Perceptions of fishing access restrictions and the disparity of benefits among stakeholder communities and nations of south‐eastern Africa |
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| Authors: | Tim R McClanahan Caroline A Abunge |
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| Affiliation: | Marine Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY, USA |
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| Abstract: | Achieving high compliance with resource‐use management policies is a critical concern to achieving sustainability, particularly in poor countries. Willingness to comply may depend on the values and perceptions of benefits and legitimacy of the restrictions. Consequently, we interviewed and evaluated the perceptions of fishing restrictions among ~2100 marine fisheries stakeholders (resource users and managers) in 102 fishing villages in Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania. We hypothesized that perceived benefits would decline and social inequity increase along a hypothesized gradient of increasing access restriction – ranging from minimum size of fish to fisheries closures. Managers did not recognize the hypothesized access restriction gradient, seeing most restrictions as beneficial, but with some nation‐specific distinctions. Village‐level responses of resource users varied by country, and overall perceived benefits of access restrictions increased with the wealth, education and membership in fishing organizations. In Kenya and Tanzania, some communities with views that differed greatly from managers were, in places, found near marine protected areas and they perceived more benefits accruing to the government than resource users for the strongest access restrictions. Madagascar and Mozambique fishing villages had low between‐community variability, and their responses did not reflect the hypothesized restriction gradient or strong social disparity, which may reflect limited practical experience with restrictions. These results suggest that countries with stronger central governments contained villages with more between‐community variability and perceived social disparity than weaker governments. We argue that transparent negotiations with stakeholders about the scales of costs and benefits should increase compliance with selected fisheries regulations. |
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| Keywords: | Co‐management equity governance poverty social psychology social– ecological systems |
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