The Perception of Ecosystem Services in the Marine Protected Areas: a comparison between Italy and Spain

To prevent the overexploitation of the marine ecosystem and to conserve biodiversity, the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are one of the most common tools, but their management and effectiveness depend on how the local population and the main stakeholders perceive them other than the existence of a good and proper management plan. This work uses the questionnaire methodology to assess how a MPA can lead benefit (Ecosystem Services) for the local people and how the stakeholder, in turn, perceive and evaluate the MPAs presence. The analysis is performed by comparing two MPAs: the first one is the “Parque Natural del Estrecho” in the autonomous community of Andalusia (Spain) while the second one is the “Area Marina Protetta di Porto Cesareo” in the Apulian region (Italy). The interviews are realized on four categories of stakeholders: diving workers, small-scale fishermen, recreational fishermen and tourism service operators. Stakeholder highlighted the lack of monitoring for the activity of the non-professional fishermen, that often use unauthorised fishing gears, sell their catches and fish more than the five kilograms (Reg. CE 1967/2006) allowed by the law, damaging the environmental conservation and the small-scale fisheries. Moreover, a high number of tourists leads to positive economical incomes for many local activities, also connected with an environmental friendly tourism, but if this tourism activity is not well managed could lead to negative environmental effects, due to the pollution or to the natural landscape deterioration (e.g. dunes). The results of this work confirm partially the precedents studies on MPAs but also highlight some new perceptions about the ecosystem services provided by MPAs. This study demonstrates that the perception of the stakeholder can change during the years and that the benefits of the presence of the MPA are not always obtained immediately.