A new study led by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) shows that limiting human activity in parts of the ocean can improve the health of the marine environment as well as the well-being of nearby coastal communities, highlighting the potential value of these marine protected areas (MPAs) in achieving multiple global sustainable development goals.
In December 2022, nearly 200 countries agreed to protect at least 30% of the planet’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030 – the famous “30 for 30” pledge – as part of the UN Conference on Biological Diversity. The newly established MPAs are essential to meeting these goals. However, little research has been conducted to determine whether MPAs affect progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to marine ecosystems, food security and poverty alleviation.
For the new study, SERC researchers examined the impacts of MPAs in the Mesoamerican Reef. Not only did they find that MPAs with the strictest fishing restrictions helped sustain fisheries, they also found a link between marine conservation and increased income and food security in nearby coastal communities.
“Our study provides evidence that Mesoamerican Reef MPAs have the potential to benefit both people and nature at the same time,” said Justin Nowakowski, SERC principal scientist and lead author of the study published in Nature Sustainability.
“Marine protected areas are being hailed as a way to protect fisheries and ecosystems while promoting well-being in coastal communities,” said Steve Canty, co-author and coordinator of SERC’s Marine Conservation Lab. “It is one of the first attempts to jointly evaluate these benefits. Critically, our data show that well-enforced no-fishing zones help restore fish populations and that these zones are associated with improved well-being in nearby coastal communities.
To reach these findings, the authors relied on a combination of data from environmental and social organizations. They re-used Healthy Reefs Initiative reef fish monitoring data. They used social data sets from the US Agency for International Development to assess factors such as income, food security and the likelihood of young children being “stunted” due to chronic malnutrition.
SERC scientists calculated the presence of fish in terms of biomass, or the total weight of the fish population in a given area. MPAs with the highest protection had on average 27% more fish biomass than open access zones without any restrictions. Commercially valuable fish such as grouper were even more abundant, with 35% more biomass.
In terms of welfare benefits, young children who lived near an MPA were about half as likely to suffer from stunting, a key indicator of food insecurity. And the average wealth index, a measure of relative household income, was 33% higher in communities near the best-protected MPAs.
“MPAs undoubtedly help improve the health of reefs and fisheries, and in some cases can positively impact the well-being of coastal communities,” said Sara E. Bonilla-Anariba, a Penn State University researcher and one of the paper’s authors. “However, there is ongoing debate about the factors influencing their positive results.”
For example, this study was unable to discern which groups benefited most from MPAs – whether they were primarily fishing households or those receiving income from other sectors such as tourism. The strength of community-led MPAs also merits further study, the authors said.
“There is still much we don’t know about the interaction between marine protected areas, fisheries and human well-being,” said Nathan Bennett, WWF’s Senior Scientist for Global Oceans. “How do marine protected areas affect other aspects of human well-being? What factors increase positive outcomes? How effective are coastal, community-led marine protected areas?
There is also the potentially oversized role of location. “The location of MPAs is often biased towards areas with lower human pressure,” said co-author Sebastien Costedoat, senior social science research manager at Conservation International. To explain this, the team statistically compared sites near and far from the MPA based on their site characteristics to get a better estimate of the true impacts of the MPA.
“The goals of sustainably managing marine resources, increasing food security and reducing poverty in local communities do not always lead to trade-offs – these positive outcomes can occur in the same places,” said Nowakowski. “Under the right conditions, conservation interventions such as MPAs can be central strategies for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals.”
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