Measuring Marine Protected Areas’ Conservation Effort: A Different Look at Three Deeply-Rooted Illusions
Résumé
As a major tool for policies to protect biodiversity, the current idea of Marine Protected
Areas is based on a triptych (a status, a perimeter, and regulations) that is intended to
ensure their effectiveness, with the conservation effort assessed by adding up the
classified surface areas. Based on an international comparative analysis using 13
differentiated case studies, we take another look at three founding illusions according to
which (a) the MPA status corresponds to protection (b) on the level of the classified
perimeter, and (c) founded upon regulations laid down to be respected. Our analysis
shows that the status is an activatable capital, whose activation may encounter various
obstacles that we have listed; that we should distinguish between two levels and types of
protection, active and passive, rather than stick to the classified perimeter; that the lack
of specific regulations means nothing with regard to the lack of protection; and that MPAs
with a legal arsenal at their disposal use these rules first and foremost as a medium for
dialogue with stakeholders, with various aims. This analysis leads us to specify what
MPAs actually are, and to suggest new means and indicators to assess the conservation
efforts made.
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