Documents

In a context of acceleration of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) creation, at international and European levels, the need of exchanges, sharing and dialogue between the authorities, the managers and the other stakeholders seems indispensable. The MAIA project, in answer to this dynamics, aims at sharing and better understanding the Marine Protected Areas protected in the Atlantic arc, from their designation to their management.

The geographical database was this way built within a géoportail, as an exchanges platform which enables dissemination of information and available in the four languages of the project. This report resumes the main stages of the development, the features and the state of progress of the database.

In an approach of very strong cooperation, a collaborative space was created to allow the participation of all the actors dedicate in the project. The editorial pages are available for consultation by any type of browsers.

The information collected for every MPA (standard attributes) is standardized, meet the requirements of the European database (CCDA) and world database (WDPA) and is thus common and homogeneous within the partnership. Every MPA is registered in the database thanks to its WDPA identifier, its primary key of the system. This unique identifier will allow, in the short term, the database MAIA to benefit from official flows of data.

An MPA be consulted via two interfaces:

• the tool of cartographic dynamics which presents the perimeter of the MPA, as well as its name and its designation. The user can export the GIS data, or the standard data and the management attributes of the AMP that are registered in the database;
• the MPA's datasheet which presents the standard attributes, the management attributes and any document associated to this site, the access to the cartographic tool and the link towards other MPAs' datasheets which intersect it. A maximum of 3 pictures can also describe the AMP. The MPA managers are in charge of the information presented for "their" AMP.

The management attributes concern in particular the governance, the human and financiers means assigned to the site, the uses and activities in the AMP, the specific regulations for the AMP, the stakeholders, the species and habitats.

The database also includes a contact list of the users, among which the MPA managers connected to one or more MPAs they are responsible for. This contact list facilitates the dissemination of the information via predefined lists.

An on-line library  collection of documents lists the statutory texts, the Management Plans of the MPAs, the field studies implemented during the MAIA project.

MAIA has become is a major source of reference information relative to the Atlantic arc MPAs. Eventually, the complete filling of the database will allow the realization of a first status report of the Atlantic arc MPA network