Priorities for Mediterranean marine turtle conservation and management in the face of climate change

As climate-related impacts threaten marine biodiversity globally, it is important to adjust conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Translating scientific knowledge into practical management, however, is often complicated due to resource, economic and policy constraints, generating a knowledge-action gap. To develop potential solutions for marine turtle conservation, we explored the perceptions of key actors across 18 countries in the Mediterranean. These actors evaluated their perceived relative importance of 19 adaptation and mitigation measures that could safeguard marine turtles from climate change. Of importance, despite differences in expertise, experience and focal country, the perceptions of researchers and management practitioners largely converged with respect to prioritizing adaptation and mitigation measures. Climate change was considered to have the greatest impacts on offspring sex ratios and suitable nesting sites. The most viable adaptation/mitigation measures were considered to be reducing other pressures that act in parallel to climate change. Ecological effectiveness represented a key determinant for implementing proposed measures, followed by practical applicability, financial cost, and societal cost. This convergence in opinions across actors likely reflects long-standing initiatives in the Mediterranean region towards supporting knowledge exchange in marine turtle conservation. Our results provide important guidance on how to prioritize measures that incorporate climate change in decision-making processes related to the current and future management and protection of marine turtles at the ocean-basin scale, and could be used to guide decisions in other regions globally. Importantly, this study demonstrates a successful example of how interactive processes can be used to fill the knowledge-action gap between research and management.This work was conducted under FutureMares EU project that received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869300. The Mediterranean Marine Turtle Working Group was established in 2017 and is continuously supported by MedPAN and the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. The work of AC was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the “First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant” (Project Number: 2340).Peer reviewe

Tourisme alternatif et durabililé dans l'île de Lesvos (Grèce)

The classic pattern of tourism recently developed on the island of Lesvos (Greece) has grown up in a period of general transformation of the tourism supply and demand. The analysis of two alternative touristic activities (agrotouristic women's cooperative and bird watching), that try to reinforce their position on the island, shows the difficulties encountered on the organizational, social and economic level and the limited possibilities for a viable development. The sensitive use of the cultural and environmental potential should therefore rely on a strategy of planning and of management that will involve both local communities and tourism planners and professionnals.La forme classique de tourisme récemment développée dans l'île de Lesvos (Grèce) se situe dans une période de recomposition générale de l'offre et de la demande touristique. L'analyse de deux activités touristiques alternatives (coopérative d'agritourisme et tourisme ornithologique), qui tentent de renforcer leur implantation dans l'île, montre les difficultés rencontrées sur le plan organisationnel et socio-économique, ce qui pose la question de leur variabilité à long terme. La valorisation d'un potentiel culturel et environnemental particulièrement riche semble, par conséquent, devoir passer par une stratégie d'aménagement et de gestion de l'espace intégrant tant les acteurs locaux que les différents intervenants impliqués dans l'activité touristique.Sourbès Laurent. Tourisme alternatif et durabililé dans l'île de Lesvos (Grèce). In: Méditerranée, tome 89, 2-3-1998. La ville et ses territoires en Méditerranée septentrionale, sous la direction de Roland Courtot . pp. 81-86