Through the assessment of the 1062 marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean Sea, covering 6% of the Mediterranean Basin, a research team led by the CNRS has shown that 95% of the total area protected lacks regulations to reduce human impacts on biodiversity[1]. Unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions, effective levels of protection for biodiversity conservation represent only 0.23% of the Mediterranean Basin. This study, published on April 24th 2020 in One Earth by scientists from the Centre de recherche insulaire et observatoire de l'environnement (CRIOBE, CNRS/UPVD/EPHE) and the Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Science, shows that current efforts are insufficient at managing human uses of nature at sea and protection levels should be increased to deliver tangible benefits for biodiversity conservation.
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[1] The sustainable development goals of the United Nations (UN) cannot be achieved without a healthy ocean; therefore, all parties at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity have agreed to protect 10% of the oceans by 2020.
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