State and Non-State Territorial Practices and Polycentric Governance in UK and US Large Marine Protected Areas

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This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields.This post-doctoral fellowship supports a young scholar in examining the changing roles and influence of state and non-state actors in large marine protected area (LMPA) governance. LMPAs greater than 100,000 km2 have emerged as a high-profile conservation trend that has spread rapidly around the world through global networks of scientists, non-governmental organizations, foundations, governments, celebrities, and others. Despite this rapid increase in LMPAs, little research has been published investigating the varied actors and policy processes entangled in these new governance regimes. This research addresses this gap by comparing interactions between governance actors and institutional governance structures in two recently announced or expanded LMPAs in the US state of Hawaii's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and in the UK overseas territory of Ascension Island's Exclusive Fishing Zone (EFZ). This project seeks to provide new knowledge about the understudied political and institutional dimensions of LMPAs. It also broadens the participation of women, people who stutter and native Hawaiians in SBE sciences.Specifically, the project engages human geography theory on territoriality and new institutionalist theory on polycentricity to answer three research questions. First, how are state and non-state governance actors (re)articulating ocean territory through the designation of LMPAs in Hawaii and Ascension Island? Second, what are the mechanisms through which existing polycentric governance enables and constrains decision-making roles for state and non-state actors in LMPA designation? Third, how are new governance actors reshaping existing ocean governance structures through the implementation of LMPAs? To address these questions, the project employs a qualitative comparative case study approach guided by constructivist grounded theory. Data collection methods include interviews with governance actors, key document collection, and participant observation at management planning and policy-making meetings. Results will inform a rapidly growing and understudied trend in US and international ocean governance and will enhance cross-site learning between current and future LMPAs.