Sixteen years of social and ecological dynamics reveal challenges and opportunities for adaptive management in sustaining the commons

Abstract

Efforts to confront the challenges of environmental change and uncertainty include attempts to adaptively manage social–ecological systems. However, critical questions remain about whether adaptive management can lead to sustainable outcomes for both ecosystems and society. Here, we make a contribution to these efforts by presenting a 16-y analysis of ecological outcomes and perceived livelihood impacts from adaptive coral reef management in Papua New Guinea. The adaptive management system we studied was a customary rotational fisheries closure system (akin to fallow agriculture), which helped to increase the biomass of reef fish and make fish less wary (more catchable) relative to openly fished areas. However, over time the amount of fish in openly fished reefs slowly declined. We found that, overall, resource users tended to have positive perceptions about this system, but there were negative perceptions when fishing was being prohibited. We also highlight some of the key traits of this adaptive management system, including 1) strong social cohesion, whereby leaders played a critical role in knowledge exchange; 2) high levels of compliance, which was facilitated via a “carrot-and-stick” approach that publicly rewarded good behavior and punished deviant behavior; and 3) high levels of participation by community actors.

Views of management effectiveness in tropical reef fisheries

“…Thus, monitoring, variability, thresholds and feedback information provided to stakeholders are among the recent social‐institution experiments that should benefit future collaborative decision‐making. Despite many efforts, this process of discovery is often not sustained by the finances, skills and social organization of rural communities (Cinner et al., 2019; Cohen et al., 2015; Wells et al., 2007). Additionally, the scale of rural organization and agreement between communities is frequently smaller than the scale required to conserve species and ecosystems (McClanahan & Abunge, 2020a, 2020b; O'Leary et al., 2016).…”

Equity – the Bottleneck and the Opportunity

“…it is well documented that cultures of small and relatively selfsufficient communities developed social and cultural norms that promote equity in access to and distribution of benefits from Uses of Nature. However, these cultural norms and customs have social overhead and costs to maintain, and vulnerabilities to externalities that challenged the well-being of the communities (Cinner et al, 2019;Pihlajamaki et al, 2020). They also tended to be exclusionary -or at least not fully equitably -in how the norms and customs were applied to members and nonmembers of the communities (Barnes et al, 2016).…”

“…An optimist might say that failures to achieve or maintain sustainability in the past does not guarantee unsustainability will remain inescapable in the future. Knowledge keeps growing (particularly as a diversity of knowledge systems are used), capacity and tools to manage keep growing, and lessons from both successes (whether temporary or not) and new failures also keep growing (Cinner et al, 2019(Cinner et al, , 2020Caswell et al, 2020;Hilborn et al, 2020). We all have to share some of this optimism, if we continue to be engaged in these assessment and related activities, work as experts in our areas of specialization, and read papers in volumes such as this one.…”

The future of ocean governance

“…While it is important that future governance regimes adopt decisions based on the precautionary approach (Farbotko and Lazrus 2012 ; Himes-Cornell and Kasperski 2015 ; Morzaria-Luna et al, 2014 ) protecting natural ecosystems also requires governance to be responsive, proactive, and flexible. For example, adaptive management needs to be implemented when addressing the rapid and drastic climate and human-driven change affecting reef areas (Armitage et al 2009 ; GBRMPA 2009 ; Mathews and Turner 2017 ; Maynard et al 2010 ; Townsend et al 2008 ; Weeks and Jupiter 2013 ; Cinner et al 2019 ) (Action 3, 38). Last, government and industry need to establish public emergency funds for a rapid response to unexpected and extreme events (Action 39).…”