Punishment and compliance: Exploring scenarios to improve the legitimacy of small-scale fisheries management rules on the Brazilian coast

This study investigated the effects of legal and societal punishment on fishermen's compliance behaviour, according to fishermen's age and level of dependency on fisheries, through the use of interviews and scenarios. Ninety-five fishermen living in a coastal park (Ponta do Tubarão Sustainable Development Reserve) in the Brazilian northeast, where controlled exploitation of natural resources is allowed, took part in this study. The results showed that age alone would not affect compliance, regardless of the level of enforcement. However, it was noticed that the fishermen who claimed to depend on the money provided by fisheries, regardless of their age, were more likely to say that they would not comply, even if enforcement were stricter. The scenario analysis showed that increased monitoring and punishment (including societal pressure) could enhance compliance, especially among younger fishermen, who claimed not to depend solely on fisheries. Therefore, fisheries management should also consider differences in social groups, and not focus solely on the enforcement and punishment mechanisms, assuring that livelihood options that consider different social needs are provided.     

Marine protected areas in Japan: Institutional background and management framework

Information on the location and area for all MPAs in Japan was collected through a comprehensive survey targeting government officials and local stakeholders. It was verified that at least 1161 MPAs exist in Japan. Of these, 1055 are implemented in conjunction with fishery regulations in the form of no-take zones. More than 30% of the individual MPAs in Japan were established by self-imposed instruments agreed by members of fishery co-management organizations. It was suggested that the autonomous MPAs are not a product of simple altruism, but rather are logical extensions of the tenure system guaranteed by the government legal system.     

Fishing for social realities—Challenges to sustainable fisheries management in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve

Social-ecological complexity challenges conservation-oriented interventions even in settings with a small number of actors and conflicts involved. This article examines the development and trajectory of King and Snow Crab fisheries in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (BR), the highly remote but globally connected Southern tip of the Americas. The feasibility of the Chilean legal instrument of Marine Management Areas (MMA) is assessed as a tool for mitigating impacts of overfishing in the area. Examining the local fishers’ perspectives in complement to a context analysis we find that external management models such as the MMA are not suited to make Cape Horn fisheries sustainable. Instead, efforts should be dedicated to a continuous process of stakeholder collaboration for developing site-specific management concepts and structures. These should be embedded in the larger BR initiative. Considering the area's particular conditions, several recommendations for such a process are formulated.     

Co-management and “consciousness”: Fishers’ assimilation of management principles in Chile

Chile's new Management Area system delegates management responsibility to organizations of artisanal shell-fishers on the condition that they team with professionally trained marine biologists. A survey of participating fishers in Chile's Fourth and Fifth regions examined four social benefits predicted to result from this type of co-management: (1) improved rapport between fishers and the state, (2) greater awareness among fishers of ecology and the benefits of management, (3) cooperation between fishers and scientists, and (4) unity between fishers. A discussion analyzes the principal benefit encountered—fishers’ newfound “consciousness” of the value of management—within the context of co-management and territorial use rights.     

The management performance of marine protected areas in the North-east Atlantic Ocean

In the North-east Atlantic Ocean there are 550 inshore and offshore MPAs established to accomplish a high diversity of objectives, which can be classified into 24 different types of MPA designations. Only 153 of these MPAs have a management plan (MgP) --the basic tool required for an effective management. Amongst these, only 66 are actually managed, i.e. they have the staff and resources required to operate the plan. A common characteristic of these MPAs is the lack of standardized indicators of their performance. In order to address this issue, an alternative approach was developed based on the assessment of management performance using the expert knowledge and perceptions of managers operating MPAs, a universal source of information that could allow overcoming the usual gaps due to the restrictions in coverage of scientific monitoring and assessments. MgPs showed differences among countries but were homogeneous within each country, reflecting the usual top-down approach in the establishment of MPAs. Compliance with the qualitative objectives present in MgPs was higher than compliance with quantitative ones (87% versus 50%), and the MPAs that most successfully achieved their objectives were those with regular monitoring. This analysis also shows that beyond these objectives, the establishment of an MPA and the activities developed as a consequence of its creation have a positive socio-economic impact on the local human community.     

