The Mediterranean Sea is a region with top conservation priority, due to its richness in biodiversity. Nonetheless this area is being severely changed due to the increasing human presence. Stressors like fishing activities, habitat destruction, introduced species and pollution are changing the ecosystems and habitat loss is considered the second most pervasive issue at basin scale. Well designed and enforced marine protected areas (MPAs) have been recognised as a useful tool to halt some of the ocean’s problems such as habitat loss, and decreasing fish stocks and biodiversity. Still MPAs are not an ultimate tool to solve all the oceans problems and if these areas are inadequately implemented, they can be ineffective, affecting their reputation as another argument against their implementation.In order to properly design an effective MPA, ecological information of the area is needed and the inclusion of the socio-economic dimension in the planning of a reserve system is imperative in order to reduce conflicts with the users of the area. As already mentioned MPAs cannot solve all the ocean’s problems such as land source pollution and introduced species. MPAs should be implemented as a tool in an Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) approach, where entities such as fisheries management, stakeholder, coastal development and scientists participate in the decision and the planning of the reserve system. The MPA of “Isole di Tremiti” was implemented in 1989, considered a reasonable time to show responses to protection. However, recent studies showed no responses from benthic assemblages. With data gathered in 2002 on the distribution and total area of the habitats present within the study area, we analysed the distribution of human activities and compared them with the distribution of the habitats. With the site selection algorithm (MARXAN) we set scenarios of protection using habitat types as conservation features and with a range of conservation targets that were decided either from their conservation value through expert opinion or from a review of literature from the last 10 years of conservation plans and theoretical studies. With the selected conservation targets we evaluate the inclusion of human activities in the planning of the reserve system. Results showed that the planning of the study area was generally inappropriate, and pervasive activities such as anchorage are allowed in areas of high conservation value. The review of the literature showed how conservation plans and theoretical studies have been mainly focused in tropical areas and that the most used conservation target still is 20%, a value decided without specific scientific studies, and set on the base of fishery management purposes. MARXAN was run on the data set, considering two different scenarios, with and without the inclusion of human activities. Results illustrated how, with the present protection regime, conservation targets could not be always achieved, with two of the three habitats with high conservation values not appropriately protected (i.e. they did not achieve the target). Our results stress that good science, combined with the inclusion of the human dimension in the planning and designing of an MPA are critical aspects for an adequate design and implementation of these areas to achieve their objectives.

This study was submitted and accepted for presentation at the “World Conference onMarine Biodiversity” in Aberdeen, Scotland (UK) 26-30 of September, 2011.