Comanagement of coral reef social-ecological systems

Abstract

In an effort to deliver better outcomes for people and the ecosystems they depend on, many governments and civil society groups are engaging natural resource users in collaborative management arrangements (frequently called comanagement). However, there are few empirical studies demonstrating the social and institutional conditions conducive to successful comanagement outcomes, especially in small-scale fisheries. Here, we evaluate 42 comanagement arrangements across five countries and show that: (i) comanagement is largely successful at meeting social and ecological goals; (ii) comanagement tends to benefit wealthier resource users; (iii) resource overexploitation is most strongly influenced by market access and users' dependence on resources; and (iv) institutional characteristics strongly influence livelihood and compliance outcomes, yet have little effect on ecological conditions. common property | governance | human-environment interaction | institutional design principles | common-pool resources

Missing ecology: integrating ecological perspectives with the social-ecological system framework

“…Nevertheless, it has been applied to diverse settings including the study of forests (Fleischman et al 2010), fisheries (Basurto and Ostrom 2009;Gutierrez et al 2011;Cinner et al 2012), water and irrigation (Madrigal et al 2011;Ostrom 2011b), and even nature-based tourism (Blanco 2011). This section explores how these studies have approached causation when applying the framework, and their use of the biophysical components of the framework (i.e.…”

Ecosystem services and community based coral reef management institutions in post blast-fishing Indonesia

“…These rules specify how membership is achieved, delineate who is required to have membership, and help avoid a free rider problem within the reef management institution (Cinner et al 2009 (b), Cinner et al 2012, Ostrom 2005, Stevenson and Tissot 2014. If membership is mandatory for all reef users, problems of free ridership are solved, and healthier reefs are hypothesized.…”

“…First, the literature has demonstrated links between co-managed reefs and sustainable coral reef outcomes specifically when key institutional building blocks are in place (Agrawal 2001, Cinner et al 2012, Pomeroy 1995, Wamukota et al 2012). Comanaged institutions prevent degradation that would lessen the ability of ecosystem services to benefit communities (Grilo 2011).…”

Studying Power with the Social-Ecological System Framework

“…To date, the SES framework has been used to study a wide range of systems, including forests, fi sheries, irrigation systems, and nature-based tourism (Fleischman et al 2010 ;Blanco 2011 ;Gutierrez et al 2011 ;Basurto and Nenadovic 2012 ;Cinner et al 2012 ;Basurto et al 2013 ). In adopting a common framework, these studies may advance knowledge more rapidly by generating observations on a common set of attributes that can be readily compared or integrated for large-n analysis.…”