Title
Tracking Progress Towards the MacArthur Foundation's 10 Year Coastal and Marine Strategy: Global Monitoring Report
Author(s)
Wildlife Conservation Society
Published
2018
Abstract
The decline of coastal and marine ecosystems is a critical conservation issue. Over 95 percent of ocean predators have been overfished; a third of coral reefs are severely degraded; and the majority of the world’s fisheries are overexploited and expected to experience further depletion. In the coming decades, declining fisheries will threaten nutrition and human health for coastal communities, with developing countries disproportionately vulnerable. A key goal of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s work with the MacArthur Foundation has been to coordinate and implement collaborative monitoring activities that can rigorously examine and evaluate the impact of the MacArthur Foundation’s investments. This work is aligned with many emerging goals of conservation science: to advance knowledge, inform policy, build capacity, and catalyze a culture of evidence-based decision making. Throughout Melanesia, the Western Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and the Caribbean, WCS has brought together partners to monitor the effectiveness of marine conservation investments in order to, (1) work with diagnose, evaluate, and learn from investments in priority geographies around the world; (2) strengthen the use of open-source tools to ensure monitoring data are accessible and available to global monitoring partners; and (3) evaluate the evidence to identify best practices for sustainable fisheries and coastal management in areas of high biodiversity, and improve links between monitoring data and decision making. This current document represents the first global survey of a coordinated social-ecological monitoring framework based on the scholarship of Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, in order measure the social and ecological outcomes of local communities managing and governing their own resources. Our work embraces the reality that there is no one-size-fits-all, where management comprises state-led marine reserves, co-management between governments and communities, and customary governance by local communities. We present case studies that monitor shared core indicators across different management systems and local contexts to tell these stories, and we learn about successes and challenges around the world. The following case studies from the Indo-Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea include Kenya, Madagascar, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Cuba. We document many shared themes, including calls to action for strengthening local leadership; managing conflict; investing on the recovery of fishery resources where coral reef habitats remain relatively healthy; and empowering diverse voices in fisheries governance. This work continues to build the quantitative and qualitative evidence towards identifying effective investments for coral reef fisheries management.
Keywords
coastal ecosystems; marine ecosystems; coral reef fisheries
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