Marine and coastal protected areas have an important role in conservation programs of any country. Although most have been established relatively recently when compared with protected areas on land, there is considerable expertise on their identification, setting up and management. Therefore, some techniques have been adapted from that use on land.
The selection of sites for conservation management is only one of many elements in the building of a network of protected areas. Frequently the first areas to be selected for protection are often so obvious that there is no need to put forward the criteria except in selecting an appropriate management category. However, the identification and selection of other candidate areas requires the setting up of criteria.
In this study for each site under consideration, the different criteria (23 criteria) were quantified or scored (e.g. on a scale of 0 to 5 for lowest to highest value). The scores summed for each site and compared, and priority areas identified based on the highest scores. We assessed these criteria according to regular protected areas in southern part of Caspian Sea in Iran.
Results indicate Miankaleh Wild Life Refuge is most important site in Southern part of Caspian Sea. Furthermore, Gorgan Bay and Gomishan wetland in southeast part of Caspian Sea would score highly on a combined list of ecological, social and economic criteria. Thereby Boojagh Marine-coastal Park in Sefid-rood river mouth (middle of southern part of Caspian Sea) and Lavandevil Wild Life Refuge (southwest part of Caspian Sea) have the lowest score and need more management efforts.
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