Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Mar 25;14(3):e0207973. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207973. eCollection 2019.
Natural resource rules exist to control resources and the people that interact with them. These rules often fail because people do not comply with them. Decisions to comply with natural resource rules often are based on attitudes about legitimacy of rules and the perceived risks of breaking rules. Trust in agencies promulgating rules in part may determine perceptions of legitimacy of the rule, and in turn depends on individuals' trust in different agency actors. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between fishing rule noncompliance and trust in scientists, a key group within management agencies. We interviewed 41 individuals in one rural fishing community in the Brazilian Pantanal from April to August, 2016, to assess (1) noncompliance rates, (2) noncompliance-related attitudes, and (3) the relationship between trust in scientists and noncompliance decisions in the region. We found that among study participants, noncompliance was common and overt. Trust in scientists performing research in the region was the best predictor of noncompliance rate with a fishing rule (nonparametric rank correlation ρ = -0.717; Probit model pseudo-R2 = 0.241). Baseline data from this research may help inform future interventions to minimize IUU fishing and protect the Pantanal fishery. Although our results are specific to one community in the Pantanal, trust in scientists is potentially an important factor for compliance decisions in similar situations around the world. These results build not only on compliance theory but also speak to the important role that many scientists play in rural areas where they conduct their research.
自然资源规则旨在控制资源和与之互动的人们。这些规则往往因为人们不遵守而失效。遵守自然资源规则的决定通常基于对规则合法性的态度和违反规则的感知风险。对制定规则的机构的信任部分可能决定了对规则合法性的看法，而这又取决于个人对不同机构行为者的信任。本研究的目的是探讨不遵守捕鱼规则与对科学家的信任之间的关系，科学家是管理机构中的一个关键群体。我们于 2016 年 4 月至 8 月在巴西潘塔纳尔的一个农村渔业社区采访了 41 人，以评估（1）不遵守率，（2）与不遵守相关的态度，以及（3）该地区对科学家的信任与不遵守决定之间的关系。我们发现，在所研究的参与者中，不遵守规定的情况很常见，而且很明显。对在该地区进行研究的科学家的信任是不遵守捕鱼规则的不遵守率的最佳预测因素（非参数等级相关 ρ=-0.717；Probit 模型伪 R2=0.241）。本研究的基线数据可能有助于为未来的干预措施提供信息，以最大限度地减少 IUU 捕鱼并保护潘塔纳尔渔业。尽管我们的结果是针对潘塔纳尔的一个社区，但对科学家的信任是在世界范围内类似情况下遵守决定的一个潜在重要因素。这些结果不仅建立在遵守理论的基础上，而且还说明了许多科学家在他们进行研究的农村地区所发挥的重要作用。
