Where Small-Scale Fisheries Meet Conservation Boundaries: MPA Governance Challenges in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Marine ecosystem health is threatened globally by overfishing and habitat damages, among other things, creating major challenges for the sustainability and governance of aquatic environments. With a push toward increasing coastal and ocean protection through spatial management measures, an overlap between these marine protected areas (MPAs) and small-scale fishing grounds is expected to occur. Since MPAs are never established in a vacuum, there is a need to account for the ecological, social, and governance contexts into which they are being inserted. However, such considerations are not common, and the lack of integration of these essential elements in the design and the implementation of MPAs has often resulted in lowering their governability. We illustrate this tendency using a case study of the Marine National Park of Currais Islands in Southern Brazil, which was established without any consultation with small-scale fishers whose livelihoods and well-being depend on the use of the area in question. Using a governability assessment framework, we examine the diversity, complexity, dynamics, and scale issues associated with the natural, social, and governing systems. In addition to revealing that governance of this MPA is a " wicked problem," the study shows that the MPA adds more complexity to a system where issues such as lack of trust and low governing capacity exist.