Developing a Global Classification System for MPAs
At the rate at which human beings consume natural resources, if we do not protect them, we will end up destroying everything we love, among other things, the oceans.
That is why in recent months work has been done to update a Global MPA Classification System that allows better management of the areas with the most natural value in the marine environment, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
Mission of the Project
MPAs, together with other tools, are considered the most effective conservation tool to protect and manage the alteration of marine ecosystems.
In recent years, when a lack of coherence was found in the classification systems of these areas worldwide, a new project under a BUFFER, European Project (Biodiversa Funding), co-lead by Bárbara Bastos Horta e Costa, post doc researcher working in marine conservation and management in the CCMAR (Centro de Ciências do Mar), was developed to create a Regulation Based Classification System of MPAs worldwide that would improve the existing ones allowing a more precise classification by managers of these areas and politicy makers.
The first system was created in 2016 and allows us to classify both the MPA and the zones that make it up individually. In this way the classification is much more faithful to reality (Horta e Costa et al. 2016).
However, this system has undergone modifications in recent years in a way that the different uses that are allowed in these areas explain more specifically to which class the zone or zones that make up the MPA should be assigned and, finally, this one.
Nevertheless, the aim of creating a global classification system comes from different organizations around the world. Currently other organizations, such as MPAtlas, Protected Planet and IUCN, among others, are developing an MPA Guide for the classification of MPAs.
Therefore the project pursued two different goals:
The Regulation Based Classification System and its modifications:
The RBCS is based on a Decision Tree shaped by four levels of decision that determine the Zone Class:
