Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, NSW, Australia.
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries), Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, Nelson Bay, NSW, Australia.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 30;15(12):e0244605. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244605. eCollection 2020.
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.
管理海洋保护区（MPAs）是关于管理人类行为的，但决策过程传统上侧重于生态方面，将社会方面视为次要的。现在越来越明显的是，需要同等关注生态和社会方面。如果不收集有关社会方面的信息，例如影响，并将这些信息与社区共享，以及生态信息，那么 MPA 面临更大的反对和社会可接受性问题的风险。本文探讨了制定福利框架以了解社会方面的发展，包括 MPA 对当地社区福利的影响。这项研究调查了两个案例研究 MPA：澳大利亚新南威尔士州的拜伦角和斯蒂芬斯港-大湖区海洋公园。这些 MPA 是多用途的，分别于 2006 年和 2007 年实施。研究首先对文献进行了回顾，然后进行了实地考察，包括对社区成员进行半结构化定性访谈。通过根据关于评估 MPA 社会影响的文献对访谈记录进行主题编码，开发了一个社区福利框架的领域和相关属性，以调查社会影响。我们的分析表明：首先，了解当地观点对于理解社会影响至关重要。其次，了解社会影响可以深入了解在涉及 MPA 的决策中发生的权衡的性质。第三，当地社区所经历的无形社会影响与理解 MPA 运作方式的有形影响一样重要。第四，治理影响是影响案例研究公园社会可接受性的最具影响力的因素。我们认为，未能解决负面社会影响可能会破坏 MPA 的合法性。我们建议该框架将通过在社区层面上对保护干预措施的人类维度进行急需的监测，以支持制定适应性管理，从而为政策制定者制定更有效、公平和社会可持续的 MPA 提供支持。
