Comparative analysis of factors influencing spatial distributions of marine protected areas and territorial use rights for fisheries in Japan

As increasingly large extents of the global oceans are being managed through spatial measures, it is important to identify area characteristics underlying network distributions. Studies discerning spatial patterns in marine management have disproportionately focused on global networks. This paper instead considers the single country context of Japan to illuminate within-country drivers of area-based conservation and fishery management. A dataset containing potentially relevant socioeconomic, environmental, and fisheries factors was assembled and used to model prefecture-level counts of marine protected areas (MPAs) and territorial use rights for fisheries (TURFs) throughout Japan's waters. Several factors were found to significantly influence the number of TURFs in a particular area, whereas MPA patterns of use remain largely unexplained. TURFs are frequently noted as more suitable for managing fisheries of low mobility species and our analysis finds greater use of TURFs in areas that rely heavily on benthic catch. The number of trading ports was also found to be positively related to TURF distributions, suggesting economic infrastructure may influence the use of this fisheries management tool. In-line with global analyses, MPA patterns of use were not found to be significantly related to any of the potential explanatory variables after correcting for the number of statistical comparisons that were carried out. Differences in our ability to model the use of TURFs and MPAs may arise due to the narrower objectives associated with the former (e.g., income, employment) in comparison to the often broad and varied goals that motivate use of the latter.     

Understanding the cost of establishing marine protected areas

While the recurrent cost of managing marine protected areas (MPAs) has been documented and estimated, there has been virtually no attempt to quantify the cost of establishing MPAs in the first place. This lack of attention is likely the result of the complexity of the process, involving often uncoordinated efforts of a multitude of governmental and non-governmental entities over a protracted period of time with no clear start and end-point. Using information gathered from a representative subset of MPAs worldwide, this paper presents the first attempt to identify and describe the various components, and explore potential predictors of the total funds spent in the course of establishment. The thirteen MPAs studied vary in size (from <1 to >360,000 km²), location (including near- and offshore in both developed and developing countries), objectives and degree of protection. Variation in MPA start-up costs is shown to be most significantly related to both MPA size and the duration of the establishment phase. Development of a method to estimate the potential cost of establishing proposed MPAs should play a crucial role in the conservation planning process.     

A new typology of benefits derived from marine protected areas

Global decline of marine resources has triggered a worldwide demand for changing the way ocean resources are managed. Ecosystem-based management approaches have emerged using marine protected areas (MPA) as the main tool. Several classifications of marine protected areas benefits have been made, but all have focused only on the benefits to humans, neglecting many important benefits accrued to nature. This paper presents a new comprehensive classification of MPA benefits that will provide scientists and managers with an inclusive framework to accurately identify and account for all possible benefits derived from MPAs. The paper also analyses the methods available for valuing these benefits. A total of 99 benefits were identified within nine main categories: fishery, non-fishery, management, education/research, cultural, process, ecosystem, population and species benefits. These categories are arranged in two main divisions (direct and indirect benefits), which, at the same time, fall within the realms of benefits to humans and to nature.     

User fees as sustainable financing mechanisms for marine protected areas: An application to the Bonaire National Marine Park

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have proliferated globally in the past three decades. However, inadequate funding often prevents these management regimes from fulfilling their missions. Managers have become increasingly aware that successful protection of marine ecosystems is dependent not only upon an understanding of their biological and physical processes, but also their associated social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, economic values associated with MPAs and the natural resources they protect are rarely considered in decision-making and policy development. This study addresses this information gap by examining scuba divers’ willingness to pay for access to quality recreational sites in the Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. The findings indicate that the US$10 annual diver user fee in effect at the time of the study could be increased substantially without a significant adverse effect on island tourism. Depending on question format, mean willingness to pay for annual access ranged from US$61 to US$134 (2002$). All model specifications support the conclusion that doubling the US$10 user fee would have virtually no impact on visitation rates. The increased revenue generated from this sustainable financing mechanism is more than sufficient to fund both current and enhanced marine park operations.     

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.     