A discussion of management disputes arising from the multiple utilization of flying fish resources in Taiwan and suggested countermeasures

Flying fish play a vital role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems. In Taiwan, flying fish resources are mainly utilized in three ways. The Tao aboriginal people regard them as an important, and spiritual, source of food and utilize the resource sparingly and cautiously. Conversely, in northern Taiwan, fisheries harvest flying fish roe, which may in the future lead to ecosystem damage. Thirdly, large quantities are caught for promoting seafood to tourists at various events. The latter two utilizations may cause overfishing and scarcity.In 2007, the Taiwanese government began to adjust fisheries management policies for monitoring the utilization of flying fish resources. The current policies protect aboriginal marine culture and employ ‘total allowable catch’ (TAC) as a transitional mechanism in flying fish caviar harvesting. In the future, the government should employ collaborative measures at a regional level, including quota allocation based on scientific evidence, in order to maintain ecosystem balance and ensure the sustainability of fish resources. Activities to promote seafood, and the catching of adult fish on a large scale, must be stringently managed according to the amount of resources available. Finally, the most appropriate and least risky approach, is to designate flying fish spawning grounds as marine protected areas.     

Improving alternative livelihood interventions in marine protected areas: A case study in Tanzania

Alternative livelihood programmes are often used in multipleuse marine protected areas as incentives, compensation for lost opportunities, or as intervention strategies for poverty alleviation. Yet little is known about their impacts on biodiversity conservation and the well-being of the targeted communities. This study focuses primarily on alternative livelihood projects undertaken among selected groups of individuals, in six villages, located in the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP), Mtwara district, southern Tanzania. The aim was to investigate how the processes involved in the implementation of these new livelihood activities contributed to the expected outcomes of providing good returns to reduce community's dependency on the sea and improve conservation. Data were collected through focus group discussions with selected members of local community, who actively took part in the projects; key informant interviews with conservation personnel and district fisheries officials; questionnaire surveys of a random sample of project beneficiary households; and a review of pertinent documents. The overwhelming majority of survey respondents (90%) reported that the projects were allocated inappropriately. Interviews and focus groups further revealed that the purpose of alternative projects was not sufficiently clear and that many beneficiaries perceived that these projects were initiated simply to comply with the MBREMP regulations. Overall, 70% of survey respondents stated that the project activities could not compete with the income gained from fisheries. An analysis of documents further revealed that almost all projects began to flounder when funding from the MBREMP came to an end. This was because they were not supported beyond the pilot phase and, thereafter, insufficient revenue was generated to maintain running costs. Improved targeting and design of livelihood interventions will ensure that the projects achieve the goals of providing alternatives for fishers, increasing well-being and improving biodiversity conservation.     

Dive tourism, fishing and marine protected areas in the Calamianes Islands, Philippines

Many conservationists and local governments in the Philippines (and other tropical countries) have attempted to link marine protected areas (MPAs) with dive tourism, arguing that the user fees generated by dive tourism can potentially generate satisfactory outcomes for all stakeholders. In this paper, an account of the relationship between MPAs, dive tourism and small-scale fisheries in the Calamianes Islands, Philippines, is presented. It is argued that although the assumed harmonious relationship between marine conservation and dive tourism may work in theory, in practice different understandings of MPAs can create conflict.     

Power from the people: a documentation of non-governmental organizations' experience in community-based coastal resource management in the Philippines

Community-based coastal resource management projects facilitated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Philippines have explored approaches to decrease poverty-driven over-exploitation of coastal resources. There has been little reporting and analysis of such activities until recently. Nine case studies have recently been published and this paper presents a brief summary of these, along with an analysis of the trends and themes identified. Though diverse and covering the Philippines from Mindanao to Luzon, the case studies highlight the value of community commitment and participation in decisions regarding, and in the implementation of, resource management in ways that consider not only the bio-physical aspects of resource management but the social, economic and legal implications. Experience in working with local government has been both successful and limited. Successful projects raise hopes for further progress through education and organization of communities to improve livelihoods and protect coastal resources.     

Marine reserve establishment and on-going management costs: A case study from New Zealand

While there is considerable international research focused on the conservation outcomes of marine protected areas (MPAs) and marine reserves (MRs) there is little information on the economic cost to establish and manage these protected areas. This study estimated the MR pre-establishment and establishment costs for the Taputeranga Marine Reserve (TMR) in New Zealand (NZ) and determined the annual management costs for this reserve and four further NZ MRs. Finally, the cost to local rock lobster fishers resulting from the displaced fishing effort once the TMR had been established was estimated. This research found that the TMR pre-establishment cost was approximately NZ$508,000, and the establishment process cost was approximately NZ$353,000. The annual management costs across the five reserves ranged between NZ$43,200 and NZ$112,500 between 2008/09 and 2010/11. The annual fishers displacement cost at TMR was approximately NZ$22,000 per annum. This research showed that on a unit area basis, small MRs in NZ are just as expensive to maintain as large MRs. This study also highlighted how volunteer effort helped to considerably reduce the monetary cost of the MR pre-establishment process. This research increases our understanding of establishment and management costs, and supports future planning of MRs both within NZ and internationally.     

