Document of bibliographic reference 282359

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Setting priorities for the conservation of marine vertebrates in Brazilian waters

Abstract

The global panorama of biodiversity loss has motivated international agreements to enhance the protection of the oceans. Given the conflicting interests arising from multiple uses of seascapes and finite funds for conservation, developing cost-effective strategies for marine biodiversity conservation is crucial to support decision making. Here, we identified sites in Brazilian waters that would maximize species representation and avoid potential conflicts with relevant economic activities. We compared conservation benefits provided by three conservation-planning scenarios that incorporated the distribution of 750 marine vertebrate species, while considering established marine protected areas (MPAs) and blocks concessioned for the oil and gas industry. The results showed that a MPA network encompassing 10% of the study area with high conservation priority would cover between 85.8 and 86.5% of species distributions, on average. We found that incorporating existing MPAs and areas concessioned for oil and gas exploitation in the prioritization process caused only a small loss in representation of near-threatened and threatened species. Our results highlight, therefore, that it is possible to reconcile current offshore oil and gas production with the expansion of the national MPA network, without significant losses in species' representation. These results represent a preliminary assessment of spatial priorities for conservation of marine vertebrates in Brazilian waters. They can be used to prompt a dialog with social actors, in order to expand the national MPA system.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000352749700003

Bibliographic citation

Vilar, C.C.; Joyeux, J.-C.; Loyola, R.; Spach, H.L. (2015). Setting priorities for the conservation of marine vertebrates in Brazilian waters. Ocean Coast. Manag. 107: 28-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.01.018

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true