Perceived Benefits of Fisheries Management Restrictions in Madagascar

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Perceptions of the benefits of fisheries management restrictions were evaluated in coastal Madagascar to identify restrictions that are likely to be self-and community enforced. The survey focused on 24 Malagasy fishing villages adjacent to coral reefs. Resource users' perceptions of the benefits of restrictions were generally high and widespread, but some less positive perceptions were found in three villages located near marine protected areas. Perceptions of the benefits of gear restrictions had widespread support; closed areas, seasons, and minimum sizes of fish were less common; and restrictions on species were supported infrequently. We therefore advocate a management implementation approach that uses these scales of perceived benefits and prioritizes support for the most widely accepted restrictions most broadly, with the less accepted restrictions matched to specific supportive locations. At the village level, socioeconomic and wealth variables were not clearly associated with perceived benefits, which we suggest results from a stronger influence of village history than socioeconomic conditions. At the individual fisher level, however, there was evidence that experienced people involved in decision-making, having livelihood alternatives, and having permanent housing had more opinions and frequently were more supportive of management restrictions. Incorporating this information into forums and management plans is expected to increase the rate of adoption and compliance with needed fisheries restrictions.

Perceptions of fishing access restrictions and the disparity of benefits among stakeholder communities and nations of south‐eastern Africa

“…For example, species restrictions that we hypothesized as a moderate access restriction were ranked low in some locations of Madagascar and Mozambique (McClanahan et al . , ).…”

“…Nevertheless, there are many cases of pro‐environmental attitudes in poor and developing countries (Brechin and Kempton ; McClanahan et al . ). Consequently, while many poor countries are seen to pose problems for sustainability, such as south‐eastern Africa (Allison et al .…”

Erosion of Traditional Marine Management Systems in the Face of Disturbances in the Nicobar Archipelago

“…Rapid changes in the political, economic and social regimes of local communities can profoundly influence resource institutions (Olsson 2004). Testing the relative resilience of community resource control mechanisms is rarely easy since changes often occur through a series of small erosions that may be difficult to track and measure effectively (McClanahan et al 2014). In this context, catastrophic events can serve as important natural experiments, since they offer a clear event horizon to document changes to the way local communities relate to their natural resources (Aswani and Lauer 2014).…”

Assessment of catches, landings and fishing effort as useful tools for MPA management

“…Compliance by users, including fishers, acceptance of MPA rules, cooperation in monitoring and management processes and adequate enforcement are critical components to MPA success (Claudet and Guidetti, 2010;Guidetti et al, 2008). When fishers recognize benefits from MPAs, they are more likely to accept the various regulations, leading to a greater chance of the MPAs meeting their goals (McClanahan et al, 2005(McClanahan et al, , 2014. However, measurement of 'success' can be challenging due to the difficulty in establishing adequate monitoring processes that account for temporal and spatial variability in a large variety of possible responses.…”