CNH2: Socio-Ecological Feedbacks of Marine Protected Areas: Dynamics of Small-Scale Fishing Communities and Inshore Marine Ecosystems

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This project is jointly funded by Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (CNH2), and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).Marine protected areas can help recover a region's marine biodiversity and fisheries resources. However, establishing effective protected areas remains a challenge both ecologically and socially. In most marine systems, basic patterns and interactions between biological and social variables remain poorly understood. This project develops a systems-based model that spans multiple disciplines, including conservation biology, sociology, and political science, to holistically evaluate marine protected area effectiveness. Oriented towards building a framework to quantify and qualify feedbacks within reef-based, marine, socio-ecological systems, this project focuses on the reciprocal interactions between ecological dynamics, marine conservation strategies, and fishing practices in coastal Madagascar, an island in the process of tripling its marine protected area network. This research examines differences in the marine species richness, abundance, and biomass of a suite of marine organisms between protected areas and control sites. It also draws on both qualitative and quantitative social data to evaluate harvest practices, as well as fishers' perceptions of and participation in marine protected area management. This project contributes broadly to the fields of marine conservation and political ecology and, more specifically, to the literature on protected areas as a fisheries management tool. It also addresses community-based conservation and the role of gender in natural resource management. Using a holistic analysis that is attentive to gender, class, and race dynamics within a community, this research explores the relationship between community engagement and the abundance and diversity of fish species within each marine protected area. As a corollary, this research explores the relationship between community engagement and the proportion of shorter-ranging (vs. longer-ranging) marine species fished by a community. This will be the first such study to examine these relationships in tandem. Broader impacts of the work include development of a coupled socio-ecological model of how different levels of community engagement, different marine harvest targets, and modes of harvest influence the ecological effect of marine protected areas and vice versa. It also includes international collaboration with institutions and faculty and students at a university in Madagascar to cultivate relationships between American and Malagasy students, researchers, and key US-based international conservation organizations working to improve marine conservation globally. It will also contribute to the growing body of applied scholarship investigating the link between conservation management strategies and socio-ecological outcomes. Due to its focus on local participation, specifically the role of gendered participation in conservation, this research will illuminate ways in which the application of resource-use rules and regulations, as well as conservation strategies, can be more equitable. Other broader impacts include US undergraduate student training in convergent research, and support of three investigators, two of whom are early career and two who are from a gender underrepresented in the sciences at three institutions in two EPSCoR states. Marine protected areas can help recover a region's marine biodiversity and fisheries resources. This work will develop a systems-based model that spans multiple disciplines, including conservation biology, sociology, and political science, to holistically evaluate marine protected area effectiveness. Oriented towards building a framework to quantify and qualify feedbacks within reef-based, marine, socio-ecological systems, this work will investigate the relationship between (a) ecosystem health (fish abundance, diversity, and size); (b) fisheries targets (species and fishing intensity); and (c) community engagement (the proportion and identity of individuals involved in monitoring, enforcing, or decision-making). The work focuses on the reciprocal interactions between the ecosystems, community engagement, and harvest practices associated with small-scale fisheries of Madagascar, an island in the process of tripling its marine protected area network. Drawing on data collected via underwater surveys and quadrat sampling in three regions of the island, including six present marine protected areas and four unprotected control areas, this research compares differences in species richness, relative abundance, and biomass between the two types of areas. The research draws on both qualitative and quantitative social data through semi-structured interviews and randomized surveys of individuals in coastal villages adjacent to each site concerning harvest practices as well as fishers' perceptions of and participation in marine protected area management. Using these data, this research parameterizes a coupled socio-ecological model to explore how different levels of community engagement, different harvest targets, and modes of harvest influence the ecological effect of a marine protected area and vice versa. Due to its unique characteristics, fishing communities in Madagascar form a robust pilot area where there is tight coupling between social and ecological variables. Local communities harvesting marine species are also engaged in marine protected area management and harvest is spatially concentrated in the reef system adjacent to each fishing village. Similarly, Madagascar is an ideal model system, given the wide spectrum of community engagement in marine protected area management. Results of the research will not only illuminate processes associated with marine protected areas in Madagascar, but also the complex dynamics of coupled marine fishery social-ecological systems in general. The project contributes broadly to the fields of marine conservation and political ecology and, more specifically, to the use of protected areas as a fisheries management tool, community-based conservation, and gender and natural resource management. The hypothesis that community engagement is positively correlated with an overall abundance and diversity of fish species within each marine protected area will be examined. In addition, the work will examine whether community engagement is positively correlated with the proportion of shorter-ranging (vs. longer-ranging) marine species fished by a community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.