MPAs, but not followed up with tangible action on the ground or in the water to effectively restore and protect these areas. In 2019, one year before the SDG target 14.5 deadline for a minimum 10% of coastal and marine areas to be protected, less than 2% of European seas were effectively managed and monitored under MPAs. Policy solutions for our ocean must work together in a cohesive and collaborative way, complementing the overall reduction of harmful emissions and supporting shared actions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as required by the Paris Agreement.

Seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean — nature protection at sea to support climate resilience

Salt marsh restoration project on the Baltic Sea coast — the harmony of habitat recovery and carbon capture In 2014, a restoration project on the German Baltic coastline began: two 100-hectare polders (artificial coastal areas created by means of dikes and draining) were to be restored to their natural marine state. 4.5 kilometers of dikes were removed to open former intensively-drained meadows to the sea. New dikes were built, and the two polders were successfully flooded in November 2019 and March 2020. Once flooded, the former polders quickly started to revert to salt marshes.

Under the previous conditions, the exposed peatlands degraded, emitting vast amounts of CO2. Thanks to the new

Posidonia oceanica is a common Mediterranean species of seagrass which provides many ecosystem services that are relevant in the face of climate change.1 Not only does it directly capture CO2, it also decreases the water pH to buffer the acidification caused by climate change, protects coastlines from erosion, provides essential habitats for wildlife, and forms the spawning grounds and nursery areas for many fish species, in turn delivering positive impacts for fisheries. Despite these benefits for nature, climate mitigation and people, more than a third of Posidonia meadows have been lost from the Mediterranean Sea in the last 60 years due to combined pressures from climate change and human activities which disturb the seabed, including fishing and tourism.2

Science has observed that when MPA networks are effectively planned and implemented, they are capable of protecting and supporting the growth of Posidonia oceanica — one of the ocean’s climate mitigation heroes. For instance, a 2013 study found that within Torre Guaceto, a well-managed MPA in Italy, the protected seagrass habitats were more resistant to damaging human activities than those outside the protected area, thus enhancing the stability of surrounding marine ecosystems.3

SOURCESBarange, M., Bahri, T., Beveridge, M.C.M., Cochrane, K.L., Funge-Smith, S. & Poulain, F., eds. 2018. Impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture: synthesis of current knowledge, adaptation and mitigation options, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 627. Rome: FAO; Bernhardt, J.R., Leslie, H.R. 2013. Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Annual Review of Marine Science 5. 371–92; Borg, J., Burgess, S. and Milo-Dale, L. 2019. Protecting Our Ocean - Europe’s challenges to meet the 2020 deadlines. 31pp. ;Brander, L., Baulcomb, B., van der Lelij, J.A.C., Eppink, F., McVittie, A., Nijsten, L., van Beukering, P. 2015. The benefits to people of expanding Marine Protected Areas, Report R-15/05, Institute for environmental Studies.; Carr, M.H., Robinson, S.P., Wahle, C., Davis, G., Kroll, S., Murray, S., Schumacker, E.J., Williams, M. 2017. The central importance of ecological spatial connectivity to effective coastal marine protected areas and to meeting the challenges of climate change in the marine environment, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 27: 6–29.; Fraschetti, S., Guarnieri, G., Bevilacqua, S., Terlizzi, A., Boero, F. 2013. Protection enhances community and habitat stability: Evidence from a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area, PLoS ONE 8 (12). e81838.; Hendriks, I. E., Olsen, Y. S., Ramajo, L., Basso, L., Steckbauer, A., Moore, T. S., Howard, J., and Duarte, C. M. 2014. Photosynthetic activity buffers ocean acidification in seagrass meadows, Biogeosciences 11. 333–346.; Haines, R., Hattam, C., Pantzar, M., Russi, D. 2018. Study on the economic benefits of Marine Protected Areas: final report, European Commission.; IPCC 2019. Summary for Policymakers. In: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (eds.)]. In press.; IUCN 2017. The Ocean and climate change, Issue Brief.; Marbà, N., Díaz-Almela, E., Duarte, C.M. 2014. Mediterranean seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) loss between 1842 and 2009, Biological Conservation 176. 183 – 190.; Luisetti, T., Jackson, E.L., Turner, R.K. 2013. Valuing the European ‘coastal blue carbon’ storage benefit, Marine Pollution Bulletin 71. 101 – 106.; Micheli, F., Saenz-Arroyo, A., Greenley, A., Vazquez, L., Espinoza Montes, J.A., Rossetto, M., De Leo, G.A. 2012. Evidence that marine reserves enhance resilience to climatic impacts, PLoS ONE 7(7). e40832.; Ocean and Climate Platform 2019. Scientific Fact Sheets.; Ocean and Climate Platform 2019. Ocean & climate change: new challenges: Focus on 5 key themes of the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere.; OECD 2017. Marine Protected Areas: Economics, Management and Effective Policy Mixes, OECD Publishing, Paris.; Roberts, C.M., O’Leary, B.C., McCauley, D.J., Cury, P.M., Duarte, C.M., Lubchenco, J., Pauly, D., Sáenz-Arroyo, A., Sumaila, U.R., Wilson, R.W., et al. 2017. Marine reserves can mitigate and promote adaptation to climate change, PNAS 24. 6167-6175.; Russi D., Pantzar M., Kettunen M., Gitti G., Mutafoglu K., Kotulak M. & ten Brink P. 2016. Socio-Economic Benefits of the EU Marine Protected Areas, Report prepared by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) for DG Environment. ; Telesca, L., Belluscio, A., Criscoli, A. Ardizzone, G., Apostolaki, E.T., Fraschetti, S., Gristina, M., Knittweis L., Martin, C.S., Pergent, G., Alagna, A. et al. 2015. Seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica) distribution and trajectories of change, Scientific Reports 5. 12505.; Tittensor, D.P., Beger, M., Boerder, K., Boyce, D.G., Cavanagh, R.D., Godin, A.C., Ortuño Crespo, G., Dunn, D.C., Ghiffary, W. et al. 2019. Integrating climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the global ocean, Science Advances. 5.; Watkiss, P., Ventura, A. and Poulain, F. 2019. Decision-making and economics of adaptation to climate change in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 650. Rome: FAO.; Westlund, L.; Charles, A.; Garcia S.; Sanders, J. (eds). 2017. Marine protected areas: Interactions with fishery livelihoods and food security, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 603. Rome: FAO.

