Local and tourist perceptions of coastal marine habitats in Cap de Creus (NE Spain).

Direct human pressure on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) adds to climate change impacts on marine habitats, especially in coastal biodiversity hot spots. Understanding MPA user perception towards the Coastal marine Habitats (CMHs) could improve awareness of the challenges that such areas have to face,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mallo, Miguel, Ziveri, Patrizia, Rossi, Sergio, Reyes-García, Victoria
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufc.br:riufc/74800
Acceso en línea:http://repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/74800
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Anthropogenic pressure
Ecosystem services
Coastal marine habitat
Pressão antropogênica
Ecossistema - sistemas
Habitat costeiro marinho
Descripción
Sumario:Direct human pressure on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) adds to climate change impacts on marine habitats, especially in coastal biodiversity hot spots. Understanding MPA user perception towards the Coastal marine Habitats (CMHs) could improve awareness of the challenges that such areas have to face, eventually providing insights for the design of conservation and tourism management plans. We studied perception of ecosystem services, impacts and threats of CMHs by locals and tourists (n=624) of Cap de Creus MPA (NW Mediterranean Sea). Overall, we found that perceptions of tourists and locals are similar. Respondents perceived that CMHs provide valuable regulating services, and they assigned less value to cultural services. Locals valued the food provision ecosystem service of CMHs signifcantly more than tourists, probably because of the historical importance of fsheries for subsistence. Respondents ranked marine pollution of inland origin, climate change and people’s behaviour towards nature as the most impactful and threatening to CMHs, and invasive marine species as the least. Respondents also perceived that climate change impacts would increase soon, whilst the impact of people’s behaviour towards nature would decrease. Tourists perceived mass tourism as signifcantly more impactful and threatening to CMHs than locals did. Overall, our study shows that conservation of CMHs is highly valued, so more efort needs to be directed toward this goal.