Evidence of economic benefits for public investment in MPAs

Abstract

MPAs enhance some of the Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by coral reefs and clear, robust valuations of these impacts may help to improve stakeholder support and better inform decision-makers. Pursuant to this goal, Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA) of MPAs in 2 different contexts were analysed: a community based MPA with low tourism pressure in Vanuatu, and a government managed MPA with relatively high tourism pressure, in Saint Martin. Assessments were made on six ES: fish biomass, scenic beauty, protection against coastal erosion, bequest and existence values, social capital and CO 2 sequestration, which were quantified via different approaches that included experimental fishery, surveys and benefit transfer. Total operating costs for each MPA were collected and the benefit-cost ratio and return on investment based on 25-year discounted projections computed. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on MPA impacts, and discount rates (5%, 7% and 10%). The investment indicators all showed positive results with the impact on the tourism ES being the largest estimated for all MPAs, highlighting the importance of this relationship. The study also demonstrated a relatively high sensitivity of the results to different levels of impacts on ES, which highlights the need for reducing scientific knowledge gaps.

Well-being outcomes of marine protected areas

“…While social scientists are increasingly called on to assess human well-being outcomes of MPAs 28 , MPA development and management continues to be primarily occurring without consistent quantitative or qualitative monitoring of well-being outcomes 29,30 . We need to move towards ensuring the long-term well-being of people and communities that depend on marine The process of creating MPAs, that are small, local, and managed by communities, has numerous benefits for human empowerment and well-being, notwithstanding environmental outcomes [33][34][35] .…”

The global costs and benefits of expanding Marine Protected Areas

“…The economic benefits of expanding MPA coverage are the maintained or enhanced flows of ecosystem services that are provided by protected marine ecosystems [6,45,46]. The marine ecosystems included in our assessment are coral reefs, coastal wetlands and mangroves.…”

Filling the Data Gap – A Pressing Need for Advancing MPA Sustainable Finance

“…We cataloged and present here (Tables 2A,B, 3) each piece of literature based on scope, environment considered (marine or terrestrial), the costs reported, type of data, and eligibility for inclusion in our quantitative comparison. Papers and articles include projections for real cases, estimations for hypothetical scenarios, and observations from ongoing efforts Some studies are site-or region-specific, in which case their geographic focus is also referenced (Green et al, 2012;Rojas-Nazar et al, 2015;Pascal et al, 2018). Other studies have used a collection of case examples or data sets to construct cost models to both identify variables that influence costs, as well as to project costs of…”