DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v6wwpzgr9
title: Using cumulative impact mapping to prioritise marine conservation efforts in Equatorial Guinea

description: Marine biodiversity is under extreme pressure from anthropogenic activity
 globally, leading to calls to protect at least 10% of the world’s oceans
 within marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based
 conservation measures by 2020. Fulfilling such commitments, however,
 requires a detailed understanding of the distribution of potentially
 detrimental human activities, and their predicted impacts. One such
 approach that is being increasingly used to strengthen our understanding
 of human impacts is cumulative impact mapping; as it can help identify
 economic sectors with the greatest potential impact on species and
 ecosystems in order to prioritise conservation management strategies,
 providing clear direction for intervention. In this paper, we present the
 first local cumulative utilisation impact mapping exercise for the
 Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea’s Exclusive Economic
 Zone – situated in the Gulf of Guinea one of the most important and least
 studied marine regions in the Eastern Central Atlantic. This study
 examines the potential impact of ten direct anthropogenic activities on a
 suite of key marine megafauna species and reveals that the most suitable
 habitats for these species, located on the continental shelf, are subject
 to the highest threat scores. However, in some coastal areas, the
 persistence of highly suitable habitat subject to lower threat scores
 suggests that there are still several strategic areas that are less
 impacted by human activity that may be suitable sites for protected area
 expansion. Highlighting both the areas with potentially the highest
 impact, and those with lower impact levels, as well as particularly
 damaging activities can inform the direction of future conservation
 initiatives in the region.
description: Methods are presented, in full, in the open access paper:
 Trew, B T., Grantham, H S., Barrientos, C., Collins, T., Doherty, P D., Formia, A., Godley, B J., Maxwell, S M., Parnell, R J., Pikesley, S.K., Tilley, D., Witt, M J., and Metcalfe, K. (in press). "Using cumulative impact mapping to prioritise marine conservation efforts in Equatorial Guinea", in: <i>Frontiers in Marine Science. doi: </i>10.3389/fmars.2019.00717
description: Paper Citation: Trew, B T., Grantham, H S., Barrientos, C., Collins, T., Doherty, P D., Formia, A., Godley, B J., Maxwell, S M., Parnell, R J., Pikesley, S.K., Tilley, D., Witt, M J., and Metcalfe, K. (in press). "Using cumulative impact mapping to prioritise marine conservation efforts in Equatorial Guinea", in: <i>Frontiers in Marine Science. doi: </i>10.3389/fmars.2019.00717 Date Created: 12 November 2019 Author: Brittany Trew   This zip file is compromised of 22 datasets described below: <strong>Relative Habitat Suitability Models.</strong> <em>Habitat suitability models for the Atlantic humpback dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Humpback whale, Leatherback turtle, and Olive ridley turtle within the Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea's exclusive economic zone. Relative suitability of habitats is scaled between 0 and 1, where 0.5 represents areas of typical habitat suitability, 0 represents lowest suitability and 1 indicates greatest suitability.</em> RS_Atlantic_humpback_dolphin.tif  RS_Bottlenose_dolphin.tif RS_Humpback_whale.tif RS_Leatherback_turtle.tif RS_Olive_ridley_turtle.tif   <strong>Cumulative Impact Models</strong> <em>Cumulative impact distributions (overall human activity intensity, weighted by the vulnerability of target species to said activity) for the Atlantic humpback dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Humpback whale, Leatherback turtle, Olive ridley turtle, combined turtle species listed, combined mammal species listed, and all species listed combined within the Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea's exclusive economic zone.</em> CI_Atlantic_humpback_dolphin.tif CI_Bottlenose_dolphin.tif CI_Humpback_whale.tif CI_Leatherback_turtle.tif CI_Olive_ridley_turtle.tif CI_All_turtles.tif CI_All_mammals.tif CI_all_species.tif   <strong>Cumulative Utilisation Impact Models</strong> <em>Cumulative utilisation impact models (cumulative impact weighted by relative habitat suitability) for the Atlantic humpback dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Humpback whale, Leatherback turtle, Olive ridley turtle, combined turtle species listed, combined mammal species listed, and all species listed combined within the Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea's exclusive economic zone.</em> CUI_Atlantic_humpback_dolphin.tif CUI_Bottlenose_dolphin.tif CUI_Humpback_whale.tif CUI_Leatherback_turtle.tif CUI_Olive_ridley_turtle.tif CUI_All_turtles.tif CUI_All_mammals.tif CUI_all.tif   <strong>Human Footprint</strong> <em>The total human activity scaled between 0 and 1 within the Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea's exclusive economic zone.</em> Human_footprint.tif