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. 2021 Sep 15:787:147339.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147339. Epub 2021 Apr 30.

Cumulative impact assessments highlight the benefits of integrating land-based management with marine spatial planning

Charles Loiseau  1 , Lauric Thiault  2 , Rodolphe Devillers  3 , Joachim Claudet  4
Affiliations

Cumulative impact assessments highlight the benefits of integrating land-based management with marine spatial planning

Charles Loiseau et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

Cumulative impact assessments can inform ecosystem-based management by mapping human pressures and assessing their intensity on ecosystem components. However, its use to inform local management is scarce, largely due to the need for fine-grained spatial data representing ecosystem threats that can assess impacts at a local scale. Here, we applied the cumulative impact assessment framework to Moorea's coral reef, French Polynesia to inform the ongoing revision of the island-wide marine spatial management plan. We combined high spatial resolution data on 11 local anthropogenic pressures and four ecological components with expert vulnerability assessments. Results revealed that the entire reef is impacted by at least four pressures: coral reef fisheries, agriculture, land use change and urbanization. These activities together contribute to 87% of the overall cumulative impact. Most importantly, land-based activities contribute to more than half (52%) of the overall impact. Other high-impact activities, such as reef-based tourism, remain very localized and contribute little to the overall human impact. These findings show that by focusing solely on reef-based activities, the current management plan misses critical sources of impact. Not considering land-based activities in the management may lead to decisions that could fail to significantly lower cumulative human impact on the reef. This study demonstrates how operationalizing the cumulative human impact framework at a local scale can help managers identify key leverage points likely to yield improved ecological outcomes.

Keywords: Coral reefs; Cumulative effect assessment; French Polynesia; Human impacts; Land-based pressures; Threat maps.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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