L’évolution des milieux naturels perçue par les gestionnaires des aires marines protégées ouest-africaines ; Changes in natural environments perceived by the managers of West African marine protected areas

The evolution of habitats in MPAs in West Africa is apprehended according to the perception of managers. These come from the state of reference of MPAs of the regional network of MPAs in West Africa (RAMPAO) conducted between 2017 and 2018. As a result, all environments in MPAs seem to lose surface, according to the managers. The most affected areas are the beaches, mudflats and estuarine channels. The damages appear to be mainly due to erosion as well as a rainfall deficit. Human activity and climate change are not sufficiently known for their impact to be quantified. Only forests appear to be generally positive among the ecosystems that are sufficiently monitored, due to regular reforestation activities. On the other hand, sea grasses, rocky and coral beds are only very little known by the managers, since they carry out almost no control over them. To finish, the effectiveness of the actions made by the management staffs is questioned regarding these evolutions: it appears in the scientific literature that forest and mangrove suffer greater losses outside MPAs.