Q&A: Improving Human Well-Being Outcomes in MPAs
Marine protected Areas (MPAs) are an important and widespread tool for protecting marine abundance and biodiversity. However, MPAs have also been shown to have substantial, potentially adverse social impacts, especially where they limit access to resources and threaten traditional ways of life or income streams.
With the number and geographic extent of MPAs rapidly increasing worldwide, there is a growing concern that the people most dependent on the ocean will be disproportionally impacted. To date, the human well-being impacts of MPAs have largely been studied retroactively and far less attention has been paid to approaches that help to anticipate future impacts of proposed MPAs.
Today we explore a new paper, “Improving human well-being outcomes in marine protected areas through futures thinking,” that was recently published in One Earth. The article, developed with support from the Blue Nature Alliance, examines how practitioners and scientists can better predict and proactively communicate human well-being impacts during the MPA planning process. In this Q&A, the report’s lead author, Dana Baker, discusses her work and its implications for the development of marine conservation projects in the future.
Can you tell us a little about your background in marine conservation and explain your motivation for researching future-based approaches to MPA design?
I [Dana Baker] grew up along the northern California coast where my childhood was filled with kayaking adventures in Point Reyes National Seashore and camping on bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This experience inspired my love of the ocean and continues to drive my career.
As a marine social scientist, my interests surround the human dimensions of marine environments and the social outcomes of conservation initiatives like MPAs. My dissertation research at Duke University focused on the interactions between the well-being of small-scale fishers and marine protected areas in Tanzania. Building off this work, my current post-doc research at the University of Victoria involves characterizing the social outcomes of large-scale marine conservation initiatives around the world.
Why is it important to consider outcomes for human well-being in MPA design?
With MPA establishment poised to increase until at least 30% of the oceans are protected, it is inevitable that peoples’ well beings will be affected. To achieve better and more sustainable solutions for both people and marine biodiversity, we must be proactive about supporting positive human well-being outcomes and be transparent throughout the processes.
Though MPAs can have many positive outcomes for people and for nature, this is not universally the case. In some situations, MPAs can have negative social impacts, especially when they limit access to resources or facilitate the dispossession of coastal communities. When human well-being outcomes are not considered, MPAs can create conflict, undermine social equity and human rights, and lead to decreased economic success. However, when human well-being outcomes are prioritized and positive outcomes occur, then the MPA is poised to garner more legitimacy, social acceptance, and community support — essential ingredients to the MPA’s success and a win-win for all involved.
How can future-oriented approaches to MPA design improve outcomes for human well-being and what might this look like in practice?
When the needs of people are accounted for from the outset, the MPA is more likely to achieve positive human well-being impacts. Future-oriented approaches to MPA design put local knowledge, needs, and priorities at the center of marine conservation efforts. This is accomplished through inclusive and transparent decision-making and active communication with communities in and around a proposed MPA.
There is no single best approach, method, or tool to understand future impacts. Future-oriented approaches must involve a diversity of techniques together, including diverse modes of participation and community engagement, to enable inclusive visions of the future and plan for anticipated trade-offs associated with MPAs.
How can MPA practitioners and scientists better incorporate future-oriented approaches to marine conservation?
Addressing the future well-being impacts of an MPA is an ongoing process of learning, acting, and reflecting. The design and implementation of future-oriented MPAs should be backed by a combination of science-based guidance and robust community and government consultation. MPA practitioners and scientists must embrace transparency and consider developing a co-governance strategy to inform how the MPA is implemented and governed inclusively in the long run.
In what ways does the Blue Nature Alliance support the development and implementation of these kinds of approaches?
The Blue Nature Alliance has a strong commitment to both people and nature. Each site where the Alliance engages has strong ties with, and leadership by, local partners. The Alliance’s co-design mentality with its partners aligns with a futures-thinking approach for conservation longevity, which by definition includes accounting for long-term human well-being outcomes.
Studies like this one provide guidance and a framework for how the Alliance – and everyone in the conservation community – can continue to improve their commitment to human well-being outcomes while still facilitating the protection of species, habitats, ecological processes, and ecosystems.
How do you hope that your research will influence the broader marine conservation community?
There is still so much to learn about how we can achieve greater social equity as MPAs increase in coverage globally. I hope this report will play a role in those conversations and cause us to reflect, learn, and listen. I also hope the application and use of participatory and co-designed approaches can help countries and the marine conservation community to fulfill their human rights obligation for free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples, small-scale fishers, and other rights- and stake-holders.