Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human Territoriality in Conservation Conflicts: Territorial Tactics of Marine Reserves in the Bahamas

海洋保护区（MPAs）是保护海洋资源的一个越来越受欢迎的战略。海洋保护区划出一部分海洋作为自然保护区，可以从其中提取有限的渔业资源或不提取渔业资源。这项研究将着眼于在巴哈马中部建立三个“禁止”海洋保护区的提议，以质疑海洋保护区在一个被认为是非领土的空间中建立国家控制领土的方式。保护政策中的典型假设是，海洋是非领土的，因此是开放的，这可能忽视了当地渔民对领土的现有要求。这些先前的主张的存在可能有助于当地对保护项目的抵制。这项研究通过调查渔民的实际领土如何被海洋保护区覆盖而开辟了新的领域。该研究将通过研究政策制定者、海洋科学家、渔民和其他利益相关者在资源利用方面对海洋空间的设想来考察多种观点。该研究试图回答三个问题：1）当地渔民是否声称拥有事实上的领土，然后被纳入保护区，如果这样的领土存在，它们在哪里，以及它们是如何概念化的？ 2)在海洋保护区创建过程中，其他参与者对海洋空间的理解是什么？它们是否会导致保护冲突？如果是，以何种方式？ 3)海洋保护区是否改变了当地的空间实践和领土主张，如果是，它们是如何改变的？将收集数据，以回答这些问题，使用半结构化的访谈和参与性的海洋测绘。将决策者纳入这一数据收集工作将有助于记录更多的相互抵触的索赔要求。通过收集关于人们声称海洋部分为领土的方式的空间数据，这项研究将能够研究对海洋资源的竞争性主张如何与保护政策重叠，从而导致冲突。虽然以前在该地区的研究已经证明，人们普遍支持保护的想法，有没有答案的问题，为什么同样的人可能强烈反对海洋保护区作为一种保护战略。这项研究可能会表明，对保护项目的抵制可能不一定是对保护本身的反对，而是对控制传统使用空间的权利的反对。通过调查有关空间的空间实践和当地对空间的看法，这项研究将有助于更深入地了解海洋环境冲突，以及更广泛地了解人类与环境的关系。此外，从这项研究的经验教训也可能提供途径，进一步研究冲突的其他形式的保护。本研究旨在了解保护冲突作为一个空间，地域化的权力关系，在几个尺度上运作。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，为有前途的学生提供建立强大的独立研究生涯的机会。

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an increasingly popular strategy for conserving marine resources. MPAs set aside a portion of the ocean as a nature reserve from which limited or no fishery resources may be taken. This study will look at the proposed creation of three "no-take" MPAs in the central Bahamas to question the ways that MPAs create state controlled territory in a space that is assumed to be non-territorial. The typical assumption in conservation policy that oceans are non-territorial, and hence open access, potentially overlooks existing claims to territory by local fishers. Existence of these previous claims may contribute to local resistance to conservation projects. This study breaks new ground by investigating how de facto territories of fishers are overwritten by MPAs. The study will examine multiple viewpoints by looking at ways that policy makers, marine scientists, fishers, and other stakeholders conceive of the spaces of the ocean in terms of resource use. The research seeks to answer three questions: 1) Do local fishers make claims to de facto territories that are then subsumed by conservation areas, and if such territories exist, where are they, and how are they conceptualized? 2) What are the understandings of ocean space held by other actors in the MPA creation process, do they contribute to conflict over conservation, and if so, in what ways? 3) Do MPAs change both local spatial practices and territorial claims, and if so how do they change? Data will be collected to answer these questions using semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping of the ocean. The inclusion of policy makers in this data collection will allow for the documentation of additional competing claims. By collecting spatial data about the ways that people claim part of the ocean as territory, this study will be able to look at how competing claims to ocean resources overlap with conservation policy and thus lead to conflicts. While previous studies in the area have documented that people in general support the idea of conservation, there are unanswered questions as to why those same people may strongly opposed MPAs as a conservation strategy. This study will likely show how resistance to conservation projects may not necessarily be an opposition to conservation per se, but about the right to control traditionally used spaces. By investigating both the spatial practices and the local perceptions of the spaces in question, this study will contribute to a more robust understanding of marine environmental conflict, and of human-environment relations more broadly. Further, the lessons from this study may also provide avenues for further research on conflict over other forms of conservation. This study aims towards an understanding of conservation conflicts as a spatial, territorialized power relation operating at several scales. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to provide a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.