Marine Protected Areas Habitat Mapping Program

Abstract

The project to be developed under the FAPESP PPPP call aims to bring a a highly innovative perspective to the management of marine and coastal protected areas, providing information, guidance and establishing procedures and methods to promote the "Ecosystem-Based Management" (EBM) approach based on the ecological and social attributes and processes of the Marine Environmental Preservation Areas of the state of São Paulo (APAMs) and the mapping of benthic habitats, to diagnose their ecosystem services, pressure vectors and threats (in priority areas) and to structure a methodological roadmap for mapping bottom environments, with a focus on management and conservation. Three phases are foreseen in the scope of the project: 1- Organisation of secondary data and modelling of prioritisation of areas, based on the generation of a spatial data infrastructure and georeferenced database integrating pre-existing information from the continental shelf and coastal area of the state of São Paulo. 2- Mapping of bottom habitats in detail in target areas in each of the APAMs aiming at the elaboration of an effective and reproducible methodology that can guide future efforts of characterisation and mapping of the areas, and 3- development of GBE models, of the mapped habitats, aiming at the creation and improvement of management instruments and public policies of marine territorial planning. (AU)