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Front cover photograph: © divedog / Shutterstock

© Magali Agreil-PMCB

SUCCESS STORIES: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO THE CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY CRISES

1. Hendriks, I. E., Olsen, Y. S., Ramajo, L., Basso, L., Steckbauer, A., Moore, T. S., Howard, J., and Duarte, C. M. (2014). Photosynthetic activity buffers ocean acidification in seagrass meadows, Biogeosciences, 11, 333–346.

2. Telesca, L., Belluscio, A., Criscoli, A., Ardizzone, G., Apostolaki, E., Fraschetti, S., Gristina, M., Leyla, K., Martin, C.S., Pergent, G. 2015. Seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica) distribution and trajectories of change, Scientific Reports 5 (12505).

3. Fraschetti S, Guarnieri G, Bevilacqua S, Terlizzi A, Boero F (2013). Protection enhances community and habitat stability: Evidence from a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area. PLoS ONE 8(12).

OUR MISSION ISTO STOP DEGRADATION

OF THE PLANET’S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND TO BUILD

A FUTURE IN WHICH HUMANS LIVE IN HARMONY

WITH NATURE.

saltmarsh vegetation and high water level, 5,000 tons of CO2 emissions are calculated to now remain locked in the ground every year. The now-restored habitat also overlaps with the migratory routes of several species of waterfowl, delivering a haven on their long journeys.

This project also exemplifies successful spatial co-management, with constructive dialogue between the local farmers and municipalities contributing to the effective implementation of the restoration project.

Lead authors:Janica BorgSenior Marine Protection and Spatial Planning Policy Coordinator

Alexandre CornetOcean Policy Assistantacornet@wwf.eu

For more information:Dr Antonia LeroyHead of Ocean Policyaleroy@wwf.eu

Larissa Milo-DaleSenior Communications Officer, Marinelmilodale@wwf.eu

Working togetherto safeguard Marine Protected Areas

HOW MPAS CAN ALLEVIATE THE

EFFECTS OFCLIMATE CHANGE

UNDERSTANDINGTHE RISKS

WHAT THE SCIENCE TELLS US

WHAT NEEDS TOBE DONE

HUMAN-INDUCEDCLIMATE CHANGE

Annual human CO2 emissions jumped

from below 2 billion tons at the start of the 20th century to over

37 billion tons in 2018

For marine research to effectively examine

climate change, scientific reference areas which are left untouched are

required — these can be within or outside of MPAs

Good MPA planning fosters dialogue between diverse users

and stakeholders of marine spaces in the face of increased

competition and sea use

Healthy coastal habitats like seagrasses, dune

systems, mud and mangroves protect

against coastal erosion and extreme weather

caused by climate change

BENEFITSFOR

PEOPLE

Well-managed MPAs support large fish

populations and diversity, bringing

food and economic security to people

MPAs foster human well-being

by providing thriving coastal

and marine environments

BENEFITSFOR

BIODIVERSITYMPAs provide

refugia for juveniles and protect species

and habitats from extractive and

destructive activities

MPAs support the resilience of marine life

– for example, fish populations increase

as individuals grow larger and more fertile.

