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Engagement Phase

In this first phase, facilitators of no-take marine reserves should aim to establish trusted relationships with the local communities and resources users that would likely be impacted from the implementation the marine reserves. This entails the facilitator assessing the social, financial, and leadership structures to determine what the community needs to motivate creating a reserve. Concurrently, facilitators should gather any necessary baseline data to better populate tools that will help to create the reserves. An additional assessment includes assessing whether the facilitating party has the capacity to address the multiple communities that will be affected by a marine reserve.

If facilitators do not have the appropriate or necessary baseline data to properly assess ideal marine reserve size and location. Attain appropriate data as best as possible. Additionally, it is important to place reserves in areas that will enhance the success of the network. It is important to collect data from each of the potential reserve sites.

  • Engage with and involve the local communities to participate in data collection

  • Follow local regulations and procedures when gathering data

  • Enter data in relevant toolkit to determine preliminary reserve design

 

Toolkits: Fish Forever, Sea Sketch, Sustainable fisheries group AFAM

 

Key Questions

  • Did you gather the necessary baseline data to fill out appropriate design tools?

  • Were you able to run a toolkit that determines the placement and size of each marine reserve?

  • Did you determine whether the reserve will be beneficial to the local ecosystem and economy?

  • Do the designs and placements of the reserves allow for connectivity between them? (Connectivity aims to encompass representative portions of all ecologically relevant habitat types for target species.)

*NOTE: There are no distinctions for Governance in the “Network of Marine Reserves” section of manual. The above remains the same.

Network Oppurtunties

 

While the primary inherent benefit of a network of marine reserves depends on the success of the network as a whole, most of the efforts to overcome costs and enhance benefits of the marine reserves fall under local competences. There are some special features that networks provide that could help enhance these local processes.

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Collective sustainability efforts

  • Sustainability efforts can be shared between fishing communities (co-operatives) to save money and time.

  • An example could be a fishery that applies for MSC certification that shares costs and efforts among participating co-operatives throughout the process.

  • This, however, depends on how similarly the co-operatives work (fish), and their ability to cooperate.

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Collective market strategies

  • Different cooperatives can join in collective market strategies to sell their products at a higher price and can create a strong brand for their products.

  • This strategy better markets their product to gain more profit.

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Access to funding and technical assistance

  • In the same way, organized co-operatives can build stronger projects and proposals to seek funding and get technical assistance.

  • When communities work together to multiply their impact, they have stronger institutional influence to push the processes needed to accomplish their goals.

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In order to venture on the process of creating a Marine reserve, it is important for facilitators to develop trust with the local community. Building strong relationships facilitates communication and develops a collaborative environment.  This will allow:

  • Integration of viewpoints and needs when creating a management plan

  • Serves as the foundation when approaching communities and formalizing their contribution to the creation process

  • Helpful when delegating monitoring and management responsibilities

  • Identifying the communities’ capacity for enforcement during the initial phase of engagement can identify the best management plans for a marine reserve.

When creating a network of Marine reserves:

  • Facilitators will need to keep in mind all the stakeholders involved in the region of interest.

  • Be aware that each community within the network has its own needs and motivations. This is important when creating economic incentives to each of the communities directly affected by the implementation of a marine reserve within a network.

  • This is especially true when marine reserves are not directly tied to fisheries benefits but are used for conserving regional ecosystems (i.e. protecting spawning grounds that are not a part of the fishery).  

Key aspect to identify in this phase:

  • Recognize key actors to the process.

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Useful Questions

  1. Who are the various stakeholders related to the fishery resource and marine area?

  2. What group/coalition do they belong or can reasonably be associated with?

  3. What level of interest (and concerns) do they have in the fishery resource and the marine area?

  4. What is the importance and influence that each stakeholder has on the target resources or its management?

  5. What are stakeholders’ positions towards the conservation of target resources and marine habitats?

 

  • Carry out an assessment of community social structure: Focus on the community’s relationship with the target resource to better understand how a marine reserve will impact the local economy and society.

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Key characteristics to inform this assessment:

  • Incorporate opportunities for achieving a shared vision for how the target resource and community can benefit from a marine reserve

 

Methods that can enhance establishing and engaging in relationships between facilitators and the host communities:

  • Toolkit: MPA Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MPA MEAT)

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Key Questions

  • Did you identify and engaged the key actors of the community?

  • Have you assess the social structure of the  community?

  • Have you identify the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of the community?

The first focus of the Economic Component within the Engagement Phase is to help you understand how economic incentives around Fish Refuges work.

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Marine Reserve

  • Whenever a marine reserve is created, an area of water that was previously fish is closed. This generates two types of costs:

    1. the loss produced by the reduction in the fishing grounds

    2. the costs of implementation (monitoring, surveillance, management).

  • The produced costs generate an economic incentive for poaching, which puts in danger the successfulness of the marine reserve, and compromises its economic long-term benefits.

  • You can use the TURF Reserve Toolkit to project profits from fishing, in order to understand the magnitude and timeframe of the cost incurred by closing fishing grounds, and also the future benefits. 

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Economic Strategies

  • To help reducing the impact of the los generated by the marine reserve creation, and to overcome the costs for its implementation, we propose 4 main economic strategies.

  • These strategies are described in the Creation Phase. The users could review and assess them in terms of feasibility and desirability, and pick the most appropriate.

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Livelihood Improvement

  • A successful implementation of the economic strategies would have a positive impact on the livelihoods in the hosting community.

  • This would have a positive effect in the compliance over marine reserve regulations, securing that the long-term benefits that would arrive from the improvement of the stocks, will finally arrive.

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Toolkits: TURF Reserve Toolkit

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KEY ASPECTS

 

The second focus of the Economic Component within the Engagement Phase, is to help you understand the local economic environment. This section includes a number of aspects to be addressed.

 

Fisheries Economic Status

  • Understand the economic status of the fishery.

  • Is the fishery at the maximum economic yield or near? Is the fishery open access?

  • Knowing the economic status of the fishery will help create a baseline for projections of fishery costs and benefits from a Marine Reserve. It will also help define fishery objectives and identify handicaps in management.


Status Value

  • Know the value of the product and trade system.

  • How much are fishers getting for the product and why?

  • Knowing the current conditions of quality and sustainability of the product and the local fish trade system can help understanding the price fishers are getting and the opportunities for better prices ahead.

  • Data and tools: (a) conceptual maps of the value chain for the fishery, including the distribution of income (i.e. price at dock, price at wholesaler, retail price, final price in restaurants), and (b) a benchmarking analysis of the sustainability and quality characteristics of the product.

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Income & Labor

  • Understand all sources of income for the community. Does this income heavily depend on fishing, or are there alternative and complementary activities? How is labor and revenue distributed across age and gender?

  • Identifying the main sources of income, such as the patterns of labor and revenue distribution, will help identify opportunities and challenges for a more equitable distribution of benefits and costs, and to further propose alternative sources of income.

  • Data and tools: (a) information on employment by gender and age, and (b) information on income for the different economic activities, and (c) conceptual maps on labor and income distribution.


Fishing Efficieny

  • Understand opportunities for costs reduction in the fishery.

  • Is fishing effort too high (i.e. are trips or distance covered too long? Are sites fished too recurrently)?

  • Reducing costs in fishing activities can help buffer the economic loss implied by the creation of fish refuges. Having a collectively organized fishery could help it reach the highest efficiency.

  • Data and tools: (1) mapping of the fishing grounds, (2) data on fishing trips (longitude and time, grounds aimed, catch), and (3) data on costs, especially in fuel.

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Toolkit: Turf Reserve

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