Engaging Los Angeles County subsistence anglers in the California marine protected area planning process

Ecosystem-based management is more successful when a great diversity of stakeholders is engaged early in a decision-making process. Implementation of the California Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) has been stakeholder-based, coordinating the participation of a wide range of people including divers, fishermen, conservationists, local officials, business owners and coastal residents. Although commercial and recreational fishermen have actively participated throughout the MLPA implementation process, and research related to California’s sport and commercial fisheries has been integrated into the process, pier and shore anglers have been relatively unengaged as stakeholders. This study was completed to generate information about pier angler understanding and sentiment towards marine protected areas (MPAs), as well as to educate anglers on the MLPA implementation process in southern California and inform them on involvement opportunities. Of the 3030 pier anglers surveyed over 12 months, 78% only fish for subsistence from piers and from shore (never from boats); 84.6% are of non-White/Euro-American ethnicity and speak English as a second language; and 82% indicated that they were supportive of establishing a strong network of MPAs in southern California, specifically fully-protective no-take marine reserves. This study is an example of an alternative and customized method of outreach designed to reach a unique and previously unengaged stakeholder group, which stands to be affected by the implementation of the MLPA in California. Engaging such non-traditional stakeholders in public policy may be critical for decision makers to gauge all views from those standing to be affected by a policy—not just the views of those that regularly attend policy meetings—and for the ultimate success of policy implementation and community support.     

Exploring stakeholder perceptions of marine management in Bermuda

Given competing objectives vying for space in the marine environment, the island of Bermuda may be an ideal candidate for comprehensive marine spatial planning (MSP). However, faced with other pressing issues, ocean management reform has not yet received significant traction from the government, a pattern seen in many locations. Spatial planning processes often struggle during the proposal, planning, or implementation phases due to stakeholder opposition and/or government wariness to change. Conflict among stakeholders about management reform has also proven to be a deterrent to MSP application in many locations. With these obstacles in mind, a detailed stakeholder survey was conducted in Bermuda to determine awareness, attitudes and perceptions regarding ocean health, threats to ocean environments, the effectiveness of current ocean management, and possible future changes to management. How perceptions vary for different types of stakeholders and how attitudes about specific concerns relate to attitudes about management changes were examined. Overall, the results indicate a high degree of support for spatial planning and ocean zoning and a high level of concordance even among stakeholder groups that are typically assumed to have conflicting agendas. However, attitudes were not entirely homogeneous, particularly when delving into details about specific management changes. For example, commercial fishers were generally less in favor, relative to other stakeholder groups, of increasing regulations on ocean uses with the notable exception of regulations for recreational fishing. Given the results of this survey, public support is likely to be high for government action focused on ocean management reform in Bermuda.     

A brief catalogue of failures: Framing evaluation and learning in fisheries resource management

We propose a framework for enabling a systematic evaluation of a fisheries resource management system, which we define as a feed-back mechanism coupled to a fishery. The resource management system includes four basic functions: diagnostics, intervention, goal setting, and decision making. This model allows for the development of an evaluation framework for fisheries resource management by facilitating a typology of failures. We suggest that the potential for systemic and interdisciplinary learning will be significantly enhanced through the process of developing such a framework.     

Filling the gaps one at a time: The Gully Marine Protected Area in Eastern Canada. A response to Agardy, Notarbartolo di Sciara and Christie

In a recently published paper, Agardy et al. [Mind the gap: addressing the shortcomings of marine protected areas through large scale marine spatial planning. Marine Policy 2011;35:226-32] discuss the shortcomings of several Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) including the Gully MPA, located 200 km offshore Nova Scotia, Canada. Although the paper's critical assessment of MPA effectiveness was welcomed, the Gully MPA received an out-of-date profile resulting in an erroneous analysis of current protection levels. This short communication has been written to set the record straight.     

