Document of bibliographic reference 355371

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Effectiveness of protected areas against land development in coastal areas of the Mediterranean global biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

The Mediterranean Basin is a heavily pressured World biodiversity hotspot. Mediterranean coastal areas are especially threatened due to tourism, inland migration and population growth, jeopardizing the remaining natural habitats. Protected areas (PAs) aim to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long term. Here, we assessed whether coastal PAs in 16 Mediterranean countries had been effective at conserving natural habitats from land development between 2000 and 2020, using a Before-After-Control-Impact design with covariates and case-control matching in R. Mediterranean coastal PAs were effective in reducing land development, with just one exception: Israel. Legally stringent reserves were generally more effective than legally lenient multiple-use PAs, with few exceptions: Albania, France and Cyprus. In a number of countries, reserves completely prevented coastal land development, which shows that reserves are a useful tool to preserve waning Mediterranean coastal habitats. Institutional, social, economic and geographic explanatory factors were analysed for PA effectiveness at country scale, but no significant results were found, suggesting high specificity of PA effectiveness.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000886373700002

Bibliographic citation

Donnelly, A.; Rodríguez-Rodríguez, D. (2022). Effectiveness of protected areas against land development in coastal areas of the Mediterranean global biodiversity hotspot. Global Ecology and Conservation 38: e02223. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2022.e02223

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true