Conveying environmental information to fishers: a smartphone application on marine protected areas

Fabrizio D’Ascenzo, Andrea Rocchi, Stefano Cerioni, Gaetano Zarlenga, Nicolò Passeri, Francesco Piacentini, Cristina Lo Fazio, Cristina Gerardis and Clara Cicatiello ()
Additional contact information
Fabrizio D’Ascenzo: Sapienza University of Rome
Andrea Rocchi: Sapienza University of Rome
Stefano Cerioni: Italian Fishery Research and Studies Center (CIRSPE)
Gaetano Zarlenga: University Consortium for Industrial and Managerial Economics (CUEIM)
Nicolò Passeri: AgriAvengers srls
Francesco Piacentini: Researcher and legal consultant
Cristina Lo Fazio: Euroacque scrl
Cristina Gerardis: Avvocatura dello Stato
Clara Cicatiello: University of Tuscia

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2022, vol. 12, issue 3, No 3, 453-465

Abstract: Abstract Implementing marine protected areas (MPAs) is an important action to protect fish stocks and to integrate precautionary measures into fisheries management. Fishers’ attitude towards protected areas is often linked to the extent to which MPAs affect their activity. However, in the Italian context, there are additional challenges linked to the complex legislative background behind the establishment of MPAs and the difficult access to information. This situation makes it difficult for fishers to comply with the restrictions imposed in these areas and to understand their environmental value. This paper studies the development of a smartphone application aimed at conveying environmental information about MPAs to professional and non-professional fishers operating in Italy. The study reports the results of a three-step process: (i) systematization of the Italian legislation on MPAs and collection of key information on the features and rules of these areas; (ii) development of the mobile application; (iii) stakeholder consultation. The findings suggest that the use of a smartphone application can effectively improve the accessibility of information about MPAs to fishers, allowing them to navigate and interact via the smartphone. If well spread among professional and non-professional fishers, the use of this application has the potential to reduce the occurrence of MPA rule infringements and, what is more important, to increase fishers’ attention on the protection of these areas.

Keywords: Marine protected areas; Fisheries; Smartphone application; Fish stocks; Environmental policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-022-00746-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:12:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s13412-022-00746-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13412

DOI: 10.1007/s13412-022-00746-0

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences is currently edited by Walter A. Rosenbaum

More articles in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences from Springer, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().