Marine reserves and resilience in the era of COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced coastal communities around the world to re-evaluate their approaches to marine conservation and marine protected area (MPA) management. Initial studies have called for the need for improved social-ecological resilience of MPAs to improve the adaptive capacity of communities and ecosystems to respond to future crises. However, as posed by Armitage and Johnson (2006), it is critical that MPA managers ask the question “for what and for whom are we trying to promote resilience?” in designing more resilient MPAs for a post-pandemic world. Based on a systematic literature review of marine reserve impacts and supported by fieldwork conducted in the Wakatobi National Park in Indonesia over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, this study examines what opportunities for transformations in MPA management and governance have emerged, and how MPAs can focus on incorporating principles of equitable resilience as they build back from the pandemic. The findings demonstrate how equitable resilience can be undermined when the voices and interests of local communities are sidelined in favour of powerful interest groups such as tourism or NGOs. Ultimately, the paper concludes that planning for resilience in MPAs must synchronize with local realities to better realize the potential for system transformation and a reimagining of MPA capacity to better serve local communities.