Please note: this event has passed
Speaker: Constance Schéré
Abstract: Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a conservation tool designed to adequately manage and protect marine resources threatened by human activity by addressing both biological and socioeconomic needs.
The Irish Sea is a busy waterway under the jurisdiction of six entities (Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, England, and Wales). Within this body of water there are almost 200 conservation designations across 112 MPA sites, with many sites having multiple designations (national, EU, and international). Data is lacking on the effectiveness of these protected areas in reaching their conservation objectives due to sites being inadequately monitored.
The race to meet the 10% marine protected area target set by the Conservation on Biological Diversity, however, may be compromising effective planning. Do multiple designations ensure better protection of the marine environment, or is the Irish Sea home to paper parks, offering little protection? Metadata compiled from the World Database on Protected Areas and conservation reports from MPA managers were used to investigate this question. The results show a positive correlation between the number of designations of a site and the existence of a publicly available management plan.
The presence of a management plan was also linked to whether or not site assessments were conducted by the relevant authorities, and sites having multiple designations was weakly correlated with favourable assessment outcomes. The results of this study highlight the need to better understand the requirements of national, regional and international-level conservation designations and how they interact with each other.
Accessing this event
Constance's seminar is accessible via Microsoft teams:
Please join the meeting with your camera and microphones off in the first instance to conserve bandwidth.
All are welcome. However, if you are external to King’s, please contact the event organiser so that they can invite you to the lobby in Teams.
About the speaker
Constance Schéré is a PhD student from Brittany (France), studying marine conservation biology. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of marine protected areas as a conservation tool. Constance has a MSc in Biodiversity, Territory, and Environment (BIOTERRE) from the Sorbonne (Université de Paris 1: Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2017) and a MSc in Environmental Policy from SciencesPo Paris (2013).
She completed environmental and research internships at Clean Water Action (2012), Dassault Systèmes (2013-2014), and Harvard University (2014). From 2014 to 2015, she was a sustainability specialist for Sodexo, where she worked in partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (United States) to promote the sustainable harvest of seafood and marine conservation.
At this event
PhD student