Title
Human and coral reef use interactions: From impacts to solutions?
Author(s)
McClanahan, T. R.
Published
2011
Publisher
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
Abstract
The literature on coral reefs and human resource use or fishing is reviewed less from the perspective of summarizing findings but more from the sociological perspective of what scientists chose to study, publish, and cite in journal articles. The motivation was to determine if coral reef science is generating information needed to solve the coral reef climate and fisheries crisis that has been publicized in many of the highest visibility and cited publications. The social-ecological system of coral reefs involves the environment, the ecosystem, human harvesting and social organization and the policies that arise from their interaction. Regardless of the focus and findings of any science investigation on this system, recommendations for management are limited, and include restrictions on space, time of use, effort, gear, species, size, and gender. Evaluating the scientific journal literature in the Scopus database on these restrictions indicates a disparity in focus for both publications and citations. The greatest number of scientists and citations are focused on spatial closures and fishing effort, effort seen as the problem and closures the solution. The other restrictions, that represent less extreme forms of management and have lower short-term social costs and trade offs, are not well studied and, when studied, investigated by either a small group of associated colleagues or transient one-publication investigators. When the values, selectivity, and incentives of scientists conflict with resource users desires for knowledge, incentives, and profits the resulting divide can weaken the social relevance and applicability of science and delay real-world problem solving. Societal engagement, acceptance, objectivity, and finding solutions are likely to increase if scientific effort is spread more evenly across this full spectrum of management restrictions and more components of the social-ecological system. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Clique;Cognitive dissonance;Fisheries closures;Gear;Reserves;Sociology
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PUB14274