Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T16:41:31.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Management preferences, perceived benefits and conflicts among resource users and managers in the Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

T.R. McCLANAHAN*
Affiliation:
Wildlife Conservation Society, Marine Programs, Bronx, NY 10460, USA
J. CINNER
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
A.T. KAMUKURU
Affiliation:
University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
C. ABUNGE
Affiliation:
Coral Reef Conservation Project, PO Box 99470, Mombasa, Kenya
J. NDAGALA
Affiliation:
Mafia Island Marine Park, Mafia, Tanzania
*
*Correspondence: Dr Tim R. McClanahan e-mail: tmcclanahan@wcs.org

Summary

Conflicts between resource users and managers are common and well documented on Mafia Island (Tanzania), where there has been a history of unresolved conflict over marine conservation initiatives. The perceptions of fisheries and park restrictions among resource users and managers were evaluated to try to understand the underlying causes of these conflicts. Responses concerning management preferences of government officials employed by the Mafia Island Marine Park (MIMP), personnel of the fisheries department, and heads of households in three villages in and out of the Park were compared. The largest differences in perceptions were found between villagers and managers, but all respondents agreed that minimum fish lengths and gear restrictions were beneficial and that benefits increased along the scale of the individual – community – national government. Villagers and government officials differed most in their perceptions towards area-based management, spatial and temporal closures, and species restrictions. Perceptions of management restrictions and benefits were only weakly correlated with the socioeconomic status of the villagers, but more strongly correlated with their living in or out of the Park and their family's economic options. The most negative perceptions towards restrictions were found in villages near fisheries closures, where there was a heavy reliance on marine resources and a higher numbers of jobs per household, but less reliance on cash crops, animal husbandry and tourism. The lack of these three options appears to have produced lower levels of support for MIMP and associated restrictions, and might be overcome by (1) using gear and minimum size restrictions more than fisheries closures and (2) increasing access to tourism, cash crops, animal husbandry and salaried employment, rather than simply increasing livelihood diversity.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, E.H. & Ellis, F. (2001) The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries. Marine Policy 25: 377388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aswani, S. (2005) Customary sea tenure in Oceania as a case of rights-based fishery management: does it work? Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 15: 285307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beddington, J.R., Agnew, D.J. & Clark, C.W. (2007) Current problems in the management of marine fisheries. Science 316: 17131716.Google Scholar
Berkes, F. (2007) Community-based conservation in a globalized world. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences 39: 1518815193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D.J. (1990) Strategies for coping with severe food deficits in rural Africa: a review of the literature. Food and Foodways 4: 143162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, P. (2002) Local understanding of modernity: food and security on Mafia Island, Tanzania. Report, Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
Carter, M.R. (1997) Environment, technology, and the social articulation of risk in West African agriculture. Economic Development and Cultural Change 45: 557591.Google Scholar
Christie, P. (2004) Marine protected areas as biological successes and social failures in southeast Asia. American Fisheries Society Symposium 42: 155164.Google Scholar
Cinner, J.E. (2005) Socioeconomic factors influencing customary marine tenure in the Indo-Pacific. Ecology and Society 10 (1): 36 [www document]. URL http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss1/art36/Google Scholar
Cinner, J.E. (2007) The role of taboos in conserving coastal resources in Madagascar. Traditional Marine Resource Management and Knowledge Information Bulletin 22: 1523.Google Scholar
Cinner, J.E. & McClanahan, T.R. (2006) Socioeconomic factors that lead to overfishing in small-scale coral reef fisheries of Papua New Guinea. Environmental Conservation 33: 7380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinner, J.E. & Pollnac, R. (2004) Poverty, perceptions and planning: why socioeconomics matter in the management of Mexican reefs. Ocean and Coastal Management 47: 479493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clausen, R. & York, R. (2008 a) Economic growth and marine biodiversity: influence of human social structure on decline of marine trophic levels. Conservation Biology 22: 458466.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clausen, R. & York, R. (2008 b) Global biodiversity decline of marine and freshwater fish: a cross-national analysis of economic, demographic, and ecological influences. Social Science Research (in press). DOI 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2007.10.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocklin, C., Craw, M. & McAuley, I. (1998) Marine reserves in New Zealand: use rights, public attitudes, and social impacts. Coastal Management 26: 213231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defeo, O. & Castilla, C. (2005) More than one bag for the world fishery crisis and keys for co-management successes in selected artisanal Latin American shellfisheries. Fish Biology and Fisheries 15: 265283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, R.E. & York, R. (2008) The globalization of environmental concern and the limits of the postmaterialist values explanation: evidence from four multinational surveys. The Sociological Quarterly 49: 529563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelcich, S., Edwards-Jones, G. & Kaiser, M. (2005) Importance of attitudinal differences among artisanal fishers toward co-management and conservation of marine resources. Conservation Biology 19: 865875.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelcich, S., Edwards-Jones, G. & Kaiser, M.J. (2007) Heterogeneity in fishers' harvesting decisions under a marine territorial user rights policy. Ecological Economics 61: 246254.Google Scholar
