Regulatory compliance of marine protected areas

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校史蒂文·盖恩斯博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位研究自然资源管理法规遵从性的早期职业科学家。不遵守和违反规则可能威胁到资源治理的有效性及其相关资源系统的可持续性。例如，在世界海洋中，非法捕捞被认为是对海洋生态系统的最大威胁之一。政治学理论预测，与政府实施的“自上而下”的监管相比，自治(由资源使用者自己设计和颁布的监管)会导致更高水平的合规。然而，这从来没有被大规模的经验检验过。该项目通过对伙伴组织REARE收集的大型数据集的分析，测试自治是否增加了对海洋保护区的监管遵守情况，海洋保护区是渔业管理的一种广泛工具。除了培训一名职业生涯早期的科学家外，该奖项还促进了合规的基本行为和政治科学，并有可能促进全球渔业公平和可持续发展。该项目使用合规的多维模型来比较不同治理安排下的合规类型和程度，主要贡献于共同池资源理论，即自然资源管理的集体行动理论。基于合法性或理性选择模型的预测不能解释或预测自然资源管理方面的遵守情况，例如渔业。最近，社会生态理论提出了一个新的多维合规模型(动机姿态模型)来理解合规行为，我们使用该模型来比较自治和自上而下治理安排下的合规程度和类型。该项目使用了Rare为其永久渔业计划收集的大型数据集，其中包括数百个已实施禁止捕捞的海洋保护区(禁止捕鱼的区域)以及渔具限制和其他捕捞法规的地点的不遵守情况的定量和定性数据。对这一大型数据集的分析将得到对几个选定地点的原始微型人种学案例研究的补充。这个项目挑战了对遵从性的二元概念化，而是使用了一个与阻力、权力和公平相结合的框架。该项目有助于对共同管理资源周围的人类行为的基础研究，对资源的可持续性和机构的合法性具有更广泛的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Steven Gaines at University of California Santa Barbara, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating regulatory compliance in natural resource management. Noncompliance and rule breaking can threaten the effectiveness of resource governance and the sustainability of their associated resource systems. In the world’s oceans for example, illegal fishing is considered one of the greatest threats to marine ecosystems. Political science theory predicts that self-governance (regulations devised and enacted by resource users themselves) leads to high levels of compliance compared to “top-down” regulations imposed by governments. However, this has never been empirically examined at a large scale. This project tests whether self-governance increases regulatory compliance with marine protected areas, a widespread tool for fisheries management, through the analysis of a large dataset collected by a partner organization, Rare. In addition to the training of an early-career scientist, this award advances the fundamental behavioral and political science of compliance, and has the potential to advance global fisheries equity and sustainability.This project uses a multidimensional model of regulatory compliance to compare compliance types and extent under different governance arrangements, and contributes primarily to common-pool resource theory, a theory of collective action for natural resource management. Predictions based on either legitimacy or rational-choice models have not been able to explain or predict compliance in natural resource management, such as in the case of fisheries. A new multidimensional model of compliance (“motivational postures model”) from social-ecological theory has recently been proposed to understand compliance with state-implemented regulations, which we use to compare the extent and type of compliance under self-governance and top-down governance arrangements. This project uses a large dataset collected by Rare for their Fish Forever program, with quantitative and qualitative data on noncompliance in hundreds of sites where no-take marine protected areas (areas where fishing is banned) have been implemented, along with gear restrictions and other fishing regulations. Analysis of this large dataset will be complemented by original mini-ethnographic case studies of several select sites. This project challenges binary conceptualizations of compliance, instead using a framework that engages with resistance, power, and equity. This project contributes to fundamental research on human behavior around co-managed resources, with broader implications for resource sustainability and legitimacy of institutions.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.