Sustainable-use marine protected areas to improve human nutrition.

ABSTRACT: Coral reef fisheries are a vital source of nutrients for thousands of nutritionally vulnerable coastal communities around the world. Marine protected areas are regions of the ocean designed to preserve or rehabilitate marine ecosystems and thereby increase reef fish biomass. Here, we evaluate the potential effects of expanding a subset of marine protected areas that allow some level of fishing within their borders (sustainable-use MPAs) to improve the nutrition of coastal communities. We estimate that, depending on site characteristics, expanding sustainable-use MPAs could increase catch by up to 20%, which could help prevent 0.3-2.85 million cases of inadequate micronutrient intake in coral reef nations. Our study highlights the potential add-on nutritional benefits of expanding sustainab

SUBMITTER: Viana DF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11408491 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature