The present guide was prepared in the framework of the ECOMARE project, a concerted action of the European Community Marine Science and Technology Program (MAST III, 2000) concerned with the ecological effects of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Mediterranean. The overall aim of ECOMARE was to unite and coordinate the efforts of a broad group of research teams involved in assessing the effects of protection in Mediterranean littoral ecosystems.The specific objectives of this project were : (1) to establish the state of knowledge of the responses of marine communities to protective measures in Mediterranean littoral ecosystems ; (2) to identify the main research needs and steps forward to progress from the assessment of effects on exploited populations to the assessment of effects at the ecosystem level ; (3) to review and recommend working methodologies so that future investigations could be carried out in a coordinated and comparable manner.
