Improving marine protected area governance through collaboration and co-production.

J Environ Manage

ECOSEAS Lab. UMR 7035, Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, Parc Valrose 28, Avenue Valrose, 06108, Nice, France; CoNiSMa (Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare), P.le Flaminio 9, 00196, Rome, Italy; Stazione Zoologica 'A. Dohrn' di Napoli, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy. Electronic address:

Published: September 2020

AI Article Synopsis

  • Marine protected areas (MPAs) are more effective when stakeholders, especially local communities like small-scale fishers, are actively engaged in conservation efforts and decision-making processes.
  • A collaborative project across 6 EU countries focused on small-scale fishers led to agreed-upon governance interventions aimed at improving management in MPAs for one year.
  • The results showed that these interventions were feasible, cost-effective, and positively impacted fishers' perceptions regarding support for MPAs and governance aspects, with certain conditions enhancing perceived effectiveness.

Article Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) socio-ecological effectiveness depends on a number of management and governance elements, among which stakeholder engagement and community support play key roles. Collaborative conservation initiatives that engage stakeholders in action research and knowledge co-production processes can enhance management and governance of MPAs. To design effective strategies aimed at reconciling biodiversity conservation and management of sustainable human uses, it is key to assess how local communities respond to such initiatives and identify the set of contextual factors, institutional, local and individual, potentially affecting these responses. This paper presents the approach and results of one such initiative, spanning 6 EU countries and 11 MPAs in the Mediterranean Sea, focusing on small-scale fishers as key MPA users. Through a collaborative project, managers and fishers agreed upon specific governance interventions (e.g. increasing stakeholder engagement, engaging fishers in monitoring activities, reducing fishing efforts) to be implemented in each MPA for one year. Structured surveys queried: MPA managers on the MPA context, governance structure, feasibility and effectiveness of the tested interventions; and small-scale fishers on their perceptions of the impact of the tested interventions on a set of 9 socio-ecological variables (e.g. amount of fish caught, level of participation in decision-making, support for the MPA). Results revealed that the interventions tested were relatively feasible, effective and cost-effective. Fishers reported positive perceptions of the interventions for the 9 variables considered, especially for level of support for the MPA and for those associated with aspects of governance. Proportional odds models highlighted perceived effects are maximized under certain institutional, local and individual circumstances (e.g. old MPAs, small fisher communities, and fishers with a high proportion of income from fisheries). Findings highlight that employing good governance processes involving stakeholders may rapidly generate improved local support for conservation and provide insights for potential leverage points upon which to act to maximize perceived effectiveness and enhance support toward MPAs.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110757DOI Listing

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