The impact of community-based fisheries management (CBFM) on equity and sustainability of small-scale coastal fisheries in the Philippines

It was realized that with the increasing rate of deterioration of fisheries resource in the Philippines, there was no way the country could pursue a pathway of sustainable development. After enactment of the Local Government Code of 1991, the government actively promoted community-based fisheries management (CBFM) to conserve the coastal resources. The increased attention paid to community-based fisheries management has come about through experience of the poor performance of other approaches and through the study of traditional systems of community management of natural resources which have not only survived but also appear to perform better than the alternatives. This paper presents the results of a study to assess the impacts of CBFM projects in the Philippines, using meta-analysis, on the equity and sustainability of small-scale coastal fisheries. The outcomes indicate a positive impact of CBFM on the equity of both involvement in management and benefit sharing and sustainable management of fisheries resources through the investigation of effective magnitude (effect size) based on eight indicators. The positive summary effect sizes of participation, influence, control, access, and income conjunctly portrayed an improved equity in the fishing community by implementing CBFM. The positive summary effect sizes of compliance and conflict indicated an affirmative community and, therefore, sustainable fisheries management. While the negative summary effect size of resource revealed the difficulties in recovering fish abundance in a relatively short period of time. Also, ten years of implementation of CBFM was discovered as the minimum duration with perceived equity and sustainability improvement for most indicators.     

Mind the gap: Addressing the shortcomings of marine protected areas through large scale marine spatial planning

A blind faith in the ability of MPAs to counteract loss of biodiversity is fraught with risk, especially when MPAs are poorly planned and when the consequences of establishing MPAs are not adequately thought out. MPA shortcomings are categorized as one of five main types: (1) MPAs that by virtue of their small size or poor design are ecologically insufficient; (2) inappropriately planned or managed MPAs; (3) MPAs that fail due to the degradation of the unprotected surrounding ecosystems; (4) MPAs that do more harm than good due to displacement and unintended consequences of management; and (5) MPAs that create a dangerous illusion of protection when in fact no protection is occurring. A strategic alternative, which fully utilizes the strengths of the MPA tool while avoiding the pitfalls, can overcome these shortcomings: integrating marine protected area planning in broader marine spatial planning and ocean zoning efforts.     

Science-based coastal management in Fiji: Two case studies from the NGO sector

The effectiveness of coastal management in developing countries is widely perceived to be inhibited by a lack of scientific data on the coastal zone. To try to fill this need for information, donors and big international non-governmental organizations are increasingly initiating large-scale, science-driven conservation programs, with the goal of creating and using management relevant transdisciplinary datasets. In Oceania, these programs are entering a context where local ecological knowledge is already informing existing community-based approaches to coastal management. This paper examines two large-scale programs in Fiji, the Marine Management Area Science initiative and the Vatu-i-Ra and Cakau Levu Reefs Seascape Project, and offers insight relevant to the planning and implementation of similar programs where local management systems are already in place. Research methods used to examine the programs included document analysis, direct observation, and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders over multiple field visits to Fiji in 2009 and 2010. Results suggest that as donors, non-governmental organizations, and partners move forward in implementing these programs, there must be active steps taken to bridge boundaries between disciplines and among knowledge systems, evaluate the added value of science for all stakeholder groups, and build opportunities for datasets to be used after donor funding ends.     

Why local people do not support conservation: Community perceptions of marine protected area livelihood impacts,governance and management in Thailand

Conservation success is often predicated on local support for conservation which is strongly influenced by perceptions of the impacts that are experienced by local communities and opinions of management and governance. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are effective conservation and fisheries management tools that can also have a broad array of positive and negative social, economic, cultural, and political impacts on local communities. Drawing on results from a mixed-methods study of communities on the Andaman Coast of Thailand, this paper explores perceptions of MPA impacts on community livelihood resources (assets) and outcomes as well as MPA governance and management. The area includes 17 National Marine Parks (NMPs) that are situated near rural communities that are highly dependent on coastal resources. Interview participants perceived NMPs to have limited to negative impacts on fisheries and agricultural livelihoods and negligible benefits for tourism livelihoods. Perceived impacts on livelihoods were felt to result from NMPs undermining access to or lacking support for development of cultural, social, political, financial, natural, human, physical, and political capital assets. Conflicting views emerged on whether NMPs resulted in negative or positive marine or terrestrial conservation outcomes. Perceptions of NMP governance and management processes were generally negative. These results point to some necessary policy improvements and actions to ameliorate: the relationship between the NMP and communities, NMP management and governance processes, and socio-economic and conservation outcomes.