Cumulative impact mapping: Advances,relevance and limitations to marine management and conservation,using Canada's Pacific waters as a case study

Analysis of cumulative human impacts in the marine environment is still in its infancy but developing rapidly. In this study, existing approaches were expanded upon, aiming for a realistic consideration of cumulative impacts at a regional scale. Thirty-eight human activities were considered, with each broken down according to stressor types and a range of spatial influences. To add to the policy relevance, existing stressors within and outside of conservation areas were compared. Results indicate the entire continental shelf of Canada's Pacific marine waters is affected by multiple human activities at some level. Commercial fishing, land-based activities and marine transportation accounted for 57.0%, 19.1%, and 17.7% of total cumulative impacts, respectively. Surprisingly, most areas with conservation designations contained higher impact scores than the mean values of their corresponding ecoregions. Despite recent advances in mapping cumulative impacts, many limitations remain. Nonetheless, preliminary analyses such as these can provide information relevant to precautionary management and conservation efforts.     

Marine spatial planning in the high seas

Although high seas resources are being exploited, reciprocal legal obligations to protect its environment have not been met. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is clearly a practical way forward, particularly for the high seas, where non-spatial monitoring is difficult, and where data gaps obstruct conventional management approaches. To ensure the effective application of MSP in the high seas, however, some institutional reforms are necessary. This paper outlines the main hurdles, summarizes existing high seas spatial protections, presents an example of a high seas marine protected area that resulted through MSP, identifies three institutional priorities, and suggests three immediate steps.     

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.     

The need and practice of monitoring, evaluating and adapting marine planning and management—lessons from the Great Barrier Reef

An increasing number of scientists and resource managers recognise that successful marine management approaches, including marine spatial planning (MSP), cannot occur without effective monitoring, evaluation and adaptation. These basic components are necessary to ensure that any marine planning or marine management measures are both effective and efficient. While a number of fundamental principles for marine monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management exist, there are varying levels of understanding about how these should be undertaken and what they may achieve. Challenges include the development of realistic and measurable objectives and indicators against which effectiveness can be practically measured. The matter becomes even more complicated as the focus of marine planning and management strategies changes from ‘single species’ to ‘habitats’ and ‘ecosystems’ that may enable a diversity of permitted uses consistent with a variety of overall objectives. Over the last 30 years, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) has successfully established a multiple-use spatial management approach that allows both high levels of environmental protection and a wide range of human activities. Drawing on this unique long-term experience in the GBRMP, this article discusses key aspects of effective monitoring and evaluation, and summarises lessons learned from over two decades of adaptive management.     

Marine protected areas in a welfare-based perspective

Assuming a broad set of fisheries management goals, this paper analyzes the implementation of a marine protected area (MPA) together with open access outside, applying a bioeconomic model that ensures unchanged growth post-MPA. Taking into account that conservation and restoration, food security, employment and social surplus are amongst the objectives that many managers include in fisheries management, it is found that this broader welfare economic approach to MPAs may well recommend them to a greater degree than espoused in the more common resource rent focused studies carried out to date. It is shown that for overfished stocks, an MPA may yield resource protection, maximize harvests and increase consumer and producer surplus, as well as give higher employment. This, however, is less apparent for moderately overfished as well as highly migratory stocks. Resource protection and enhancement implicitly improves ecosystem services.     

The importance of marine spatial planning in advancing ecosystem-based sea use management

During the past 10 years, the evolution of marine spatial planning (MSP) and ocean zoning has become a crucial step in making ecosystem-based, sea use management a reality. The idea was initially stimulated by international and national interest in developing marine protected areas, e.g., the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. More recent attention has been placed on managing the multiple use of marine space, especially in areas where conflicts among users and the environment are already clear, e.g., in the North Sea. Even more recent concern has focused on the need to conserve nature, especially ecologically and biologically sensitive areas, in the context of multi-use planning of ocean space. Despite academic discussions and the fact that some countries already have started implementation, the scope of MSP has not been clearly defined. Terms such as integrated management, marine spatial management, and ocean zoning are all used inconsistently. This is one of the reasons why its importance is not more seriously reflected at the levels of policy and decision-making in most countries. This article attempts to deal with this problem. It describes why MSP is an essential step to achieve ecosystem-based sea use management, how it can be defined and what its core objectives are. The article concludes with an analysis of the use and achievements of MSP worldwide, with particular focus on new approaches in Europe.     

