Exploring Social Resilience in Madagascar's Marine Protected Areas

Bibliographic Data

ID5111202
AuthorsJoshua Cinner, Joshua E Cinner (0000-0003-2675-9317, James Cook University), Mariana M P B Fuentes (0000-0002-2789-824X, James Cook University), Herilala Randriamahazo (Wildlife Conservation Society United Kingdom)
Year2009
Volume14
Issue1
Publication date2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConservation Ecology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1195-5449 • E-ISSN: 1708-3087
PublisherResilience Alliance (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.5751/es-02881-140141
OpenAlexW1724663519
LanguageEN
Citations received52
References cited32

We examined and compared aspects of local-level resilience in 13 coastal communities within and adjacent to all of Madagascar's national marine protected areas. Our examination of social resilience focused on indicators of the flexibility of household livelihood portfolios and both formal and informal governance institutions, the capacity of communities to organize, their capacity to learn, and access to household assets and community infrastructure. In general, we found high levels of flexibility in formal institutions and livelihood portfolios and high levels of participation in decision-making and community groups. Together, these indicators suggest some latent capacity to adaptively manage resources, but this capacity may be offset by poor levels of trust between communities and resource managers, a poor understanding of the ways in which humans affect marine resources, inadequate feedback of ecological monitoring to communities, inflexibility in informal governance institutions, and a lack of assets to draw upon. We suggest that building desirable resilience in Madagascar's marine protected areas will require the following: investments in community-level infrastructure, projects to generate household income, and enhanced agricultural production to improve the well-being of communities; improvements in the capacity to learn through investments in formal and informal education; enhanced trust between park staff and local communities; empowerment of communities to govern and enforce natural resources; the increased accountability of leaders and transparency of governance processes; adequate cross-scale interaction with local, provincial, and national institutions; and the pursuit of these activities in ways that capitalize on community-specific strengths, such as high flexibility and the presence of sociocultural institutions such as taboos that regulate resource use

Accountability · Adaptive capacity · Agriculture · Business · Capacity building · Climate change · Community resilience · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Livelihood · Natural resource · Political science · Psychological resilience · Sustainability · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies · Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies · Ecology · Finance