Identifying marine priorities for biodiversity conservation: a case study along Brazil's marine ecoregions

Marine conservation in Brazil has long lagged far behind protection efforts for terrestrial realms. As an attempt to meet global conservation targets (e.g. Aichi Target 11), two large Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were... [ view full abstract ]

Marine conservation in Brazil has long lagged far behind protection efforts for terrestrial realms. As an attempt to meet global conservation targets (e.g. Aichi Target 11), two large Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were recently established in the open ocean. However, the MPAs were placed in areas with limited potential for extractive uses, rather than where they would be most useful to conservation. As a step towards providing support for a more ecological approach to strengthening MPAs and meeting policy targets, this study combines cumulative impact assessment and conservation planning methodologies to undertake a large-scale spatial prioritisation. Spatial data on marine ecosystems at all ecoregions, threatened species, anthropogenic drivers of disturbance, and seascape connectivity were integrated into a conservation planning tool (i.e. Marxan with Zones) to identify conservation priorities that meet several conservation objectives intended to make a positive difference for biodiversity (i.e. represent all ecosystems and species, maximise seascape connectivity, and mitigate impacts of disturbances). When identifying priorities for conservation, two scenarios were considered, distinguishing how existing MPAs were accounted for in the prioritisation: (i) only no-take MPAs were considered as contributing to the achievement of objectives; and (ii) all MPAs contributed to conservation objectives with varying ecological effectiveness according to their management categories. The study provides a comprehensive assessment of how to embrace a more ecological approach when chasing policy targets with ecoregion-scale conservation plans. I advocate these data be used to inform biodiversity conservation at scale and to assess current conservation efforts in the Brazilian waters.