Gelcich, S., Edwards-Jones, G., Kaiser, M.J. & Castilla, J.C. (2006) Co-management policy can reduce resilience in traditionally managed marine ecosystems. Ecosystems 9: 951966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelcich, S., Kaiser, M.J., Castilla, J.C. & Edwards-Jones, G. (2008) Engagement in co-management of marine benthic resources influences environmental perceptions of artisanal fishers. Environmental Conservation 35: 3645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, G.M. & Krueger, A.B. (1995) Economic growth and the environment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110: 353377.Google Scholar
Hilborn, R. (2007) Moving to sustainability by learning from successful fisheries. Ambio 36: 296303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horrill, J.C., Darwall, W.R.T. & Ngoile, M.A.K. (1996) Development of a marine protected area: Mafia Island, Tanzania. Ambio 25: 5057.Google Scholar
Jacobson, S.K. & Marynowski, S.B. (1997) Public attitudes and knowledge about ecosystem management on department of defense land in Florida. Conservation Biology 11: 770781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jentoft, S. (2003) Co-management: the way forward. Fish and Fisheries 26: 116.Google Scholar
Jentoft, S., McCay, B.J. & Wilson, D.C. (1998) Social theory and fisheries co-management. Marine Policy 22: 423436.Google Scholar
Kamukuru, A.T., Mgaya, Y.D. & Ohman, M.C. (2004) Evaluating a marine protected area in a developing country: Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania. Ocean and Coastal Management 47: 321337.Google Scholar
Mahongo, S.B. (1994) The coastal profile of Mafia Island, Tanzania. Report, Tanzanian National Environmental Management Council. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
McClanahan, T.R. (1999) Is there a future for coral reef parks in poor tropical countries? Coral Reefs 18: 321325.Google Scholar
McClanahan, T.R. (2007) Management of area and gear in Kenyan coral reefs. In: Fisheries Management: Progress towards Sustainability, ed. McClanahan, T.R. & Castilla, J.C., pp. 166185. London, UK: Blackwell Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R. & Castilla, J.C. (2007) Fisheries Management: Progress towards Sustainability. London, UK: Blackwell Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Castilla, J.C., White, A. & Defeo, O. (2009) Healing small-scale fisheries and enhancing ecological benefits by facilitating complex social-ecological systems. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (in press). DOI 10.1007/s11160-008-9088-8.Google Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Davies, J. & Maina, J. (2005 a) Factors influencing resource users and managers' perceptions towards marine protected area management in Kenya. Environmental Conservation 32: 4249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Glaesel, H., Rubens, J. & Kiambo, R. (1997) The effects of traditional fisheries management on fisheries yields and the coral-reef ecosystems of southern Kenya. Environmental Conservation 24: 105120.Google Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Graham, N.A.J., Calnan, M. & MacNeil, M.A. (2007) Towards pristine biomass: reef fish recovery in coral reef marine protected areas in Kenya. Ecological Applications 17: 10551067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Maina, J. & Davies, J. (2005 b) Perceptions of resource users and managers towards fisheries management options in Kenyan coral reefs. Fisheries Management and Ecology 12: 105112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R. & Mangi, S. (2000) Spillover of exploitable fishes from a marine park and its effect on the adjacent fishery. Ecological Applications 10: 17921805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClanahan, T.R., Verheij, E. & Maina, J. (2006) Comparing management effectiveness of a marine park and a multiple-use collaborative fisheries management area in East Africa. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 16: 147165.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.H. (1995) Sustainability, efficiency, and God: economic values and the sustainability debate. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 26: 135154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollnac, R.B. & Crawford, B. (2000) Assessing behavioral aspects of coastal resource use. Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island, USA.Google Scholar
Richardson, E.A., Kaiser, M.J. & Jones, G.E. (2005) Variation in fishers' attitudes within an inshore fishery: implications for management. Environmental Conservation 32: 213225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sall, J., Lehmaan, A. & Creighton, L. (2001) JMP Start Statistics. Duxbury, USA: Thomson Learning.Google Scholar
Stern, D.I. (1998) Progress on the environmental Kuznets curve? Environment and Development Economics 3: 173196.Google Scholar
URT (2003) Tanzanian Census – 2002. Population and housing census, Volume 2. Age and sex distribution. National Bureau of Statistics, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
URT (2006) Tanzania Census - 2002. Analytical report. Volume 10. National Bureau of Statistics, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
United Republic of Tanzania (2000) Mafia Island Marine Park: General Management Plan. Report, Board of Trustees for Marine Parks and Reserves, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
Walley, C.J. (2004) Rough Water: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park. Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wells, S., Samoilys, M., Anderson, J., Kalombo, H. & Makoloweka, S. (2007 a) Collaborative fisheries management in Tanga, Northern Tanzania. In: Fisheries Management: Progress towards Sustainability, ed. McClanahan, T.R. & Castilla, J.C., pp. 139165. London, UK: Blackwell Scientific.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, S., Burgess, N. & Ngusaru, A. (2007 b) Towards the 2012 marine protected area targets in Eastern Africa. Ocean and Coastal Management 50: 6783.Google Scholar