Miguel Mallo, Patrizia Ziveri, Sergio Rossi, Victoria Reyes-García
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Assessing how different users of a Marine Protected Area perceive environmental changes can contribute to design management strategies. We assess how locals and tourists perceive environmental changes in the Cap de Creus protected area (NW Mediterranean, Spain). To identify locally perceived changes, we first conducted semi-structured interviews with locals (n = 38). Reported environmental changes were then used to construct a survey applied to locals and tourists (n = 427). In semi-structured interviews, environmental changes were the least reported changes compared to economic and social changes; reports of negative environmental changes dominated over reports of positive environmental changes. Overall, all survey participants reported a decline of the health status of the local environment, with locals displaying higher levels of agreement with statements referring to coastal environmental deterioration than tourists. The predominance of responses reporting economic versus environmental changes can be explained by the recent radical transformation of the area towards tourism. Reports of coastal marine area deterioration are in line with available instrumental data. Higher levels of agreement with statements referring to environmental deterioration among locals than among tourists highlight the importance of people's connection with nature to assess change. Considering that Cap de Creus has been protected for more than two decades, our findings raise concerns regarding its ongoing deterioration and underscore the importance of monitoring the effectiveness of marine protection to modulate management strategies.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-024-02322-4.
期刊介绍:
Environmental changes of many kinds are accelerating worldwide, posing significant challenges for humanity. Solutions are needed at the regional level, where physical features of the landscape, biological systems, and human institutions interact.
The goal of Regional Environmental Change is to publish scientific research and opinion papers that improve our understanding of the extent of these changes, their causes, their impacts on people, and the options for society to respond. "Regional" refers to the full range of scales between local and global, including regions defined by natural criteria, such as watersheds and ecosystems, and those defined by human activities, such as urban areas and their hinterlands.
We encourage submissions on interdisciplinary research across the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and on more focused studies that contribute towards the solutions to complex environmental problems. Topics addressed include (i) the regional manifestations of global change, especially the vulnerability of regions and sectors; (ii) the adaptation of social-ecological systems to environmental change in the context of sustainable development; and (iii) trans-boundary and cross-jurisdictional issues, legislative and governance frameworks, and the broad range of policy and management issues associated with building, maintaining and restoring robust social-ecological systems at regional scales.
The primary format of contributions are research articles, presenting new evidence from analyses of empirical data or else more theoretical investigations of regional environmental change. In addition to research articles, we also publish editorials, short communications, invited mini-reviews on topics of strong current interest, as well as special features that provide multifaceted discussion of complex topics or particular regions