Assessing ecological changes in and around marine reserves using community perceptions and biological surveys

Abstract

ABSTRACT1. Well-enforced partial or total no-fishing zones (collectively known as marine protected areas, or MPAs) can help restore degraded coral reefs and enhance fish populations.2. A comparison was made of community perceptions of ecological changes in an MPA with concurrent scientific data on these changes in the same MPA. Such analyses are particularly important in community-based MPAs where local support is a key determinant of ecological success.3. The no-take MPA in question was initially launched in partnership with the community in 1995 and formalized in 1998. The perceptions data come from interviews with community members in 1999 and 2004, the biological data come from underwater visual censuses of the MPA from 1998 to 2004.4. Community members perceived more fish within the MPA and slight increases in catch outside the MPA. In contrast, fish censuses showed a high degree of stochastic variation and only minor increases in fish abundance, size and diversity in and around the MPA between 1998 and 2004.5. Possible explanations for these discrepancies include different temporal, spatial or species frames of reference and/or limitations to the biological survey technique. Other options include wishful thinking, external influences, a desire to please, or confounding with other benefits.6. This study demonstrates some of the strengths and weaknesses of community perceptions and biological data. In order to improve our understanding about the changes that occur over time in an MPA and engender community support for the long-term viability of MPAs, it is important to develop diverse and efficient monitoring schemes.

What are the environmental impacts of property rights regimes in forests, fisheries and rangelands?

“…similar coral cover or fish abundance) compared with open access (Fig. 10), except for 2 studies with undetermined outcomes [47,48]. There were more reported studies of state regime performing similarly to open access [49][50][51][52][53] than community performing similarly to open access [54].…”

“…Only 16 studies reported enough baseline data [36,40,41,44,46,47,51,55,56] and these were classified into poor, fair and good conditions (Fig. 12).…”

“…There were six such studies, although one of the studies did not provide clear information on the regime intervention year [57]. Of the five remaining studies, regime shifts were reported as leading to positive outcomes in four studies [51,55], while one study saw an undetermined outcome [47]. In the studies with positive outcomes, the time difference since regime …”

Investigating Stakeholder Perceptions of Fish Decline: Making Sense of Multiple Mental Models

“…This has left many municipalities without mooring buoys to define marine reserve boundaries, patrol boats, fuel to conduct regular patrols, guardhouses, or properly trained enforcement personnel [46]. Furthermore, weak coordination between stakeholders has resulted in the inability of municipalities to enforce municipal laws, which has reduced the effectiveness of interventions [47,48]. Decentralization has also created challenges for management because municipal boundaries define jurisdictional boundaries, which do not correspond to resource boundaries that can exist between, beyond, or within multiple municipalities, thereby restricting effective ecosystem-based conservation [47,49].…”

Improving conservation and fishery assessments with local knowledge: future directions

“…Walmsley, Medley & Howard, 2005). It is necessary to acknowledge memory biases that may be present (Table 1; Daw, 2010) and consider the motivations of respondents to over-or underreport (reviewed by Yasu´e, Kaufman & Vincent, 2010). Comparing multiple sources of local knowledge ('local' data-collection methods reviewed by Danielsen, Burgess & Balmford, 2005) with scientific observations can help determine the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches.…”