The creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) may reduce household incomes from fishing, a World Bank report states.
The “Banking on Protected Areas” report looked at how promoting sustainable protected area as tourism could benefit local economies.
The report states few marine areas have been formally protected in Fiji.
“It is important, as a first step, to align these areas with formal (gazetted) marine protected areas in order to build benefit sharing arrangements and scale up the impacts of these areas on local economies.
“Even if formalisation restricts resource use, and prevents local people from fishing, hunting, or harvesting plants, such restrictions may be offset in the medium term, as overharvested wild populations recover under formal protection.”
The report states formalisation of marine protected areas also gives governments authority to work with local businesses to pursue environmental standards which may reduce the impact of tourism on fragile ecosystems, including reefs.
“While the creation of marine protected areas may reduce household incomes from fishing in the short term, environmental protections may offset these losses, as no-fish zones create spillovers into adjacent fishing grounds, accelerating the recovery of stocks and increasing catch sizes.
“This effect has been recorded in Fiji where a marine protected area designated in 2014 seeded adjacent areas and resulted in larger and more consistent catches by 2019, leading to increased incomes and support for conservation.”
