Towards the 2030 conservation targets in Europe: An assessment of Management Gaps and Opportunities in Marine Protected Areas

forthcoming

"SOS2030, aligns with the EU Biodiversity Strategy's ambitious 30x30 target, aiming to protect 30% of EU oceans by 2030. Despite the global push for marine conservation, the target of designating 10% of EU seas as strictly Protected Areas remains elusive, highlighting the urgent need for more effective strategies, especially when near 500 million people depend on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods. SOS2030 sets out to address the shortcomings of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Europe. Many MPAs, though legally designated, fall short of achieving their conservation goals, earning them the term ""paper parks."" Against the backdrop of no standardized assessment methodologies and limited enforcement of MPAs, SOS2030 follows a threefold approach. Firstly, comprehensively assess and map the number of paper parks that are in EU waters that are at least 10 years old, diverse in terms of geography and with a management plan. Secondly, SOS2030 creates an Assessment Tool to identify and evaluate paper parks, bridging the gap in methodology and considering ecological, social, institutional, and economic factors contributing to paper parks. Thirdly, a documentary showcasing three ineffective MPAs will harness the power of scientific communication to amplify the voices of coastal communities living within paper parks. It will recognize the critical role of small-scale fisheries and youth, among others, empowering them and encouraging public engagement in marine governance and environmental decision-making. SOS2030 deliverables, i.e., database, assessment tool, roundtables, multilingual documentary, newspaper and website, holistically present for the first time the common elements, behaviours and patterns that are found in paper parks. This will yield tools and lessons learned of which coastal communities and policymakers in the EU and around the world can spot a paper park and how it can be avoided in both the present and future to build a more sustainable livelihood."