Bibliographical analysis of marine protected areas
| Assesment of the role of west african marine protected aréa as a vector for the conservation of natural renewable resources and for economic and social development (PNBA, RBDS, RBABB) - Final Synthésis | Condition, exploitation ans uses of natural renewable resources
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Summary |
The historical analysis allows us to measure not only the immense interest generated by the notion of a protected marine area (MPA), but also the evolution of its concept. In fact, from the period before 1980 until today, there has been a significant evolution in the concept of a protected marine area, not only from the angle of its functions, but also at the level of its establishment and the setting up of its management system, as well as the policies and law relative to an MPA.
The texts from the period before 1980 were mostly about scientific research, conservation, and education concerning the MPA. At any rate, the multiplicity of conflicts between users or residents and supervisors, just as the subsequent failures of reaching the assigned objectives in the protected marine areas, led to integrating the needs of the resident or peripheral population. Since the beginning of the 1970's, the texts also speak of the necessary integration of the MPA in the framework of a national or regional policy substantiated by national legislation.
Beginning in the 1980's, this integration expressed itself in two ways, the specialization, and the multi-functioning of the MPA. In the first case, MPA were created that were particularly devoted to the conservation of biodiversity and dwellings, to the development of fishing and the protection of maritime resources, and to tourism and education. In the second case, a system was elaborated to permit the MPA to ensure the compatibility of all its functions in the same area. The multi-functioning of the protected marine areas and the coastal dimension have thus been recognized and helped by a re-orientation of the research efforts which have established that the different functions of an MPA can be mutually reinforced. International and regional agreements were signed during this period, followed by the generalization of the elaboration and the setting up of national maritime and coastal conservation legislation and policy.
With the end of the 1990's, the conciliation of the protection of fishing and coastal resources and their arguable development was a favored theme. At the same time, some authors evoked the role of protected marine areas in the governing of oceans, and others have expressed the relationships between tourism and the MPA, participating in the appearance of eco-tourism. In this way it seems that the MPA are no longer considered as tools of exclusion, but among other things, as tools for the management of economic and social activities. Their management, which was centralized in the beginning, is now based on the principle of partnership, which tends to promote the possibility of the development of multi-activity in the protected coastal and marine areas, without compromising conservation. The present period is also marked by the influence of the international models of the creation and the management of MPA which is expressed, among other things, by the transcription of international commitments and good governing.
The historical analysis also reveals that certain things are lacking, the first of which is the global knowledge of the eco-systems of protected coastal and marine areas, and the demographic and socio-economic relations between the protected marine area and the periphery, relationships and their evolution, the methods for the regulation of access to renewable natural resources, and public policies, the lack of which are detrimental to the elaboration of governing plans and public policy options.
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