It takes a village to protect a reef and sustain a local fishery, more than two decades of experience now shows.
And even well-intentioned governments can do more harm than good, community-based conservation experts reported here at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Cairns, Australia.
“The first locally managed marine areas doubled the fish biomass (amount and size of fish) in just a few years,” said Alan White, senior scientist with the Nature Conservancy, Global Marine Initiative, Hawaii.
Locally managed areas (LMAs) were first set up in the 1980s in the Philippines. The local community established a no-fishing zone of just 15 hectares (ha) of coral reef and in three or four years the fish biomass doubled, White told IPS. It was all done without government involvement.
See full Article.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Local Control Revives Depleted Fisheries
It takes a village to protect a reef and sustain a local fishery, more than two decades of experience now shows.
And even well-intentioned governments can do more harm than good, community-based conservation experts reported here at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Cairns, Australia.
“The first locally managed marine areas doubled the fish biomass (amount and size of fish) in just a few years,” said Alan White, senior scientist with the Nature Conservancy, Global Marine Initiative, Hawaii.
Locally managed areas (LMAs) were first set up in the 1980s in the Philippines. The local community established a no-fishing zone of just 15 hectares (ha) of coral reef and in three or four years the fish biomass doubled, White told IPS. It was all done without government involvement.
See full Article.
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