Engaging and legitimizing communities: co-designing a community-based Marine Protected Area

Marine Protected Areas are increasingly used as tools to preserve marine habitats and biodiversity worldwide. Nonetheless, creating MPAs in densely populated multi-use coastal areas comes with intrinsic conflict potential, since protection and economic development are not always hand-in-hand and local users might disagree with the designation of such conservation tools. The use of inclusive and transparent participatory processes to co-design such MPAs can be seen as a way of protecting biodiversity while acknowledging the needs of local users and building conservation tools that fit both purposes. Here we describe a participatory process developed to co-design a Marine Protected Area of Community Interest in a biodiversity, fishing and tourism hotspot in the Algarve (southern Portugal) where the majority of involved stakeholders (96 %) endorsed the final MPA proposal. The methodology and tools used are described in detail, lessons learned are critically analysed and a roadmap to be used in other realities is provided. Evidences collected show that the approach developed allows conservation and economic activities to share the same ground and advocate for the same goals in preserving coastal marine habitats.

Palavras-chave

Bottom-up processes Co-design Community-based MPAs Participatory process Stakeholder participation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/54547

Citação

Rangel, M., Costa, B. H. E., Guimarães, M. H., & Ressurreição, A. et al. (2025). Engaging and legitimizing communities: co-designing a community-based Marine Protected Area. Marine Policy, 178, Article 106695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106695

DOI

10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106695

Coleções

CEID - Contribuições em Revistas Científicas / Contribution to Journals

Licença CC

cclicense-by-nc-nd

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