TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying coastal and marine priority areas for conservation in the United Arab Emirates
AU - Lamine, Emna Ben
AU - Mateos-Molina, Daniel
AU - Antonopoulou, Marina
AU - Burt, John A.
AU - Das, Himansu Sekhar
AU - Javed, Salim
AU - Muzaffar, Sabir
AU - Giakoumi, Sylvaine
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak and Emirates Nature-WWF Board of Directors for their continued support for this project. A special thanks to Her Excellency Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, for her advice throughout this project. This work would not have been possible without the close cooperation with local and federal environmental authorities in the UAE: Environmental Agency Abu Dhabi, Dubai Municipality, Ajman Municipality, Ras Al Khaimah Environment Protection and Development Authority (EPDA), Sharjah Environment and Protected Areas Authority, Umm Al Quwain Municipality and Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. We are grateful to these agencies for providing data of their own to augment the results of this work. We thank Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) for its support. Specifically, we are grateful to His Excellency Saif Al Ghais, Secretary General of Ras Al Khaimah—EPDA for his input and advice. In addition, Obaid Al Shamsi, Shahid Khan, Ahmed Al Hashmi, Jane Glavan, Ibrahim A. Bugla, Mohammed Al Tayeb, Junid N. Shah, Jacky Judas, John Pereira, Fadi M. Akram, Brendan Whittington-Jones, Shaikha Hassan Ali AlShehhi, Jimena Rodriguez-Zarate, Amna Al Mansoori, Hind Al Ameri, Timothée Cook, Oli Taylor, Mouaz Hamza, Maitha Al Hameli, Mona Moller, Nicholas Pilcher and Dan Dorfman provided inputs in the project design, workshops, advice and logistics.
Funding Information:
Funding for this work was provided by the Emirates Nature—World Wild Fund in the UAE. Acknowledgements
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - The waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) host a diversity of marine and coastal habitats that are under increasing pressure from multiple anthropogenic activities related to rapid economic growth. In response, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) currently cover 12% of the UAE’s coastal and marine zones. The UAE National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan aims to increase the extent of protection to 14% by 2021, a target that exceeds current global commitments. We applied systematic conservation planning to (1) assess whether conservation features (i.e. species and habitats of conservation concern) are adequately represented in the current system of MPAs, and (2) identify complementary coastal and marine priority areas for conservation and management. Eight planning scenarios were produced based on different conservation targets, the inclusion (or not) of existing MPAs in the generated solutions, and the consideration (or not) of dredging (an activity linked with coastal development in the UAE). A gap analysis demonstrated that to achieve the targets set by experts for all conservation features, additional areas would need to be integrated in conservation plans and policies. Key coastal and marine priority areas were consistently selected for conservation across all planning scenarios. The findings of this work provide a basis for the identification of conservation priorities that can be embedded in the current network of MPAs by extending their boundaries, in post-2020 conservation strategies including plans for creating new MPAs, and in broader spatial planning initiatives.
AB - The waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) host a diversity of marine and coastal habitats that are under increasing pressure from multiple anthropogenic activities related to rapid economic growth. In response, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) currently cover 12% of the UAE’s coastal and marine zones. The UAE National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan aims to increase the extent of protection to 14% by 2021, a target that exceeds current global commitments. We applied systematic conservation planning to (1) assess whether conservation features (i.e. species and habitats of conservation concern) are adequately represented in the current system of MPAs, and (2) identify complementary coastal and marine priority areas for conservation and management. Eight planning scenarios were produced based on different conservation targets, the inclusion (or not) of existing MPAs in the generated solutions, and the consideration (or not) of dredging (an activity linked with coastal development in the UAE). A gap analysis demonstrated that to achieve the targets set by experts for all conservation features, additional areas would need to be integrated in conservation plans and policies. Key coastal and marine priority areas were consistently selected for conservation across all planning scenarios. The findings of this work provide a basis for the identification of conservation priorities that can be embedded in the current network of MPAs by extending their boundaries, in post-2020 conservation strategies including plans for creating new MPAs, and in broader spatial planning initiatives.
KW - Conservation priorities
KW - Dredging
KW - Expert knowledge
KW - Gap analysis
KW - Marine protected areas
KW - Systematic conservation planning
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U2 - 10.1007/s10531-020-02007-4
DO - 10.1007/s10531-020-02007-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85087427533
SN - 0960-3115
VL - 29
SP - 2967
EP - 2983
JO - Biodiversity and Conservation
JF - Biodiversity and Conservation
IS - 9-10
ER -