Two Decades of Community-Based Marine Conservation Provide the Foundations for Future Action

Villaseñor-Derbez, Juan Carlos; Amador-Castro, Imelda G.; Hernández‐Velasco, Arturo; Torre, Jorge; Fulton, Stuart

doi:10.3389/fmars.2022.893104

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In cases where ‘on‐paper‐protection’ has been successful, it is usually because these additional measures have been rigorously implemented. Examples of this can be found in certain well‐managed reserves where stringent enforcement and community involvement have led to notable conservation successes (see Villaseñor‐Derbez et al, 2022 and references therein). Moreover, fully enforced protected areas, although not immune to global‐scale changes (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecological value of fully enforced, no‐entry, marine protected areas: A case study of harvested limpets

Faria,

Vale,

Ribeiro

et al. 2024

Aquatic Conservation

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Harvesting of intertidal gastropods can lead to a direct reduction in the biomass of targeted species through a reduction in the numbers and size of individuals, in turn leading to extensive changes to the structure of intertidal communities. In the Azores, two patellid species co‐occur, and both are exploited for human consumption. However, one of these species, Patella aspera (Röding, 1798), is larger and has a greater economic value and is thus favoured in comparison to the smaller Patella candei (d'Orbigny, 1840). This study investigates the effects of human exploitation on the interaction between these two species by comparing their densities and sizes within two areas of a marine protected area (MPA): a no‐entry area where human access is strictly prohibited and an adjacent area where human access is allowed and collection still occurs despite it being prohibited. Patella aspera attained similar densities in the two areas, but individuals were much larger within the no‐entry MPA. In contrast, P. candei were more abundant in the adjacent area but were of a similar size as in the no‐entry MPA. Limpet biomass was much greater within the no‐entry MPA. The abundance (% cover) of upright macroalgae and barnacles as well as bare rock were also significantly reduced within the no‐entry MPA, where grazer‐resistant algal crusts cover was significantly greater. This study highlights the influence of human activities and how these may affect the complex dynamics of biotic interactions with wider community‐level cascading effects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecological value of fully enforced, no‐entry, marine protected areas: A case study of harvested limpets

Faria,

Vale,

Ribeiro

et al. 2024

Aquatic Conservation

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“…One example of success are community-based marine conservation initiatives establishing no-take MRs within fishing concession zones 19 . Unlike top-down MRs—those established and administered by government agencies—community-based MRs are inherently connected to the community and their well-being, thus fostering social-ecological conservation benefits 20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term effects of community-based marine reserves on green abalone, as revealed by population studies

Bauer,

Segovia-Rendón,

Lorda

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Marine reserves (MRs) are implemented worldwide to protect, restore, and manage marine ecosystems and species. However, it is important to document the positive effects those marine reserves have on slow-growth, temperate invertebrates such as abalone. Abalone, Haliotis spp., are marine gastropods of high economic value extracted worldwide for decades, which has led to fisheries-driven population decreases. In this work, we focused on a case study and assessed the short-term (1–2 years) effects of marine reserves established and managed by a local fishing cooperative at Guadalupe Island, Mexico. We evaluated the population status of green abalone, H. fulgens, by conducting (1) an assessment of the green abalone population around Guadalupe Island through subtidal monitoring and (2) an evaluation of the effect of two recently established marine reserves on population parameters such as the increase in density (individuals·m2), biomass, number of aggregated abalone, egg production, and proportion of individuals bigger than 150 mm (minimum harvest size) compared to fished areas. To assess the population around Guadalupe Island, we surveyed 11,160 m2 during 2020 and 2021. We recorded 2327 green abalones with a mean ± SE shell length of 135.978 ± 0.83 mm and a mean density of 0.21 ± 0.02 individuals·m2. All variables were statistically higher at the MRs except for shell length in 2021. In this work, we report for the first time the green abalone population status at Guadalupe Island and a positive short-term biological response to community-based marine reserves. This study suggests that a network of MRs combined with good management could help abalone populations in the short term in Guadalupe Island, potentially leading to more sustainable fishing practices and social-ecological resilience.

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“…Marine reserves, also known as fully-protected MPAs, are a special type of MPA that do not allow extractive activities (Sala and Giakoumi, 2017). Over the past two decades, some Mexican fishing communities have implemented community-based marine reserves within their fishing grounds (Quintana and Basurto, 2021;Villaseñor-Derbez et al, 2022). Their documented success in maintaining biomass of fishery-relevant species (Smith et al, 2022) and biodiversity more broadly (Micheli et al, 2014;Munguıá-Vega et al, 2015) has prompted ambitious commitments to expand coverage of community-based MPAs in Mexico.…”

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confidence: 99%

Biomass accrual benefits of community-based marine protected areas outweigh their operational costs

Villaseñor-Derbez,

Fulton,

Hernández-Velasco

et al. 2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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The costs and benefits of customary top-down Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been studied at length. But the costs and benefits of community-based MPAs –an increasingly common tool in conservation and fisheries management– remain understudied. Here, we quantify the operational costs of maintaining community-based MPA monitoring programs in nine small-scale fishing communities in Mexico. We then compare these costs to the potential extractive use value of invertebrate and fish biomass contained in the reserves. We find that the annual monitoring costs (median: 1,130 MXN/ha; range: 23-3,561 MXN/ha) represent between 0.3% and 55% of the extractive use value of the biomass contained in the reserves (median: 21.31 thousand MXN/ha; 5.22 - 49/12 thousand MXN/ha). These results suggest that the direct monetary benefits of community-based marine conservation can outweigh the costs of monitoring programs, providing further support for these types of management schemes. While further research should explore other mechanisms that would allow fishers to leverage the non-extractive use value of reserves (e.g., tourism) or the non-use value (i.e. existence value of biodiversity) to sustainably finance their conservation efforts, a stop-gap measure to ensuring long-term monitoring costs are covered might include limited extractive use of resources contained in the reserves.

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Two Decades of Community-Based Marine Conservation Provide the Foundations for Future Action

Cited by 7 publications

References 46 publications

The ecological value of fully enforced, no‐entry, marine protected areas: A case study of harvested limpets

The ecological value of fully enforced, no‐entry, marine protected areas: A case study of harvested limpets

Short-term effects of community-based marine reserves on green abalone, as revealed by population studies

Biomass accrual benefits of community-based marine protected areas outweigh their operational costs

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