Protecting marine life also benefits people in the region – 06/30/2023 – Environment

Protecting areas of the sea located close to the coast, excluding fishing, mining and other human activities, can also help people who live nearby, revealed a study published on Thursday (29) in the journal Nature Sustainability.

The study found that people living near these areas have greater food security and household income. The region studied is the Mesoamerican system of coral reefs, which extends from the east coast of Central America for about a thousand kilometers to the south, from Mexico to Honduras.

To compare fish populations in protected and unprotected areas, the study authors analyzed existing surveys of more than 80 species of fish conducted by the regional organization Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative between 2005 and 20018. They found that fish are 27% more abundant in fully protected areas than in unprotected areas. Fish populations have remained stable or increased over time in these protected areas.

“The most important finding, in my view, is that marine protected areas can co-benefit humans and fish,” said Steven Canty, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian Center for Environmental Research and one of the study’s authors.

The ecosystem is home to more than 60 species of corals and 500 species of fish. Critically endangered animals such as the saltwater crocodile and loggerhead sea turtle live close to the reef. Around 2 million people inhabit the coastline, and local economies are strongly linked to the reef.

This study focused on Guatemala and Honduras, but countries around the world are creating more marine protected areas. Last year, around 190 countries signed a United Nations agreement to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, in an effort to halt the loss of biodiversity. The United States did not sign the agreement, but President Joe Biden issued a separate executive order protecting 30% of the nation’s land and waters.

Scientists, policymakers, industries and communities have debated for years whether marine protected areas work as designed to sustain fish populations, and whether these areas help or hurt their human neighbors. The new study supports the idea that marine protected areas, at least those where fishing is strictly prohibited, also benefit the health and income of the local human population, even in a region where people have traditionally depended on fishing for their livelihood. subsistence.

“We’re still trying to answer some of these fundamental questions — not just in this region, but in others — about what works and what doesn’t in conservation,” said conservation biologist Justin Nowakowski of the Smithsonian Center for Environmental Research and lead author of the study. .

Like other coral reefs, this ecosystem is threatened by climate change and overfishing. Rising ocean temperatures cause corals to “whiten” and die and leave the creatures vulnerable to disease.

The ocean is the hottest it’s ever been at this time of year. While climate change remains a long-term challenge for reefs, the authors said, tackling fishing could alleviate some of the pressure on the ecosystem.

The oldest marine protection areas on the Mesoamerican reef were created in the 1970s and 1980s, and today more than 40 protected areas cover half of the region’s coastal waters. But fishing is not completely prohibited in all of them. Some of the areas just limit how much boats can fish or prohibit certain types of fishing gear.

Researchers delved into socioeconomic data from surveys in Guatemala and Honduras conducted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). They found that children living in communities located up to ten kilometers from marine protection areas are 40% less likely to have stunted growth due to malnutrition, when compared to children living further away.

Using an economic index created by other researchers who analyzed USAID research, the scientists also found that families residing near fully protected areas have 33% higher incomes than families living farther away, although most families in the region are still relatively small. poor by global standards.

“It’s a very strong study in statistical terms,” ​​said Natalie Ban, a professor of marine ethnoecology at the University of Victoria who was not involved in this research. She said few researchers have studied the effects of marine protected areas on the human population on such a large scale. What the study did not make clear to her is why and how protected areas on the Mesoamerican reef led to health and income benefits for the local human population.

Nowakowski cautioned that his study offers a view “from 20,000 feet up” of marine protected areas on this reef and that more research is needed in nearby communities to understand how limiting fishing in certain areas can result in more resources for inhabitants. locations.

Proponents of marine protected areas argue that larger populations of fish in protected areas spill over into neighboring areas where fishing is permitted and end up driving fishermen to catch more fish, or else that greater biodiversity can lead communities to develop ecotourism industries and alternative sources of income.

Canty and her colleagues found evidence that newer marine protected areas, created with more input and leadership from local communities, perform better than older areas that were “imposed” by federal governments.

Marine protection areas where fishing is strictly prohibited “are not a panacea”, Nowakoswki said, but represent a potential tool in a set that includes other conservation strategies such as limits on the volume caught, seasonal fishing and not fishing for females with eggs .

^{Translated by Clara Allain}