European topic centre - university of malaga

Meet our team members

Barbara Bauer

Research Support Officer

barbara.bauer@uma.es

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Barbara Bauer is an experienced ecologist with over a decade of expertise in aquatic ecology, biodiversity conservation, and environmental management. Holding a PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Potsdam, she has developed a strong foundation in analysing the impacts of climate change on spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns.

Barbara is leveraging data analysis and stakeholder collaboration to inform decision-making in marine ecosystem management. Currently, as a Research Officer at ETC-UMA, she is mainly working on projects on related to monitoring the effectiveness of biodiversity management under different figures of conservation, in addition to analysing mobile species distributions and the pressures exerted on them.

Barbara’s skills include geo-analytics, ecosystem modeling, and tailored communication to scientific, policy, and public audiences. She has contributed to over 20 peer-reviewed publications.

Related projects

Blue Connect

Strict protection, restoration and co-management of marine protected areas to ...

RESOURCES

Journal Articles

Rodríguez-Rodríguez, D.; Sánchez-Espinosa, A.; Abdul-Malak, D.

Potential contribution of OECMs to international area-based conservation targets in a biodiversity rich country, Spain Journal Article

In: Journal for Nature Conservation, vol. 62, 2021.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Biodiversity, Conservation and management, Ecosystem, Environmental conservation, Marine protected areas, Protected areas

@article{Rodríguez-Rodríguez2021b,

title = {Potential contribution of OECMs to international area-based conservation targets in a biodiversity rich country, Spain},

author = {D. Rodríguez-Rodríguez and A. Sánchez-Espinosa and D. Abdul-Malak},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2021.126019},

doi = {10.1016/j.jnc.2021.126019},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-05-15},

journal = {Journal for Nature Conservation},

volume = {62},

abstract = {Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) are new conservation tools intended to complement protected areas (PAs) at achieving effective biodiversity conservation and meeting international area-based targets. However, OECMs have been rarely considered in practical terms until recently. Here, we performed a rapid evaluation on the degree of fulfilment of current area-based international biodiversity targets, post-2020 foreseeable oncoming targets, and ecological targets by considering: 1) Protection coverage; 2) Inclusiveness of important areas for biodiversity; 3) Protection management; 4) Connectivity; and 5) Habitat representation, on land and at sea in Spain, a Euro-Mediterranean, biodiversity rich country. We conducted the evaluation under two scenarios: 1) Scenario 1 considers designated PAs; and 2) Scenario 2, that also includes potential OECMs. In order to generate Scenario 2, thirteen legal categories were assessed against international guidance on OECMs as a first step to screen their likelihood of providing OECMs in Spain. Our findings show that some potentially satisfactory OECM categories such as Public Utility Forests, River Reserves or Geoparks meet the OECM criteria to a large degree and deserve further study. Our results also highlight that Spain is currently well above most foreseeable post-2020 biodiversity targets and even close to some ecological targets using just PAs, except for marine protected area (MPA) management and MPA offshore coverage. Adding OECMs would noticeably improve the country’s figures yet without reaching many exigent ecological targets. OECMs can become a useful, cost-effective biodiversity conservation tool that contributes to international targets under new, more ambitious area-based conservation requirements in Spain and elsewhere. Nevertheless, for this to happen, suitable biodiversity management and monitoring schemes must be ensured.},

keywords = {Biodiversity, Conservation and management, Ecosystem, Environmental conservation, Marine protected areas, Protected areas},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}