ABSTRACT
One of the characteristics of the twenty-first-century world is the large and rapidly growing pressure on environmental resources due to dynamic population growth. Surging demand for energy, industrial raw materials and foodstuffs is a result of the demographic boom, which has also led to the emergence of new needs and the widespread adoption of a variety of spatial behaviours. Unrestricted economic activity is sowing the seeds of potential economic conflicts and political tensions and even possible armed conflicts. It also carries with it, knowingly or not, a high risk of adverse changes in the natural environment (e.g. extermination of species, fragmentation of habitats, invasive alien species and marine pollution) in many regions of the planet which are still almost pristine. A relatively young category in the area of nature conservation is that of marine and coastal protected areas. The quest for resources to meet the needs of the world's growing population has resulted in variety of threats to protected areas.