As warmer, more acidic and oxygen-deprived waters force

species to move, MPA networks help marine life find refugia

and recover

BLUE CARBONSeagrasses, salt marshes,

mangroves and the seafloor all provide direct

capture and storage of carbon. Actions which

disturb or reduce these habitats must be

restricted

Disruptingseafloor

sedimentsby trawling

Constructingport andharbourfacilities

Extractingsand

and gravel

Deep seamining, oil andgas exploration

Oxygen-deprivation reduces the health of deep-sea organisms,

making them less effective carbon sinks

Species diversity and population density

decrease

PRESSURES ONMARINE LIFE:

Geographic distribution of

species changes

Melting glaciers

Rising sealevels

Less oxygenin the sea

Less mixingof layers ofoxygen into

deeper waters

ELEVATEDSEA

TEMPERATURESThe ocean has

absorbed up to 93% of excess heat from

greenhousegas emissions

in theatmospheresince 1970,

which leads to:

Intensified and more frequent weather events

Ecosystems already stressed by human activities become

increasingly vulnerable

The ocean's capacity to regulate climate is

reduced, as it no longer effectively traps heat or excess carbon

OCEANACIDIFICATION

Since 1980, theocean has

absorbed upto 30% of

human-inducedCO2 emissions,

which has madeit more acidic

Living conditions of coastal

communities

Integrity to man-madestructures and systems

along our coastlines

Critical coastal andoffshore assets

such as offshorewind farms

Coastal erosion and extreme

weather events increase human vulnerability to climate change through loss of:

Food security at risk

People's food

security is threatened

At global level, increasing water

temperatures and acidification alter

marine food webs, instigate algal blooms, and

create dead zonesat sea

Loss of revenue for fisheries, aquaculture

and tourism

Health of marine life

declines

A more acidicocean weakens the shells andstructures ofmany species

DEGRADATION OF OCEAN ECOSYSTEM

SERVICES TO PEOPLE - INCLUDING:

Coastal communitiesand assets in jeopardy

€

Weaker blue economy

Support ecological coherence and

connectivity of species, follow good ocean

governance and SMART* principles (Specific,

Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time based)

LONG-TERMVIEW

Adopt a precise time frame for achieving MPA

objectives

Maintain flexible and iterative

management to adapt to changes in

the environment

FINANCIALSECURITY

Guaranteed, long-term funding secures effective

planning, monitoring, evaluation,

enforcement and habitat restoration

SOUNDPLANNING

MPA management activities based on

robust scientific understanding

Strong management plans, with proper

restrictions in place and tangible

restoration targets

Effective implementation of management plans

Stakeholder involvement and

collaborative approaches to foster

support and compliance

Broader spatial and socio-economic

integration of MPA planning through the ecosystem approach

to Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)

INTEGRITY

Nature needs to be protected for its own value, not as an alternative to the

reduction of h armful emissions

Marine protection must

not be weakened by economic

interests

By 2030, protect at least 30% of our ocean under effective MPAs, including highly protected areas, with fully implemented management plans, monitoring and transparent reporting.

Ensure that MPAs conserve biodiversity through restoring and maintaining ecosystems to enhance ecosystem functionality, thereby alleviating the impacts of climate change.

Ensure that MPAs are designated in ecologically meaningful locations, work as a well-connected and coherent network, and account for predicted shifts in the geographic distribution of species caused by climate change.

Ensure that the main priority of all MPAs is conservation of biodiversity and restoration of ecosystems, not economic growth of marine industries or industrial carbon offset schemes. A sustainable blue economy and economic opportunities for coastal communities are welcome added benefits of MPAs.

Develop MPAs in the broader framework of ecosystem-based Marine Spatial Planning: ensure space for nature and take the limited carrying capacities of our ocean into account when planning for sustainable marine economic activities.

ACT NOW!

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS