13 research outputs found
Social Value of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in England and Wales.
The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected
areas by 2012 and the recentMarine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate
marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these
goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social
value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although
marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important
in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United
Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the
social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored
relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence
in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses
that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued
above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a
practitionerâs perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we âsociallyâ
value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding
of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This
article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a
practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in
decision-making
Double-Dipping Effect? How Combining YouTube Environmental PSAs With Thematically Congruent Advertisements in Different Formats Affects Memory and Attitudes
Diversity, habitat distribution, and indigenous hunting of marine turtles in the Calamian Islands, Palawan, Republic of the Philippines
Role of six European tree species and land-use legacy for nitrogen and water budgets in forests
Linking demographic and foodâweb models to understand management tradeâoffs
Alternatives in ecosystemâbased management often differ with respect to tradeâoffs between ecosystem values. Ecosystem or foodâweb models and demographic models are typically employed to evaluate alternatives, but the approaches are rarely integrated to uncover conflicts between values. We applied multistate models to a captureârecapture dataset on common guillemots Uria aalge breeding in the Baltic Sea to identify factors influencing survival. The estimated relationships were employed together with EcopathâwithâEcosim foodâweb model simulations to project guillemot survival under six future scenarios incorporating climate change. The scenarios were based on management alternatives for eutrophication and cod fisheries, issues considered top priority for regional management, but without known direct effects on the guillemot population. Our demographic models identified prey quantity (abundance and biomass of sprat Sprattus sprattus) as the main factor influencing guillemot survival. Most scenarios resulted in projections of increased survival, in the near (2016â2040) and distant (2060â2085) future. However, in the scenario of reduced nutrient input and precautionary cod fishing, guillemot survival was projected to be lower in both future periods due to lower sprat stocks. Matrix population models suggested a substantial decline of the guillemot population in the near future, 24% per 10Â years, and a smaller reduction, 1.1% per 10Â years, in the distant future. To date, many stakeholders and Baltic Sea governments have supported reduced nutrient input and precautionary cod fishing and implementation is underway. Negative effects on nonfocal species have previously not been uncovered, but our results show that the scenario is likely to negatively impact the guillemot population. Linking model results allowed identifying tradeâoffs associated with management alternatives. This information is critical to thorough evaluation by decisionâmakers, but not easily obtained by foodâweb models or demographic models in isolation. Appropriate datasets are often available, making it feasible to apply a linked approach for betterâinformed decisions in ecosystemâbased management