Applying Fuzzy Logic to Assess Human Perception in Relation to Conservation Plan Efficiency Measures Within a Biosphere Reserve

Abstract

The objective of this study is to present an efficiency-perception impact assessment based upon the integration of fuzzy logic (FL) of the ''Productive Reconversion'' conservation program (PRP) instituted by the Mexican government, in the upper Gulf of California and the Colorado Delta Biosphere Reserve. This approach enables environmental analysts to deal with the intrinsic imprecision and ambiguity associated with people's judgments and conclusions. The application of FL to the assessment of program efficiency is illustrated in this work, demonstrating how subjective perceptions can be converted into quantitative values easy to evaluate during the decision-making process.

Planning Ecotourism in Coastal Protected Areas; Projecting Temporal Management Scenarios

“…Although regulated ecotourism results in less harmful economic uses [13] even under environmental planning [14], the projection of scenarios under an ecologic point of view involves many exogenous variables that make it difficult to assess. In ecotourism activity, the models for formulating conservation strategies and sustainable use of coastal resources are designed to mitigate the environmental impact of the productive activities [15,16]. These models could be planned through the projection of future scenarios to achieve sustainable use of natural resources, as well as to assess the changes in the ecosystem and the preservation and sustainable economic development [17].…”

Perceptions of fishers to sea turtle bycatch, illegal capture and consumption in the San Ignacio‐Navachiste‐Macapule lagoon complex, Gulf of California, Mexico

“…Fishers certainly fall into this category, so to deal with the uncertainty involved in their decision-making processes one alternative is to use fuzzy logic (FL), a mathematical system designed to analyze imprecise, uncertain environments and partiallytrue concepts. FL has been used to assess environmental impacts (Bojorquez-Tapia et al 2002;Gagliardi et al 2006;Gonzalez-Ocampo et al 2006;Li et al 2008) and ecological risks (Adriaenssens et al 2004;Salihoglu & Karaer 2004;Gevrey et al 2006) and in conservation planning assessments (Ruíz-López et al 2012), based on integrating linguistic expressions with input and output variables instead of numerical, probabilistic, statistical or perturbation variables.…”