Study on the Economic Benefits of Marine Protected Areas

The main objective of the study was to evaluate how marine protected areas (MPAs) provide benefits to the blue economy, and make the findings available to inform future EU policy and MPA design and management plans.

In order to accomplish this, the study collated and analysed evidence on how MPAs can benefit blue economy sectors, modelling several benefit pathways, including ecosystem services. The methodology undertaken was a three-step process of identifying and analysing, elaborating and testing the evidence in order to build up a picture of the nature of benefits, how they sit against MPA costs, the opportunities for sustainable use and the governance mechanisms that can help to maximise benefits (and minimise costs).