Integrating marine debris into socioeconomic monitoring: Informing local actions in Minicoy Island, India and charting a new global approach

Abstract

In 2019, the authors introduced the topic of anthropogenic marine debris into the Global Socioeconomic Monitoring Initiative for Coastal Management (SocMon) during an assessment conducted at Minicoy Island in India. SocMon is a process-based approach and set of tools for conducting community-based socio-economic monitoring of changes in coastal communities that has been adopted and adapted worldwide through the Global SocMon network. It provides an experiential learning opportunity that often leads to community driven action. By adding marine debris into this assessment, it is hoped that the data collected, along with the authors' experience and analysis, will provide a baseline and support resource management changes locally and provide lessons for other SocMon researchers. Further, this paper shows that SocMon provides an opportunity to assess changes caused by plastics or other marine debris not only in the physical environment, but also within a community and society.