Protected marine areas and halieutic management by resource and ecosystem optimisation

The Marine Protected areas are means to protect essential habitats for the processes of reproduction and growth of juvenile stages. They are determinant for biodiversity conservation purposes. As their efficiency for fisheries management is still questionable, the project AMPHORE proposes : 1) to define biological, ecological, economical and social indicators for an ecosystem approach for fisheries, 2) to test the efficiency of MPAs and to assess the economical activities and benefits induced by using ecosystemic, trophodynamic, bio-economical and multi-agents modelling, 3) to define the decision making mechanisms which condition the implementation of MPAs and to define regional policies based on the concept of network of MPAs. The calibration of the indicators will be done by analysis of historical databases (2 french estuaries) and comparative approach (6 african estuaries). The efficiency, the study of the decision making process and governance will be based on the analysis of reserves of variable sizes and age, located in France (3), Mauritania (1) and Senegal (1).