Title
Efficient and equitable design of marine protected areas in Fiji through inclusion of stakeholder-specific objectives in conservation planning
Author(s)
Goetze JS, Jupiter SD, Langlois TJ, Wilson SK, Harvey ES, Bond T, Naisilisili W (2015)
Abstract
The efficacy of protected areas varies, partly because socioeconomic factors are not sufficiently
considered in planning and management. Although integrating socioeconomic factors into systematic conservation
planning is increasingly advocated, research is needed to progress from recognition of these factors
to incorporating them effectively in spatial prioritization of protected areas. We evaluated 2 key aspects of
incorporating socioeconomic factors into spatial prioritization: treatment of socioeconomic factors as costs or
objectives and treatment of stakeholders as a single group or multiple groups. Using as a case study the design
of a system of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kubulau, Fiji, we assessed how these aspects affected
the configuration of no-take MPAs in terms of trade-offs between biodiversity objectives, fisheries objectives,
and equity in catch losses among fisher stakeholder groups. The achievement of fisheries objectives and equity
tended to trade-off concavely with increasing biodiversity objectives, indicating that it is possible to achieve
low to mid-range biodiversity objectives with relatively small losses to fisheries and equity. Importantly, the
extent of trade-offs depended on the method used to incorporate socioeconomic data and was least severe
when objectives were set for each fisher stakeholder group explicitly. We found that using different methods
to incorporate socioeconomic factors that require similar data and expertise can result in plans with very
different impacts on local stakeholders.
Keywords
fisheries, marine reserve design, marine spatial planning, MPA, opportunity costs, social equity, systematic conservation planning, marine protected area
Access Full Text
Back
DMX3236500000