Running over two days (24-25 Sept 2015), the symposium invited speakers from both the social sciences and natural sciences considered issues related to Marine Protected Areas within the wider context of marine governance in national and international contexts. Themes such as the relationship between environmental conservation and socio-economics impacts of Marine Protected Areas were discussed through multi-disciplinary lenses, next to key concepts such as “ecological networks” and an “ecosystem-based approach”. Case studies from different MPAs were presented to ground the concepts and themes in empirical evidence. Please see files below with ppt presentations and abstracts.

Symposium Abstracts

Symposium Programme

Christopher Rodgers: Managing Coastal Marine Environments: Challenges for an Ecosystem-Based Approach for Protected Areas

Mia Pantzar: Towards Ecosystem-Based Protection of Marine Environments – Investigating the scope for marine reserves in Northern Europe under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Margherita Pieraccini: Designating MPAs in the UK: accounting for socioeconomic issues

Stefania Coppa and Margherita Pieraccini: Conservation of biological resources and governance challenges in the Sinis MPA (Sardinia, Italy)

Tom Appleby: Sirens of the sea? MPA designation on the Isle of Arran

Andrea Camedda and G. Andrea de Lucia: The Benefits and Challenges of ecological networks: the case of the Sardinian network for the conservation of marine turtles

Richard Dunne: Marine Governance in the Chagos Archipelago – a conservation success story but the failure of an MPA?

Margherita Pieraccini: Divergent perspectives of new marine protected areas: comparing stakeholder legal consciousness in Scilly and Barra, UK.

Ruth Brennan: Cultural transformations in the Scottish marine policy process: the story of Barra

Alex Caveen: The controversy over MPAs: science meets policy