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The waters of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) host a diversity of marine and coastal habitats that are under increasing pressure from multiple anthropogenic activities related to rapid economic growth. In response, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) currently cover 12% of the UAE’s coastal and marine zones. The UAE National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan aims to increase the extent of protection to 14% by 2021, a target that exceeds current global commitments. We applied systematic conservation planning to (1) assess whether conservation features (i.e. species and habitats of conservation concern) are adequately represented in the current system of MPAs, and (2) identify complementary coastal and marine priority areas for conservation and management. Eight planning scenarios were produced based on different conservation targets, the inclusion (or not) of existing MPAs in the generated solutions, and the consideration (or not) of dredging (an activity linked with coastal development in the UAE). A gap analysis demonstrated that to achieve the targets set by experts for all conservation features, additional areas would need to be integrated in conservation plans and policies. Key coastal and marine priority areas were consistently selected for conservation across all planning scenarios. The findings of this work provide a basis for the identification of conservation priorities that can be embedded in the current network of MPAs by extending their boundaries, in post-2020 conservation strategies including plans for creating new MPAs, and in broader spatial planning initiatives.

The present study investigated coastal fish assemblages, using Underwater Visual Census (UVC) transects, in Tunisia (south Mediterranean basin). The rationale behind this work is to get i) a suggestive evidence about the status of fish assemblages, and ii) baseline data at 3 locations in Tunisia where 3 MPAs will be established, before the implementation of protection measures. At each location, we used a sampling design where fish censuses were performed in two types of zone: zones that will be inside MPAs, and zones that will remain outside. On the whole, 49 taxa belonging to 19 families were censused. Data reveal clear symptoms of overfishing, especially in terms of dominance of small- and medium-sized individuals of commercially relevant species. Our analyses, moreover, did not show any significant difference in whole fish assemblage structures (considering both density and biomass), patterns of average species richness, total fish density and biomass, density and biomass of different trophic categories of fishes, size distribution of commercially relevant species, between future-protected and unprotected zones. Overall, results suggest that 1) current fish assemblages at the three studied locations are likely to be seriously impacted by fishing activities, and 2) these data could be used as reliable baselines to assess the effectiveness of protection measures within the MPAs that will be established in the future. Our study is the first in Tunisia, and in North African coasts, that assessed distribution patterns of coastal fish assemblages by means of UVC, using a formal spatially replicated sampling design for resource management.