To enhance management systems and ensure that an MPA has all the necessary assets to preserve biodiversity, any ecological change must be assessed by monitoring habitats, species and activities. This first step determines the initial conservation status to then be able to assess changes occurring over time.
England and France simultaneously develop techniques to measure these changes. Unfortunately, as there is very little transnational cooperation on this point, the studies carried out and the results they obtain lack coherence. Monitoring techniques would benefit from being implemented consistently throughout the Channel area, and such programmes should also be designed with a view to influencing policy governance and management processes.
Based on these findings, PANACHE provided a framework for scientific experts who could then jointly define appropriate measures for global results analysis and share monitoring techniques already developed with success. The aim was to further knowledge of interactions between marine protected areas in the Channel, human beings and biodiversity. The project allowed to develop monitoring methods that are transferable from one MPA to another, using multi-beam sonars, towed video cameras and a method capable of measuring socio-economic impacts and bird populations.
Agents du Parc effectuant le protocole de suivi de l'Ifremer sur les hermelles
C. Lefeuvre / Agence des aires marines protégées
