Abstract The marine conservation strategy focused on the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) has been adopted widely in the Mediterranean, in line with the main international conservation conventions and agreements. Of particular relevance is the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where signature countries agreed to protect and effectively manage 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. The convention also specifies a number of qualitative elements that MPAs should encompass in order to be effective. But as 2020 approaches, this objective is far from being achieved and the deadline is necessitating a pace of planning, declaration, management and evaluation of the Mediterranean network of MPAs that is unattainable for most of the Southeast Mediterranean riparian states. The Aichi target 11 objectives encompass countries with remarkably different economical, historical and cultural backgrounds and varying degrees of technical capacity and political stability. Here we explore how the area-based conservation policy at both the national and international level is evolving in the Mediterranean in relation to the Aichi target 11 objectives. We evidence strong shortcomings in the Mediterranean MPAs highlight potential risks derived from conservation policy failure, and propose alternatives towards effective conservation. We suggest that the prevailing area-based strategy in the Mediterranean should be substituted by a procedure that is not time-limited and that is based on environmental and social sciences, supported by marine spatial planning and balancing the scientific and socioeconomic drivers of change in a specific national or sub-regional context.

中文翻译：

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对爱知生物多样性目标 11 和地中海海洋保护区网络的批判性评估，比截止日期提前两年

摘要 以建立海洋保护区（MPA）为重点的海洋保护战略在地中海地区得到广泛采用，符合主要的国际保护公约和协议。特别相关的是《生物多样性公约》的爱知生物多样性目标 11，其中签署国同意到 2020 年保护和有效管理 10% 的沿海和海洋区域。该公约还规定了海洋保护区应包含的一些质量要素，以便有效。但随着 2020 年的临近，这一目标远未实现，截止日期需要对地中海海洋保护区网络进行规划、申报、管理和评估，这是大多数东南地中海沿岸国家无法实现的。爱知目标 11 目标包括经济、历史和文化背景截然不同、技术能力和政治稳定程度不同的国家。在这里，我们探讨了国家和国际层面的基于区域的保护政策如何在地中海与爱知目标 11 目标相关。我们证明地中海海洋保护区的严重缺陷突出了保护政策失败带来的潜在风险，并提出了有效保护的替代方案。我们建议地中海地区流行的基于区域的战略应该被一种不受时间限制的、基于环境和社会科学的程序所取代，