Environmental Accounting of Marine Protected Area "Isole Ciclopi" by means of Emergy analysis

The purpose of this work is to illustrate the procedural and methodological approaches, with field-testing of materials and methods, necessary to carry out an environmental accounting study Emergy-based in a marine protected area. The study was conducted in the marine protected area "IsoleCiclopi" following a multi-year pathway, in line with the document "Environmental accounting in Italian Marine Protected Areas" (EAMPA), developed by several research groups and coordinated by Federparchi (Italian federations of Parks and Nature Reserves).In particular, the aim of EMPA project is the assessment of the ecological and economic value for the Italian marine reserves, elaborated in order to answer ministerial applications. The main purpose of this project is to detect and evaluate both biophysical and economic aspects of the reserves in order to assess the Natural Capital stocks and the Ecosystem Services generated by MPAs. The results of the research are intended to offer an innovative methodology and new points of reflection in the field of environmental evaluation and of policies.