Murky waters: Media reporting of marine protected areas in South Australia

Given the public's limited knowledge of marine environments, informing the public about marine protection presents a unique challenge. Studies have shown a well-informed public is more likely to support environmental issues and that newspapers, in particular, are considered a credible media source. This research investigates media representations of current South Australian efforts to establish a marine protected area (MPA). Articles from five newspapers between 1999 and 2006 were examined for content in the following areas: local marine ecology, the policy process of MPA establishment and stakeholder views. The research found that newspapers concentrated their reporting on opposing stakeholders, opinions and were largely ineffective in conveying the significance of the local marine ecology, the economic benefits of the MPA, and the delayed establishment process. These information gaps have left the public poorly informed, and therefore, there is unlikely to be significant pressure to overcome the continued delays in the establishment process.     

Financing marine protected areas in Jamaica: An exploratory study

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPA) has been a common government response to increasing fishing, tourism and other human activities that lead to decline in coral and marine resources. MPAs often suffer inadequacy of funds and simply become “paper parks”. This study makes a case for the feasibility of a self-financing mechanism for MPAs by estimating potential surplus benefit that recreational users may gain from MPAs in Jamaica. These same recreational users in turn, might be willing to pay a small portion of that gain toward the management costs. With the help of a travel cost model and the visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) estimates, we show that the management costs of the park amount to a negligible amount; less than 0.1% of the annual total WTP. Furthermore, using these WTP estimates and the findings from other stakeholders’ surveys (hotels, tour operators, etc.), the paper provides insights on user-supported funding policies, such as taxes and fees, which might sustain the operations of MPAs in Jamaica and the broader Caribbean region.     

Monitoring benthic biodiversity restoration in Lyme Bay marine protected area: Design,sampling and analysis

Long-standing concerns about the effects of scallop dredging and demersal trawling on high diversity mudstone reef and cobble habitats in Lyme Bay, southwest England, were addressed by the exclusion of bottom towed fishing gear from a 206 km² area in July 2008. A consortium led by Plymouth University Marine Institute was funded by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to design and implement a study (initially funded for 3 years) to examine the effects of the closure on both nekton and epibenthos. This paper provides a detailed account of the methodology employed from survey design to data analysis to provide a protocol for future MPA monitoring programmes. Information on historical fishing effort, substrate distributions and current and previous closure boundaries was overlaid using GIS to locate suitable monitoring sites. Non-destructive and cost-effective techniques, including a towed high-definition video array and static baited video, were used to quantify changes in relative abundances of epibenthos and nekton over three years at sites previously fished but now closed to bottom towed fishing compared to both fished and un-fished reference sites. The monitoring programme as described provides a model for robust, cost-effective evaluation of the efficacy of policy instruments for feedback into the adaptive management cycle.     

Commercial fisheries closures in marine protected areas on Canada’s Pacific coast: The exception,not the rule

No-take marine protected areas (MPAs), where all fishing is prohibited, have been shown to provide benefits that include greater productivity of fish stocks due to increased densities, average sizes, and reproductive output. A critical component of this success is the effective management of MPAs to ensure that only those activities deemed permissible, are allowed to occur. As of 2008, 161 MPAs had been designated on the Pacific coast of Canada by federal, provincial or municipal authorities. The objective of this study was to discover how many of these MPAs are intended to provide full protection to habitats and species from commercial fishing and whether management measures were put in place to actualize this conservation intent. The comprehensive spatial dataset was built illustrating commercial fisheries closures and this was overlaid with MPA locations in a GIS. The majority of MPAs were designated as IUCN Strict Nature Reserve (Type Ia), Wilderness Area (Type Ib), and National Park (Type II) marine reserves, which are intended to be free from exploitation. It was found that 160 of the 161 MPAs are open to some commercial harvesting within their bounds. One small municipal MPA and portions of three other MPAs are not open to commercial harvesting. The incongruence between management intent and fisheries permitted suggests a management failure between designation of MPAs and implementation of fisheries management regulations.     

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.     

