Political economy of marine reserves: Understanding the role of opportunity costs

Abstract

The creation of marine reserves is often controversial. For decisionmakers, trying to find compromises, an understanding of the timing, magnitude, and incidence of the costs of a reserve is critical. Understanding the costs, in turn, requires consideration of not just the direct financial costs but also the opportunity costs associated with reserves. We use a discrete choice model of commercial fishermen's behavior to examine both the short-run and long-run opportunity costs of marine reserves. Our results can help policymakers recognize the factors influencing commercial fishermen's responses to reserve proposals. More generally, we highlight the potential drivers behind the political economy of marine reserves.marine protected areas | fishing behavior | bioeconomics | metapopulation | opportunity cost M any scientists and marine conservationists are calling for increases in the number of no-take marine reserves throughout the world's oceans (1, 2). As proposals to form new reserves move forward, commercial and recreational fishermen fear the short-and long-term effects on their livelihoods from lost access to particular fishing grounds. For example, proposals to site reserves near California's Channel Islands and the Tortugas in Florida generated passionate political advocacy (3). More recently, controversy surrounding the California Marine Life Protection Act has intensified as fishermen and other stakeholders question the potential benefits and science behind proposed actions (4).Advocates for marine reserves often treat fishermen's assertions about the costs with the same skepticism that fishermen have for the stated benefits. For decisionmakers trying to find compromises between these and other stakeholders, an understanding of the costs and benefits of reserves is critical. This information is particularly relevant when reserve policies are determined through public stakeholder meetings that may be dominated by extreme rather than moderate representatives of all sides in the debate, including different parts of the fishing industry (5).When a fisherman goes fishing, he purchases fuel, bait, etc., and he also forfeits opportunities to earn income in other activities, e.g., fishing elsewhere or working on land. Understanding the responses of commercial fishermen to marine reserves requires consideration of these opportunity costs. We use an empirically established model of a commercial fishery to predict fishermen's opportunity costs both in the short and in the long run. Although many of our general findings appear in the natural resource economics literature (6-10), we highlight how these responses are driven by the way a reserve changes opportunities for fishermen: opportunities that arise in space (e.g., reserves eliminate some possible fishing grounds), in the biological domain (e.g., reserves affect the abundance of target species), and in the financial realm (e.g., reserves may alter the costs of fishing). We extend the literature by considering how these opportunities vary across fishermen with hete...

Marine protected areas and the value of spatially optimized fishery management

“…10). Furthermore, fishermen often oppose limits on where they can fish (11,12), and it may be more difficult or costly to enforce spatially complex regulations. Faced with these hurdles, it is important to assess the value of spatially explicit management of marine systems and to determine under what conditions it is advantageous to pursue such management.…”

Communicating marine reserve science to diverse audiences

“…In other cases, reserves have had strong, positive effects inside their borders and augmented local fisheries over time through the spillover of adults (41,42), sometimes changing previously negative opinions of local stakeholders. The responses of human communities to reserves can change over time; for example, in some modeled scenarios, fishermen are more willing to pay, in both costs and missed opportunities, for the establishment of a reserve if it will benefit them in the long run (43). Unfortunately, it has proved difficult to get feedback about our communication tactics from some stakeholders, particularly fishermen of diverse backgrounds.…”

Fishermen, markets, and population diversity

“…The models have also been used in analytical fisheries economics research (e.g. Smith et al, 2010). Following the previous literature, we assume that fishermen are myopic and in our particular setting, we also assume that fishermen do not consider the externalities associated with degrading population diversity.…”