Abstract
AbstractCombining no‐take marine reserves with exclusive access by communities to unreserved waters could provide the required incentives for community management to achieve positive impacts. However, few protected areas have been critically evaluated for their impact, which involves applying counterfactual thinking to predict conditions within protected areas if management had never occurred. Here, we use statistical matching to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of dual management systems on coral reef fishes in Tonga, with communities having both full no‐take areas and areas of exclusive fishing rights. No‐take areas generally had positive impacts on the species richness, biomass, density, and size of target reef fish, while exclusive access areas were similar to predicted counterfactual conditions. The latter is likely because overall fishing pressure in exclusive access areas might not actually change, although more fish could be exploited by communities with access rights. Our findings suggest that dual management is effective at incentivizing effective community‐based no‐take areas for biodiversity conservation and resource management.
Highlights
There is increasing evidence that appropriately situated marine protected areas (MPAs) with high compliance can produce positive outcomes for biodiversity and fisheries (Edgar et al, 2014; Gaines, White, Carr, & Palumbi, 2010)
If local priorities conflict with broader goals, allowing resource users to take over management could result in prioritization of immediate benefits at the expense of long-term national or international objectives, such as biodiversity conservation or sustainable development
There were consistent positive ecological impacts of Fish Habitat Reserves (FHRs) (Figure 3, Table 2). Both overall target species biomass and density were approximately 5.3 and 3.6 times greater, and species richness 15% higher, inside no-take reserves than matched control transects. These impacts were most pronounced in the Scaridae family, with 3.7 times and 2.5 times as much biomass and density of scarids inside FHRs than in control transects, respectively
Summary
There is increasing evidence that appropriately situated marine protected areas (MPAs) with high compliance can produce positive outcomes for biodiversity and fisheries (Edgar et al, 2014; Gaines, White, Carr, & Palumbi, 2010). Balancing conservation priorities with human needs remains one of the key concerns in protected area research (Charles & Wilson, 2009). Community-based marine management, whereby natural resource or biodiversity protection is conducted by, for, and with local communities (Western & Wright, 1994) is seen as one of the best approaches to strike a balance between the interests of biodiversity conservation and resource users (Jupiter, Cohen, Weeks, Tawake, & Govan, 2014). If local priorities conflict with broader goals, allowing resource users to take over management could result in prioritization of immediate benefits at the expense of long-term national or international objectives, such as biodiversity conservation or sustainable development
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