Marine protected areas in Costa Rica: How do artisanal fishers respond?

Abstract

Costa Rica is considering expanding their marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve marine resources. Due to the importance of households' responses to an MPA in defining the MPA's ecological and economic outcomes, this paper uses an economic decision framework to interpret data from near-MPA household surveys to inform this policy discussion. The model and data suggest that the impact of expanding MPAs relies on levels of enforcement and on-shore wages. If larger near-shore MPAs can produce high wages through increased tourism, MPA expansions could provide ecological benefits with low burdens to communities. Due to distance costs and gear investments, however, MPAs farther off-shore may place high burdens on off-shore fishers.

Keywords

Enforcement; Marine reserves; No-take zones; Perceptions; Tourism

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2017, volume: 46, number: 7, pages: 787-796

SLU Authors

• Capitán Jimenéz, Tabaré

  • University of Wyoming

UKÄ Subject classification

Economic Geography
Fish and Wildlife Management

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0921-y
• ISBN: 16547209 00447447

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/113773