Status of the marine protected area network across the English channel (La Manche): Cross-country similarities and differences in MPA designation,management and monitoring

Recent international policy developments require states to conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas by creating effectively managed and ecologically coherent networks of protected areas in the marine environment. In the framework of the PANACHE project, the current status of designation, management and monitoring of the network of marine protected areas (MPAs) of an important environmental, social and economic marine area: the English Channel (the Channel) was examined. Currently 224 MPAs exist belonging to 12 different designation categories and covering 17 440 km², or approximately 20.3% of the project area in the Channel. International protection targets in the marine environment are thus met at this regional scale, although the individual contributions of the UK and France are considerably different, with French MPAs accounting for nearly 80% of the total area protected. Differences between countries are also found regarding MPA designation categories (11 in France, 6 in the UK, 1 in the Channel Islands) and management structures (with more actors involved in the UK) and approach, whereas the monitoring techniques used are similar, although more standardised in the UK. Pending challenges include greater within-country and cross-country MPA designation, monitoring and management simplicity, integration and coordination as well as the assessment of management effectiveness and ecological coherence of the Channel network of MPAs.     

Management priorities for seawater desalination plants in a marine protected area: A multi-criteria analysis

The development of seawater desalination plants to increase water reliability in coastal areas poses a threat to the health of near shore marine ecosystems and may affect the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) that have been established to meet international conservation targets. This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis approach to quantify stakeholder groups’ priorities for seawater desalination plants that have been proposed in communities adjacent to a National Marine Sanctuary. All groups placed the highest importance on minimizing environmental impacts on protected areas and endangered species that could be affected by water intake and brine discharge emphasizing the need for integrated land and sea conservation. Minimizing socio-economic impacts on coastal communities was much less important. Stakeholders also weighted reducing pressure on water levels in rivers, streams, and aquifers as more important than increasing water for residential consumption, which may foster coastal growth rather than replacing water taken from other sources. The study further revealed differences in the importance of multiple management objectives among stakeholder groups, which highlights the need to elicit distinct priorities of all groups to understand concerns and potential conflicts of desalination with existing marine users. The analysis of consistency ratios revealed that around half of all surveyed stakeholders had high inconsistencies in their responses, which suggests either a lack of understanding of desalination, or reflects the complexity of establishing desalination plants in coastal areas adjacent to a marine protected area.     

The Marine Planning Framework for South Australia: A new ecosystem-based zoning policy for marine management

The Marine Planning Framework for South Australia is a new large-scale, ecosystem-based zoning policy for management of development and use in the marine environment. Utilising the Geographic Information System (GIS), the model establishes four ecologically rated zones, derived from known ecological criteria. A series of goals, objectives and strategies represent the desired outcomes for each of the ecologically rated zones. A Performance Assessment System (PAS) will subsequently evaluate the success of the marine plans. Implementation will be supported by a collaborative whole-of-government approach. Marine plans will facilitate the delivery of long-term protection to the marine environment as a whole ecosystem, whilst enabling a broad range of activities to occur in a sustainable manner.     

Fishers' perception of a multiple-use marine protected area: Why communities and gear users differ at Mafia Island,Tanzania

This study examined the perceptions of fishers from two fishing communities with differing use histories and involvement in the long-standing (16 yr) multiple use Mafia Island marine protected area (MIMP), Tanzania. A randomly distributed questionnaire indicated that 94% of fishers believed that without the MIMP, there would be overfishing, dynamite use, destroyed habitats, and few fish. Fishers were more positive about core zones (no-take fishery closures) than general use zones (areas allowing selective fishing) as a consequence of increases in fishing pressure. Those that reported increased catches and sizes of fish since the creation of the MIMP were more likely to agree with present zone locations and more positive in general about fisheries and conservation planning. Most thought that fish size and gear restrictions were preferable to permanent closures. Perceptions differed among communities and gear users. Community and gear type explained 46% of the variance in responses about the perception that fisheries and conservation are compatible goals. Somewhat surprisingly, these effects were more important than catch increases or involvement in MIMP-related activities. The differences in perception between communities may be partly attributed to different fishing histories. Multiple-use zoning provides a means to identify and resolve conflicts and achieve what are likely universal objectives for fisheries sustainability and conservation.