Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designated parts of the ocean that restrict human activities to a certain degree. MPAs are established around the world using a wide range of legislative instruments and thus come in a variety of forms and shapes. Despite being regarded as the ‘cornerstone’ of global marine conservation efforts, they currently cover less than 10% of the ocean surface. Individual marine protected areas aim to achieve goals ranging from the protection of specific habitats or species to sustaining certain commercial activities, such as fishing. By default, the establishment of MPAs intertwines social, ecological and economic considerations. Yet, the emphasis put on each of these domains can vary substantially when setting on-the-ground objectives, frequently creating conflict among stakeholders. In this manuscript, we first discuss current international conservation targets as well as potential future goals and delve into the question of how to assess the effectiveness of marine protected areas. Subsequently, we discuss the ambivalent role of this widely applied management tool at the crossroads between biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. Placing MPAs in a social-ecological framework, we call for clear and measurable goals to evaluate MPAs from an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, we present the Baltic Sea, with its high degree of anthropogenic impact, long fishing history and comparatively extensive MPA coverage, as an interesting case study to investigate the role of marine protected areas in promoting a sustainable management of the ocean.

中文翻译：

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海洋保护区：在自然保护和渔业管理的十字路口

海洋保护区（MPA）被指定为海洋的一部分，在一定程度上限制了人类的活动。MPA在世界范围内使用广泛的立法工具建立，因此具有多种形式和形状。尽管被视为全球海洋保护工作的“基石”，但目前它们覆盖不到海洋表面的10％。各个海洋保护区的目标是实现从保护特定栖息地或物种到维持某些商业活动（例如捕鱼）的目标。默认情况下，MPA的建立将社会，生态和经济因素交织在一起。但是，在制定实地目标时，对每个领域的重视程度可能会发生很大变化，从而经常在利益相关者之间造成冲突。在这份手稿中 我们首先讨论当前的国际保护目标以及未来的潜在目标，并深入探讨如何评估海洋保护区的有效性。随后，我们讨论了这种广泛应用的管理工具在生物多样性保护与渔业管理之间的交汇处的矛盾作用。将MPA放在社会生态学框架中，我们要求制定明确且可衡量的目标，以便从跨学科的角度评估MPA。最后，我们介绍了波罗的海，其高度的人为影响，悠久的捕鱼历史和相对广泛的MPA覆盖范围，是一个有趣的案例研究，旨在研究海洋保护区在促进海洋可持续管理中的作用。