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'It's not just about fish': Assessing the social impacts of marine protected areas on the wellbeing of coastal communities in New South Wales
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 15, Iss 12, p e0244605 (2020)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2020.
-
Abstract
- Managing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is about managing human behaviours, but decision-making processes have traditionally focussed on ecological aspects, treating social aspects as secondary. It is now becoming more evident that an equal focus on the ecological and social aspects is required. Without the collection of information about social aspect such as impacts and sharing this as well as ecological information with communities, MPAs are at higher risk of opposition and social acceptability problems. This paper explores the development of a wellbeing framework to understand the social aspects, including the impacts of MPAs on the wellbeing of local communities. This research investigates two case study MPAs: Cape Byron and Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Parks in New South Wales, Australia. The MPAs are multiple-use and were implemented in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The research began with a review of the literature, followed by fieldwork, including semi-structured qualitative interviews with community members. Through thematic coding of the interview transcripts in light of the literature on assessing the social impacts of MPAs, a community wellbeing framework of domains and associated attributes was developed to investigate social impacts. Our analysis shows; first, local perspectives are crucial to understanding social impacts. Second, understanding social impacts gives insight into the nature of trade-offs that occur in decision-making regarding MPAs. Third, the intangible social impacts experienced by local communities are just as significant as the tangible ones for understanding how MPAs operate. Fourth, governance impacts have been the most influential factor affecting the social acceptability of the case study parks. We argue that failure to address negative social impacts can undermine the legitimacy of MPAs. We propose that the framework will support policymakers to work towards more effective, equitable and socially sustainable MPAs by employing much-needed monitoring of human dimensions of conservation interventions at the community level to shape adaptive management.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Culture
Psychological intervention
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
Social Sciences
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Marine Conservation
Cognition
Sociology
Medicine and Health Sciences
Psychology
Marine Fish
Social Change
Policy Making
Conservation Science
Multidisciplinary
Health Policy
Qualitative interviews
Corporate governance
Eukaryota
Geography
Vertebrates
Medicine
New South Wales
Thematic analysis
Research Article
Marine conservation
Conservation of Natural Resources
Science
Decision Making
Marine Biology
Mental Health and Psychiatry
Animals
Humans
Environmental planning
Legitimacy
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
010604 marine biology & hydrobiology
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Organisms
Cognitive Psychology
Biology and Life Sciences
Aquatic Environments
Marine Environments
Adaptive management
Fish
Earth Sciences
Cognitive Science
Marine protected area
Zoology
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 15
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLOS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2462ec24c7754eff807371ce2dd93cb0